Driving to the station this morning, I could hardly believe my ears. Did you know that the taxpayer is forking out £40 million a year to football? Me neither. It’s channelled through the FA and the Football Foundation to pay for initiatives in grassroots football. The government is threatening the withhold it unless the three football organisations (FA, Football League and the Premier League) overcome their mutual hostility and start to work together.
I question why the taxpayer is providing any money in the first place. Why not instead impose a levy of £2 million a year on any club in the Premier League. That’s the equivalent of the annual wages of one Premier League player.
So, another £40 million off public borrowing. Maybe a pinprick, but you know what they say about a lot of little pinpricks…
In an profession so abundant with money I think it's outrageous that the tax payer should have to contribute anything.
Clubs should have an obligation to contribute a percentage to their turnover into grassroots football – this is where their future players are likely to come from, especially with the new overseas player quotas. This way would also be fair as all teams will have to contribute the same percentage.
Ah but then Arsenal and Liverpool would be outraged. They don't need domestic players, you see.
This is what you get with socialism I'm afraid. There are so many quangos and organisation that only exist because of taxpayers money wasted….
With the amount we pay to support and attend matches of our beloved teams, I just can't believe this! How is there just so much fundamentally wrong with our country?!
I'm amazed a clever chap like you, interested in both football and politics, did not know this; Football gets more government support than any other sport. Its' been pointed out by the likes of David Conn in the Guardian( oops you would not read that would you) and before that when he wrote on the Indy also the subject of numerous reports investigations on 5 Live from at least 1994 onwards.. I speak with a certain amount of inside knowledge. Apropos somethng similar; you might think now Man City are owned by a gazzillionaire he'd pay back the council tax payers of Manchester for the fab stadium his club got for nuts!
I agree with IronRik. I don't object to tax payers money being used to encourage and develop sport at grassroots level but there are some sports (and football is the obvious one) that generate enough money to make their own contributions. Iain's point about each club making the contribution equal to one player's salary is entirely valid. There is so much cash washing around at the top of the game, which does nothing other than make rich people even richer, that this would be a drop in the ocean to top flight clubs. At the moment it is all take and no give.
Does not surprise me at all, in fact I'm surprised that with this mob in power its not more. It just goes on and on, when you delve into government handouts it would make your blood boil when you see how some sectors in our community are struggling.
Got that off my chest……Coffee time now
40 million of tax payers money going anywhere near football is a disgrace. Having said that, although its true, I wonder how much football gives to the taxman, 10 times or 100 time that much?
No. what do they say Iain???
I have to agree with you as a taxpayer and on a matter of principle. However, as a 'beyond all help' Hammer, I don't want them getting hit with another drain on their already stretched resources, at least until the ownership & finances are sorted! How about a percentage of the turnover rather than a flat rate? That would at least ensure the likes of manure chelski and Citeh pay according to their means. Or is that too left wing for you
It's insane and beyond common sense, like much of what this government does and the way the private sector is run. Football needs no help from the taxpayer, not with all of that money washing around.
Bring on the day they introduce a salary cap West Ham will definitely be champion,s.
Not sure on this one. I think it is very trendy, especially for the Tories, to bash any form of taxation spend right now. I would question if all of these historic tax cuts were not made by previous Govn's then the blame is mutual.
On the subject itself, I personally cannot think of anywhere else I would rather the money go to than grass roots football. Yes, you could look to get the cost back but the Taxpayer should pay up front and then the clubs pay.
My issue would be that many clubs, including our sweet own, have a big issue with paying bills on time and offset with bank assurances etc. Grassroots needs to be kept out of the way EPL clubs mess with finance and spreadsheets.
Good topic though, thanks Iain.
http://www.inzolawetrust.com
Not being a UK taxpayer my concern would be about letting an organisation who make such a shambolic job of running the professional game have control of £40M of peoples hard earned cash and the responsibility for developing grass roots football.
They have failed completely to protect clubs from being crippled by massive debt by greedy snake oil salesmen who have absolutely on regard for the the fans. They are a joke of an organisation and should be radically overhauled with the vast majority of those at the top slung out on their ear.
Iain – you are probably right that the taxpayer should not subsidise football. However two points come to mind. First, I think it is vaguely laughable that a reasonably successful industry should be lectured to by the establishment that has overseen a catastrophic failure in the economy that it was supposed to be managing. Secondly, it is a fair bet that this report (which could possibly have easily been written by a blind man on a speeding horse) has cost the taxpayer an absolute fortune!
Mickey…this is not a costly report, merely a letter from the sports minister giving the FA, PL and FL a good kicking.
Agree with you, though, about the ability of the current government. Tossers.
This is outrageous if it's true.
Football is awash with money – not just the clubs but the FA and Prem league aswell – absolutely no way is it the governments responsibility to spend public money on football.
The greedy Prem league is not interested in grassroots football – it's only interested in it's members (the clubs) and how much money they can milk – but it's not upto the govt to bail out the grassroots with public money.
I'm actually stuck on this one! Whereas I agree, why should we be contributing to teams we have no association with etc… but also, as Scalyback says, as a West Ham Utd fan, £2Million taken from us this year would have probably meant no Diamanti or possibly even having to sell another player.
It's not only West Ham that would struggle either, what about Leeds while they were at their lowest at and the such-like.
It's a good idea in principle but unless you have some kind of proviso on it, such as clubs don't need to pay the full amount unless their profits topped a certain level.
Or clubs should pay 2-5% of their net profit, then fair enough. Ok it might not reach the full amount and the tax payer might need to top it up but at least the clubs would be sharing the burden.
Matt
The answer is simple..get Lucas Neil to pay it on behalf of West Ham. He is such a generous chap, I am sure he will oblige. So if it comes down it I am sure the OZ will want to subsidise us!!
I am a hammer…always dreaming!
"…but you know what they say about a lot of little pinpricks…"
They formed the Tory party?!? Only kidding Iain, please don't unleash the full wrath of this shiny new comments system on me.
The money in football has been slowly ruining the game since the introduction of the Premier League. So my questions on this matter would be aimed at the PL as a governing body. They have issued ever increasing volumes of money annually to each EPL club, the current average now stands at £45m. This has created alot of problems in football and inevitibly attracted the greedy people of this world to our great game. Agents, 'advisors', greedy chairmen, billionnaire gangsters, you name it. We suffer this on the basis that richer clubs can afford greater players and this improves the game. In reality all it has done is make football more about money and status and less about the privilege of playing the beautiful game.
Couldn't agree more mate, what's the old saying? money at the root of all evils…
The PL currently rake in £2.7bn in total from all TV contracts (Sky, ESPN, BBC, abroad, etc) for live football and highlights. Assuming that these contracts last for three years then approximately £2.7bn (£45m * 60) of that goes to football clubs just for league positions. In other words all of it. Surely this is an unwise move on the part of the PL. I believe that this injection of vast sums of money has led to many problems (like clubs suing each other for lost revenue through relegation) and it will only get worse as they continue this trend.
Why do they need £40m from us tax payers? They have £900m per year to invest into the game. We shouldn't have to pay to save the game from corruption just because they are too inept to spend their money wisely. I think the government are right to withhold this money until things improve.
I put up a comment on this thread – it was actually the second one – and it has not appeared. Any ideas why not? It was not contentious in any way.
Same problem with me, it was not contentious but I saw a note saying my comment will be moderated before it can be posted.
Wavid
I wonder how much tax the government rakes in from professional football? There's all the income tax on the players' scandalously high earnings, plus income tax on all the staff involved in the game, plus corporation tax on any profits made out of the game, including travel costs, fast food outlets, and so on and so forth, not to mention VAT and Business Rates. Bet it's a damned sight more than £40 million per annum. If the Government wants 'grass root initiatives', they can easily afford it out of the tax they make out of the game.
Heard the same news report and had a similar reaction to yours. I thought maybe a levy of 1% of the market value of the club would be appropriate for all Premiership and Championship clubs. That would avoid us having to sell a player to pay the levy (See MattRyan above). I hope one of your colleagues in the national sports press decides to take this up, as it is an absolute disgrace.
I'm sure revenue could be raised by clubs another way for the 'grassroots' football!
Charity matches etc…
West Ham'swebsite alone is worth $83468.2 USD and has 31000 hits a day! Surely they coud raise revenue through the site!
Matt, how do you get a value for the club's website? Is it rated by daily hits or some other means? Never seen one valued before.
It's based on daily pageviews (hits) and the value is calculated by the daily revenue of ads etc…
West Hams is only about $141 a day but that is EVERY day as it is a medium of hits and ad clicks over the past 3 months.
It's be nice if I could make $1000 a week for someone clicking ads on my site! lol
A site like google (just the site, not the company is worth around $2.41BILLION and has a daily ads revenue of $3,300,000! lol
Thanks, Matt. Is there a site that monitors the value of sites. Would love to give it a viewing.
Will be putting in a bid for Google later this evening, once I've parked the Lear, of course.
Lol, I'll go halves with you!
Most of the web statistics for teh big boys are calculated by a company called Alexa.
But try this site, it's pretty good.
http://www.websiteoutlook.com/
Matt
Top man, thanks. Now we know where Iain gets his millions from.
Just checked out the daily revenue of westhamtillIdie. May have to send Iain a couple of quid to keep the wolf from the door.
22 cents a day.
Hahahahahaha 22c! hahahahaha!
No profitable click-throughs I guess!
Lol, I'll go halves with you!
Most of the web statistics for teh big boys are calculated by a company called Alexa.
But try this site, it's pretty good.
http://www.websiteoutlook.com/
Matt
why are none of my comments being posted since the format changed?
Billions rolling around in football and the taxpayer has to pay towards this stuff.
http://theboleyninheritance.wordpress.com/
As a screaming headline, it sounds pretty damning. However, the Government's condition of investment appears to aim the money towards grassroots football and the women's game, not the high earning Premier League clubs.
In my book, that's investment into sport and the kids of Great Britain. Successive governments have starved sport of cash and we are paying a heavy price socially.
I'll take every penny available for our youngsters, although channelling it through the PL and FA doesn't fill me with confidence.
Their record of financial astuteness is not good although the statement by Gerry Sutcliffe today is clearly a timely kick up the backside.
I would back Matt;s suggestion that all clubs pitch in and support the grassroots too.
How magnificent would it be if West Ham cut their wage bill by 10 per cent and ploughed the money into half a dozen sports centres or youth clubs? Won't happen, I know, but it would make such a difference to so many kids currently vegetating in front of TV or hanging out at shopping malls.
As for Iain's idea of a £2m levy on top clubs…let's do that as well.
The Levy would be ok! But in all honesty, it would have crippled us quite a bit this season.
Club could always raise the price of their hotdogs by 2 percent. Round them up to an even tenner.
lol
Great shout and good point about the effect of all those flogged off sports pitches in schools and the like. This blog has developed some terrific points.
if I pay taxes for football clubs I want a free seat at a game of my choice every weekend and a few beers as a rebate kinda
The first book of the Losing My Transmission trilogy introduces college student Terry Johnson in 1992, just before the events that alter his already distorted view on life caused by a traumatic brain injury from a car wreck.
There should be a levy on all transfer fees and the top clubs forced to play at least one home pre-season friendly (including their stars) against a lower league team with all profit going into a central pot for distribution to the grassroots.
Absolutely Horters. It goes to grass roots and widening participation not back to the PL. It will also have been set up as a Government galvaniser- that is a stake in a much wider cocktail with private sector funders and others incentivised to join in.
Personally I don't think it's much to spend on the biggest cultural (and arguably faith) activity in the UK.
It's also bizzare that people can bleat that the richest clubs or players aren't paying their philanthropic dues whilst simultaneously decrying socialism or even this Government who have been trying to make exactly that happen.
Talksport are having a west ham phone ing,its on right now,Adrian Durham reckons we are relegation material,no goal scorers and to many number 10's.
since this new format none of my comments have been posted.ive sent in at least 3 ,therefore i fell either i am wasting my time or im doin something wrong.some one help me please
Adrian Durham is an idiot! He supports Peterborough! lol What does he know! Hehehe
I agree he's a melon,no sorry a lemon!
i agree with you earls court hammer. its all so slow now, that the fun and instant banter has all but gone due to the delay in posting
create an Intensedebate profile Roshi, then your posts will appear immediately.
Tis annoying havin'to login though…
He's twice as good this week than he was last week when he only knew f-all.
Did you ever Jamie Carragher offer him out for a fight??? It was hilarious
When Carragher quit England footy, durham called him a bottler so jamie called his show and said "If you've got any bottle, come down to anfield and we'll sort it out man to man" lol
The bloke could start at a fight in a phone box…arrogant git.
He actually went up to Anfield to meet Carragher and now dines out on the story about how Jamie is his great mate. You are right. Total bottle job.
The bloke could start at a fight in a phone box…arrogant git.
He actually went up to Anfield to meet Carragher and now dines out on the story about how Jamie is his great mate. You are right. Total dick.
Just seen the talksport, or as some have called it talks*"!e, comments about Adrian Durham's phone in.
IMHO he's a hypocritical wind up merchant who's strategy is to annoy listeners to the point where they phone in and earn the station megabucks while keeping people on hold waiting to get on the show. I once got on and spoke to Ray Houghton but only had the patience to do so as I was driving back from Manchester (hands free in heavy traffic I hasten to add). Had to hold for a very long time though.
So you know their strategy but hold for ages on the line with a mobile phone (which costs you bucks)
HONESTLY NO ONE should ring these stations up about anything. They have competitions where you have to send a text with the answer. The messages costs you 1.50 PLUS network charges so you are looking at 2 quid for a text!
Just think how many send a text in!!
http://theboleyninheritance.wordpress.com/
I call LBC 97.3 regularly on their 0845 number and it doesn't cost me a penny
Yep. You've got me banged to rights. Learned that one the hard way Castel. I say never again and I mean never again.
In fairness to me John Virgo did have my verbal volley coming to him and I was very pleased to be the one to let him have it.
Iain with regards to how long your drive will take to get to Beckenham, it will be a lot quicker whichever way you go than it is to get a posting on WEST HAM TILL I DIE……LOL
So how much of this money is getting through to the grass roots where it's meant. A great deal more if Sir Trevor wasn't constantly hampered by the in-fighting you referred to Iain. The lambasting Brian Mawhinney handed out to our Trev a prime example of what our money has been wasted on.
Absolutely disgusting. They already charge us well over the odds in order to keep their huge wages and lavish lifestyles going. We need to pull the plug on this for good. £40 million may well be a pinprick within the realms of our public spending, but there are definitely better ways for it to be spent than hand it over to organisations that are perfectly wealthy already.
Iain,
Football please. Lets not have too many reactionary blusters, eh. I love this site for all things West Ham.
It's just grassroots. Like most things ie Tech, Transport, Medical, they are funded by Taxpayers until private companies find a way to make money from it. If it was solely Private money these things would not exist or imagine we have to rely on the like of Man U, Liverpool Chelsea to look after the grassroots? This is the reality of public private partnership economies. Private Shafting public not the other way round. Its this way its been since the 80s or i am afraid the private companies walk off with their football.
Go on call LBC! It's free! Go on, you know you want to! lol
Have always been envious of the excellent radio phone in shows you have in the UK. All we get here are a bunch of benefit cheats whinging that customs confiscated the 74 bottles of Valdivar Vodka and 8000 Bensons & Hedges the brought back from their holiday in Santa Ponsa that I sodding paid for!
How did Da Costa play against Bolton?
Anyone watch the game?
I'm not the only one who has commented on comments made but not appearing although mine have now come up – hours after they were made. Is this happening for everyone or just a select few? Makes the flow rather bitty.
Can I first say that the football Foundation does an excellent job in supporting grassroots football. Many clubs and individuals from all walks of life have benefitted and been given the opportunity to take part in the beautiful game.
Their funding comes from a number of sources including the professional game through their TV rights money. Their income for the year end of 2008 was almost 70 million. The government gives funding to most sports and along with Tennis (LTA) the FA is the only governing body that does not receive a grant for the elite end. I am glad as a taxpayer that my my goes towards supporting football activities played week in week out by hundreds of thousands every week at a local facility near you.
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