Andrew Cohen
Now that we have the firm precedent of selective taxation, bankers’ bonuses being one example, can anyone explain to me the downside of taxing Premier League players’ wages over £18,000 a week at, say, 100%?
The players would get about half a million a year after tax, enough to have a nice house and a car and send your kids to a posh school, and put a tidy sum away for retirement. Not enough to appear in the tabloid press giving nightclub doormen £40,000 tips. Not enough probably, to fail to be motivated.
Now, the usual downside of a punitive taxation regime is that the best people go abroad to places with more accommodating taxation regimes - Switzerland, the British Virgin Islands, America. The question I pose, however, is whether we would be despondent to see the exit from our game of not only those who come here purely because of the obscene wages, but also the very few of our players who are good enough to go abroad. Do I mind particularly for instance, if Wayne Rooney were to go and ply his trade in Spain or Germany? Would the loss of Ashley Cole to AC Milan leave me weeping in my soup? The answer is, not really.
English players are really so very poor at learning other languages, and - dare I say it - at adapting to alternative lifestyles, that I feel that most would stick to a measly half a million a year.
Would we be very upset if the super-rich clubs were no longer able to pay their players more than anyone else? I don’t think so.
The income from Sky TV to the clubs might come down because Yaya Toure had vacated these shores, but probably not by much, and all of the clubs, as their wage bills plummet, would be richer as a result. Cheaper seats for the fans would result (with taxation of match ticket prices at 100% over £20 per game, just in case the little darlings want to continue fleecing us). There would also be more money to invest in the grass roots, which would improve the quality of English players.
Would the standard of football deteriorate? I don’t think so. The lessons that foreign coaches and players have brought have been learned. Fitness and tippy-tappy passing.
The only snag, as far as I can see, is whether the government would enact it? They do very well out of 50% of gigantic wages. The income of the clubs would still get spent, however, just among a wider group of people, so they would still get their tax.
No, no downsides at all. Except of course the poor agents would suffer. Think of the agents.
