Newcastle-Online Forum

Minister slams 'obscene' salaries

Sports minister Gerry Sutcliffe has condemned Chelsea captain John Terry's salary as "obscene" while criticising Manchester United's ticket prices. Sutcliffe believes the sky-high wages and ticket prices are alienating fans.

Speaking at a sports summit in London, Sutcliffe said: "Good luck to John, but it is obscene to be on £150,000 a week. And United season tickets went up by 13% - holders have to automatically buy European and Carling Cup games at £200, that takes it away from ordinary fans."

The MP for Bradford South is himself a United fan, but he contrasted the club's prices with those at Bradford City where season tickets were cut to £138 this season, equating to £6 per game. The Bantams were relegated to League Two last season, but the club has 12,000 season-ticket holders - almost as many as when the club were in the Premier League six seasons ago.

Sutcliffe continued: "Ordinary working people who want go and see Manchester United face being priced out. There is a danger that there will be a move away from the game and we don't want to be in a position where people are alienated."

Sutcliffe said the Government would not interfere with the running of football, such as by trying to impose salary caps, but said he wanted to act as "a critical friend".

"People in the street cannot understand salaries like Terry's," he added. "Chelsea are £250m in the red and they may be able to cope with that but it's not the real world. £250m in the red is not sustainable."

Chelsea are furious with some of the figures quoted by Sutcliffe and are understood to have complained to his department that they are inaccurate. Sutcliffe will be raising his views with Premier League boss Richard Scudamore and Manchester United chief executive David Gill in meetings on Thursday.


Story from BBC SPORT: https://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/sport1/hi/football/7073432.stm

What is obscene is how MPs can vote for their own payrises, pensions, etc.
Shouldn't they be running the country instead of talking about footballer's wages?

The players generate the income of the clubs on the whole. Why shouldn't they be rewarded?

Smacks of jealousy tbh. They earn obscene amounts of money because they generate obscene amounts of money for their employers.

The wages are too high, I think. The only way clubs can pay them is through massive debt, howking up prices, etc. I don't think it's sustainable.

I wonder if Mr Sutcliffe would have had the same opinion had been good at football and a bit younger

Well, as he says "good luck to John", I assume he has no problem with Terry for accepting the contract. It's not his fault that people are daft enough to pay him a reported £150k per week. The fault lies with the football clubs.

If no team in the world was prepared to pay Terry anything more than £5k per week, it's not like he'd say "F#ck you then, I'm retiring to stack shelves in Tescos!". He'd accept £5k, and continue to play to the high standard he does now.

The clubs pay £150k though because us, as fans, make it viable. Be it by going to the matches, subscribing to Sky, buying replica tops, whatever. It all counts. It's only when we say "No more" that we'll see an end to all this.

Never going to happen though

I love the way that people always seek to portray themselves as the repressed wage-slave and it's always someone else who's the capitalist pig-dog, irrespective of the amount they earn, in fact it's almost as if the more you earn then the more you perpetuate this kind of delusion. Yet if you mention the C-word and you soon see where people really stand.

Everyone sees fit to slag off the "obscenities" of the system when it suits them, but for 99% of people they're just paying lip-service to the  alternative and the only reason they see fit to criticise is down to pure jealousy. Face it, it's capitalism and it's what you want. Otherwise, why's it still here?

I have no idea what you just said. Are you saying John Terry's a c***?

I don't know what right the government thinks it has to comment on whether salaries are obscene or not - and indeed, what there is to gain from targetting particular clubs or individuals? Why can't they keep their nose out of it all? Not like they'd DREAM of commenting on City Banker's bonuses or salaries is it?

Ordinary people being priced out of housing, higher education, etc. is surely more of a problem. Since the government is partly responsible for such things though, its easier to point the finger at football. He'd be better off shutting up and trying to get the Olympics budget back on track.  Every time it raids the lottery, its taking money directly from his "ordinary people".

As for footballers, like all high earners, the government can tax them and to put some of their wages to public use . That said, I suspect the reality is that the more you earn, the more you can afford accounting advice to exploit every loophole and minimize exposure. Studies usually show that it is low earners that pay the most tax as a percentage of their total income.

I don't know what right the government thinks it has to comment on whether salaries are obscene or not - and indeed, what there is to gain from targetting particular clubs or individuals? Why can't they keep their nose out of it all? Not like they'd DREAM of commenting on City Banker's bonuses or salaries is it?

I dont get it, surely the more they are paid the more they are taxed, meaning inadvertently the UK as a whole are making money off these Russian Billionaires. Why would you complain about that..seems to me like hes trying to earn a few extra votes off the hard done by working class.

Just a meaningless comment to win some points in the popularity stakes. Shut your f****** mouth and sort out the appalling grass roots sports facilities we have in the UK first. [Foxpresenter/]

Just a meaningless comment to win some points in the popularity stakes. Shut your f****** mouth and sort out the appalling grass roots sports facilities we have in the UK first.

 :shifty:

:frantic: Alex has thrown a strop!

:frantic: Alex has thrown a strop!

Not really, I just think it is just to gain a few popularity points. Everyone knows they earn an obscene amount and there's nothing that can be done about it. Is he proposing anything new? It's the clubs' business anyway, not his. I do have a bee in my bonnet about sports facilities though.

GM senses an incursion into HIS territory of expertise. bluerazz.gif

Alex IS grassroots. :lol:

Unfair and totally uncalled for. :huff:

Parky, how many times do I have to tell you (and you've been doing it all morning): laughing at your own s*** jokes is s*** :razz:
;)

john terry is on a reported £150,000p/w which is disgraceful, but not as disgraceful as jonathan ross's £115,000p/w.

Striking similarities between the two - both media whores who would turn up to the opening of an envelope so long as there's a red carpet and Heat photographers around, both of them cockney wankers, with unjustifiably high opinions of their own self-worth and brazenly raping the wallets of the people who pay to watch them.

Aye, you're more huffy than stroppy to be fair.

See what I mean?

You're just a big bully.

I've heard Alex is quite handy. :kasper:

I wouldn't mess about Parky. Not only is he well hard but I hear Alex is also "well connected" in the Tyneside underworld. :kasper:

The wages are clearly obscene and need to be capped by Fifa worldwide ASAP.

PFA boss backs players' salaries

Players' chief Gordon Taylor has defended top football stars' pay after Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe said John Terry's salary was "obscene". Sutcliffe said "people in the street cannot understand" salaries like that of the Chelsea captain.

But Taylor insists that Sutcliffe should back the country's leading sports stars. "I find it an incredible statement coming from a sports minister," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"We're talking about paying millions to have an Olympics or World Cup here in England, but if we're not careful we're not even going to have the sportsmen and women to do ourselves justice.

"He should be pleased that we've got a lad here who's managed to break through in a world when there's a massive amount of foreign players, and he's proved himself one of the very best in the world."

Taylor added: "Is he going to have a go at Lewis Hamilton's money, Jonny Wilkinson's money?

"He should be supporting sports people, who have that incentive for youngsters who take up sport, to reach that level.

"Every labourer is worth his hire and Mr Abramovich (Chelsea owner) thinks he's worth it. More than half of that money goes to the Government in tax.

"There's so much money coming into the game, surely it's only fair that they get their share of that?"

"There are some tennis players and golfers earning enormous amounts of money. Is that wrong?

"People tend to think that because they are individuals they deserve it.

"But football is the national game. Without question, it is the biggest sport in the world.

"It is very easy to say footballers get paid too much. In some cases, I would not argue with that.

"However, there are also some tennis players who get great sponsorship deals but never win a tournament."

Ferguson also hit back at Sutcliffe's criticism of the Old Trafford club increasing ticket prices by 13% and the controversial 'automatic cup scheme' (ACS).

The ACS policy forces season-ticket holders to buy tickets for cup games whether they want to attend or not.

But Ferguson added: "It is unfair and inaccurate.

"If you want to talk about obscene, he should look at the prices they charge at Chelsea and Arsenal.

"He works in London, I am sure he knows where Chelsea and Arsenal play, so he must know about their ticket prices. They are almost double ours, so I do not understand why he is picking on Manchester United."

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger was another to reject the criticism from Sutcliffe over players' salaries.

"I think John Terry is a top professional and is ready to go on the football pitch to win," said the Frenchman.

"We are in an economy where the company decides who pays who and how much and we have to respect that.

"There are other activities where people earn much more money but they hide it better because people are not aware of it."

Story from BBC SPORT:
https://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/sport1/hi/football/7074523.stm

Published: 2007/11/02 11:56:23 GMT

© BBC MMVII

Hmm, the PFA boss sticking up for the players? Surprising...

Not really and no reason to dismiss his opinion out of hand.

Performance/appearance-related pay should be enforced IMO, but it won't be.

Well, as he says "good luck to John", I assume he has no problem with Terry for accepting the contract. It's not his fault that people are daft enough to pay him a reported £150k per week. The fault lies with the football clubs.

If no team in the world was prepared to pay Terry anything more than £5k per week, it's not like he'd say "F#ck you then, I'm retiring to stack shelves in Tescos!". He'd accept £5k, and continue to play to the high standard he does now.

The clubs pay £150k though because us, as fans, make it viable. Be it by going to the matches, subscribing to Sky, buying replica tops, whatever. It all counts. It's only when we say "No more" that we'll see an end to all this.

is the correct answer.

Could only happen with the backing of the Union boss and members though, with a view to looking after the game and lesser players overall.

Would be interesting to see how many members of the PFA who play in the lower leagues would vote in such a scheme, for the good of the game of course.

mackems.gif a wage cap of 150K, aye, that'll stop footballers earning too much money, oh whats that? what if more money comes into the game and us footballers are left out of pocket? better allow a 30K increase after 5 years. That'll show them!





footballers get paid vastly more money than they should, but thats capitalism for you.

i think the best solution would be to set a wage cap to say, 30K (no lower than 25, no higher than 35) a week and then allow, say up to 15K per appearence/goals/assists on top. Thus the maximum a player earns is no more than say 80-90K if he player all the games in the week or maybe 110 if he performs really really well.
of course every fa would have to sign up, and there could be a lot of clubs trying to go though loopholes at the start, and leagues such as the russian, american and maybe chinese leagues could use the wagecap as a way of enticing players to their nations and improving their leagues.