Scott Brown’s injury-enforced absence from the team in recent weeks has at least taken heat of his contract situation but that will change in January, when he is back in the team and available to sign a pre-contract agreement. Neil Lennon reports that Celtic have met Scott’s terms but have declined to meet his agent’s demand.
Agent’s often have exclusive representation agreements with players which guarantee the agent a cut of any contract signed when the agreement is active. 5% of a four or five year contract for a top-earning Celtic player could easily reach £300k, or £360k including vat. This is a lot of money for the player to pay out of his after-tax income so what commonly happens is the agent uses his exclusive deal with the player to negotiate a pay-off from the club instead of acting for the player. Unlike the player, a club can reclaim vat and pays before, not after tax, so the same money going to the agent costs the combined player/club less.
It’s often the case, however, that the agent’s fee paid by the club has little resemblance to the percentage the agent would get representing the player. While a player has an exclusive deal with an agent, a buying club has three deals to agree: the selling club’s fee, the player’s wages and the agent’s fee.
Big agent fees don’t necessarily mean bad business for the buyer, as the agent may well have made a deal achievable at a purchase price which would not have been otherwise possible, but clubs are typically more reticent when it comes to paying agents to renew contracts for their existing players. One (then) SPL chairman told me he had a flat £500 tariff for such deals.
Artur Boruc concluded his last contract with Celtic without an agent. At the time he explained that he would need an agent if he was moving club but didn’t need one to negotiate a predetermined level on the Celtic pay structure. This would have saved Celtic money and might have earned Artur an extra bonus.
Scott Brown is not in this situation. If he is offered a contract of around £6m over five years, after 50% tax and 12% (?) national insurance (which Celtic and staff pay…), his take home pay from the contract will be considerably less. 5% of the contract could end up looking like 14% of take home pay after vat is added.
Celtic will also be alert to the dangers of precedent. If a player’s ‘advisor’ can get a significant pay-day out of a contract renewal there is no incentive for the player to conclude a deal with Celtic without an advisor, indeed, there is incentive to get one involved.
I’ve no information whatsoever on what is going on with Scott’s contract but the portents don’t look promising.
A couple of years ago we spoke about the excellent Why England Lose and its predecessor, Moneyball. Two books that sought to explain how to find value in football and baseball respectively. The Brad Pitt movie, Moneyball, based on the events analysed in the book, is now out. Not sure making a drama out of statistics is wise but I’ll need to check it out.
Read CQN Magazine for free online here. Subscriptions to the online copy are discretionary but you can contribute here. Old-school hard copies are available here from Magcloud.
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philvis @14.02
You should stick to your amusing little asides. Your Daily Mail understanding of politics is very funny…..but not amusing.
JJ
…link..this time?
wifes new car
Strictly Freaky dancing
The Battered Bunnet says:
29 November, 2011 at 12:54
Get the basic package.
Forget the football.
Lots and lots of Nigella to see.
She cooks too.
Apparently.
Gorgon Smith in Brazil?
Who is looking after his parents?
The state of the Celtic captains contract pales into abject insignificance if the RTC story about the huns not having paid any PAYE or NI is true.
HAil Hail
All go for Athletico….
philvis….,
“Naturally, all spending must come from tax or additional borrowing, so it’s important we keep in mind that there is no magic pot of gold to finance public services. It all comes from taxes levied on the private sector. The more we tax to pay for public services, the fewer jobs and wealth will exist in the productive part of the economy. So there is always a cost/benefits analysis to be made in any case for more public spending. Naturally it makes sense to pay for some public goods, less so for others.”
Must disagree about the magic pot of gold, thats the pot that is emptied every year by tax cheats, last estimation
£100 billion was it ?
Had all your champions of industry, the wealth creators paid their taxes, there is plenty to go around, in fact the banking issues might not have been such a problem had HMRC received thier dues from your champions.
The fact that they blame high taxation on public services and not on their own cheatig says it all. A bit hunnish in your approach to the UK’s fiscal policy, no ?? (thumbsup:o)
Swiss Tony says:
29 November, 2011 at 13:25
Anyone recommend a good bar in the centre of Manchester to watch said match tomorrow?
Try O’Sheas…..
Or come to Cheers Bar in North Manchester. Click on my name.
Gorgon Smith in Brazil?
I know the expression about banks having to take a “haircut” meaning that the banks will not get all of the money paid back.
Maybe, he is finding out to give Them’s banks a Brazilian.
Has Brazil got extradition links with the UK, could he be on a reccy for his boss to find a safe haven from HMRC :oD
PHILVIS RETURNS 1402
DOES WHAT IT SAYS ON THE TIN!
A cogent explanation of your views,in reply to a broad opposition. I congratulate you on your intellect and cojones,but back in your Dialectic Society days,do you remember being reminded that even winning the debate will not win you the argument?
I think we have to move on from ideological government,and even from ideological policies,and look at the future of the country.
We need a thriving economy,a lower PSBR,even to zero,and a faffing miracle!
Any advances on that,anyone?
philvisreturns says:
29 November, 2011 at 14:02
‘Naturally, all spending must come from tax or additional borrowing, so it’s important we keep in mind that there is no magic pot of gold to finance public services. It all comes from taxes levied on the private sector. The more we tax to pay for public services, the fewer jobs and wealth will exist in the productive part of the economy.’
1. Bit of a leap from the second to the third sentence, don’t ya think? Scandanavia is pretty much a high tax/high level of public services/ high level of productivity kind of a place.
2. If we didn’t have the services provided by the public sector (health, education, welfare, roads etc) we’d have to fund them privately. We get something back for the taxes we pay. It’s almost certainly more cost effective for the vast majority to pay for these services through paying tax than by purchasing them privately.
3. There’s a bit of a failure of logic to say that a nurse employed by the NHS is unproductive whereas an agency employed nurse contracted to the NHS is productive. Which gives better value to the taxpayer?
4. How many businesses in the private sector derive none of their income from the public purse? Britain’s largest manufacturer BAE’s total UK income comes from the taxpayer. Are they ‘private’ sector, are they productive or unproductive?
It would not surprise me at all if Gordon Smith returned from Brazil with a suitcase full of money.
Hail Hail
philvisreturns says:
29 November, 2011 at 14:02
Dearie me you started off so well there with an interest in my opinion and to have a reasonable discussion, unfortunately that never lasted too long Phil,
Your reasonable argument includes the sacking of millions?
Includes the public service debt, how much of that debt is to the private sector through PFI projects?
Trade Union Marxist idiots? The line of reasonableness even by your standards is starting to become a wee bit skewed, is that a model of negotiation you learned somewhere?
Pensions are part of a contractual obligation, interestingly when David Cameron was questioned as to why banker bonuses could not be scrapped or capped he answered “they are part of the contractual agreement, we cannot enforce the change and are reliant on a modicum of restraint and good sense” who owns the majority of these banks? who continues to pay the bonuses? why is there a double standard?
NHS Staff have reformed significantly in he past 5 years or so,
Agenda For Change?
Pension re negotiation 3 years ago?
Admittedly you have an argument with the amount of Corporate Services or admin staff, unfortunately your broad brush approach targets all Staff, and unfairly so.
i like the way it goes in and out of the water
looks quite simple
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgD-uhoucoU&feature=player_embedded#!
Strictly come cookin’
Googybhoy, Canamalar, First,
My humble thanks. O’Shea’s it is. Hasta manana.
Swiss
philvisreturns
Dave: “We are well behind where we need to be.”
Osborne’s strategy is already making Britain’s recovery from recession painstakingly slower and harder than it needs to be, while his insane VAT rise looks like tipping us into a double-dip recession.
Even Gideon has realised this, hence his announced £30bn infrastructure schemes. Too little, too late, I’m afraid.
philvis @ 14.02
_____
(( ____ \—-
(( _____
((_____
((____ —-
/ /
(_((
Philvis
I am considering returning to pap you for six into the boundaries like I normally do when the political talk engorges the blog.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz………………………………………… Yawn
ermm…. you cant teach an old dog new tricks
a leopard never changes it´s spots
remember the Frog and the scorpion story …. its in my nature
etc. etc. etc @ Yul Brynner
Everyone,
Yawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn………………………………………………………………
HOW MANY MORE YEARS ARE WE GOING TO HEAR THE SAME ARGUMENTS OVER AND OVER AGAIN.
Hail Hail
up_over_goal says:
29 November, 2011 at 14:27
‘Even Gideon has realised this, hence his announced £30bn infrastructure schemes.’
In so far as I understand it I believe that the crucial thing about Keynsian intervention is the timing. This looks more like desperation than planning.
Swiss….,
I’d probably take up googybhoy’s offer, theres no guarantee you’ll meet and CQN’ers in O’Shea’s, googybhoy has offered his company.
DBBIA —–
Thanks for the photo ——
There is a video tape of a Marshall Tucker Band tour of the good ole boy deep south –
The Incredibles were the support act —— makes the reception given to Suicide at the Clash gig at the Apollo look positively welcoming by comparison..
Based on his overall fitness and the standard of his performances over a four/five year period,i am disappointed that Celtic are offering Scott Brown a new contract.
This is another factor which makes me question some of the decisions that Neil Lennon is making as our manager.
For the money involved could we attract a better player?
Most likely.
TT
polishturnstile Anthony R. Hamilton
Tomorrow night’s UEFA Europa League match against Atletico Madrid will be preceded by a minute of applause in memory of Gary Speed. #Celtic
Awe_Naw…,
I hear he’s taking billions with him
whats tha exchange rate on Turkish lira ?
ernie lynch
The UK needed its caffeine boost over a year ago.
WRT. to the RTC posting and them not paying tax/NI. In the interests of accuracy I note someone earlier commented on them not paying any since May. RTC has affirmed that they have paid “some” but intimates that they are in arrears of circa £2M. Not the actions of a company trying to keep the right side of HMRC to minimise penalties on any ongoing cases.
The clock is ticking. One or two others have commented that HMRC have the means to target this practice of not declaring full financial details to facilitate late payment. Whether they have the will we may soon find out.
Don’t panic though this a global institution with ties from India to Brazil promoting traditional Scottish wares. Ah well nothing to see……
DBBIA
Strictly come Britains best X factor meal in the jungle.
TT
Canamalar, Googybhoy,
Great offer thanks, however I have to be in a restaurant for a business dinner 15 mins after full time 5 mins walk from O’Shea’s. Makes sense tae me.
Swiss
Rangers’ Indian trialists told they’re wasting their time in Glasgow
Nov 29 2011 By Keith Jackson
INDIAN coach Savio Medeira last night told Ibrox hopefuls Jeje Lalpekhlua and Sunil Chhetri they are wasting their time in Glasgow.
Medeira’s star strikers jetted into Scotland on Friday to begin a weeklong trial with Rangers.
But the trip has been greeted with scepticism back in their homeland with the national coach only one of the leading dissenting voices.
Medeira said: “The players first need to get used to conditions. They must be given a chance to practise with the first team for a certain amount of time.
“They should then be fielded in competitive games so they can prove themselves to their full potential. This cannot happen in a few days. So the whole excercise is nothing more than a publicity stunt”
And the man hailed as India’s greatest player, Bhaichung Bhutia, also expects both players to return home without Ibrox contracts.
Bhutia, who had a spell at Bury in 2001 said: “I had a similar shortspan selection trial with Aston Villa. It was extremely difficult for me to get used to the cold climate, let alone the British style of play.
“The coach will have his focus on the league commitments and I don’t think the players will be given a fair trial.
“If the clubs are really interested they should send scouts to India to watch them perform in an environment that is comfortable for them.
“The I-League matches and international matches are on right now and this would be the best time for a scout from Rangers FC to come and observe them in action.
“If they were really interested in the Indian talent they would do this. It is the norm in other countries. By asking the players to pay for their own expenses it cannot be considered as a serious proposition and Rangers should not prey on the naked ambitions of these players. It´s not right”
Tis hard to say good day to you all on such a dreadful day.
Anyway here is a letter from Prof Tom Gallagher to the BBC Scotland head saying that Scotland is worse than Soviet bloc countries for news management basically :
……………………………………………………………………………..
John Boothman
Head of BBC News and Current Affairs (Scotland),
21 November 2011
Dear Mr Boothman,
I would like to put on record my concern about the policy of your department of the BBC in Scotland towards the community of Irish descent in west-central Scotland. It is a community whose identity has been forged in the face of lengthy institutional discrimination and which has expressed itself in a range of secular and religious ways, not least identification with Glasgow Celtic football club.
Celtic has been a channel in which people from this ethnic background have been able to identify with symbols of Irishness . This of course has been problematic for the official Scottish culture even when its parameters have been broadened to proclaim that a new nation is arising comprised of ‘One Scotland but many cultures’.
The construction of Scottish- ness takes place naturally through the print and electronic media. Editors, producers, and sub-editors have found it difficult to find a place in which to insert Scots who are culturally Irish in at least part of their identity. This has become glaringly obvious during the greater part of 2011.
Some sections of the media continue to be implicated in the reproduction and sustaining of sectarian, values and beliefs. By ‘sectarian’ I mean expressing sentiments that are antagonistic or disparaging of the ethno-religious rivals in the long-term socio-religious fracture that has marked west-central Scotland. This has been well-documented by the journalist Phil McGiolla Bhain mostly via his website ‘Rebel Journalist’, http://www.philmacgiollabhain.com
The Offensive Religious Behaviour bill is the most controversial piece of legislation ever to come before the Scottish parliament. Arguably, it is part of a concerted effort to re-frame the image of Scotland and energetically use the state to outlaw a form of ethnic and religious particularism that is seen as an impediment standing in the way of the march of a nation towards statehood.
But there has been huge concern about it; 5 of the 6 parties in Holyrood oppose it as do those groups and individuals associated with Celtic and Rangers and who have sought energetically to banish the uglier partisan aspects from the game ; arguments have been made that it is dangerous to free speech, that it is not only divisive but stands a high chance of sparking off new and worse forms of antagonism; that it is unnecessary in view of existing laws; and that a danger exists that it will be open up a new era in which institutional biases are directed against disparaged sections of the Scottish population.
I would put it to you that these and other concerns have only infrequently been aired on BBC current affairs programmes .
Most of the time, the media prefers to treat the issue in a very cursory manner, failing to draw on the community voices and academic expertise from different points in the ethno-religious spectrum in west-central Scotland.
Quite remarkably, there has been a preference for using one individual,a respected senior academic as an intermediary who can explain the perspective of Scotland’s most awkward minority (Catholics of Irish descent) …..without frightening the horses. This, if I may dare to point it out, is the same approach that colonial overlords used when trying to manage an unruly set of natives – the selection of an intermediary who can be relied upon to operate within the cautious official narrative on the subject.
This I think shows that for most of 2011 the BBC in Scotland has failed to properly represent the diverse cultural strands in Scottish society even though the Corporation is a byword for promoting multiculturalism in other dimensions.
Yesterday, I attended a symposium on the Offensive Religious behaviour bill organized by the University of Stirling’s Law Department. Few, if any speakers, or audience members were able to provide a defence of it. Some speakers warned that the chances of new fronts involving heightened conflict between rival supporters groups or between them and the state or even political forces opening up , were in fact quite high.
If what I believe to be a crude attempt at altering the public space in west –central Scotland does indeed backfire, how well-placed will the BBC be to analyse and explain the phenomenon given your clear reluctance to energetically provide broad coverage to the controversies surrounding the Offensive Religious Behaviour bill and indeed the build-up to it?
You may well point to a documentary that was shown by BBC Scotland this spring shortly after a number of Old Firm flashpoint incidents. But it was, i thought a very bland and sketchy overview that could easily be seen as the BBC doing some brief heavy lifting so as to show the world that it was addressing the issue of communal conflict as expressed through the prism of football before parking it safely for an indefinite period.
I know at least one organization (that, because of its weight in Scottish society the BBC deals with on a regular basis) which has suggested both myself and Dr Joseph Bradley of Stirling University (among others) might be approached in order that our academic experience be utilised to help the BBC in its mission to inform on inter-communal conflict or mistrust shaped around discordant religious identities. But no such approaches have ever been made (at least to me, and it is in a personal capacity that i am writing to you) even though I live a mere 25 minutes walk from a major BBC studio in Edinburgh. Both of us have numerous single-authored texts (published by university presses and reputable publishers) on the subject. Similarly, Phil McGiolla Bhain has never been heard (at least by me) on the BBC despite his central role in breaking what became major news stories over the last two years.
I can also think of at least one academic expert who could explain the wider social and cultural roots of Rangers FC who I rarely if ever see or hear on the BBC.
So I am bound to ask myself what has happened to the BBC’s mission to explain sensitive and important contemporary issues in a broadly-based and probing manner? I think in reaction to the issues thrown up by the 2011 bill and the wider place of people belonging to a Hibernian cultural tradition in Scotland, the mission has simply been discarded. What has substituted for it is a very evasive, low-brow and grudging examination of the underlying problems arising from sectarian issues in Scotland. As long as this approach persists, i fear it will bring the BBC in Scotland BBC little credit or indeed those responsible for its current affairs output.
I would welcome a dialogue with you on the matter since I firmly believe that a review of the BBC’s policy on the broad cultural , religious and social context in which football controversies arise in west-central Scotland is long overdue.
Yours Sincerely,
Tom Gallagher
Emeritus Professor of Politics
University of Bradford
Address for correspondence:
21 Meadowfield Terrace
Edinburgh, EH8 7NR
PS I originally assumed that this letter would reach you through a Romanian-based Scottish academic, Dr Ronnie Smith (someone who ran one of your election campaigns when you were a student politician). In Romania, if the approach of state television (TVR1) to an issue of such sensitivity had been so banal, then it would have become an issue of public concern some time ago. It so happens that I know your counterpart in TVR1 Mrs Rodica Culcer and when I see her, hopefully in the New Year, I will certainly ask her if she has any thoughts on what are very contrasting approaches of two national broadcasting stations to ethno-religious and nationalist concerns.
Once A Bhoy….. says:
29 November, 2011 at 14:36
read the RTC blog
below is taken from the RTC blog http://www.rangerstaxcase.com
Since taking over Rangers on 6th May of this year, Whyte’s Rangers have been deducting PAYE and national insurance from players’ salaries. However, the club has not been passing this money on to HMRC. In fact, the club has fallen behind on current remittances by an amount that is fast approaching £2 million.
Hail Hail
I don’t get this modren life thingamjaig. I really don’t. It’s rubbish.
We need to cut the debt we owe, yes? So we need to borrow an additional £100Bn over the next 4 years, on top of the £368Bn we told you about earlier.
We need to cut greenhouse gas emissions, yes? So we need to scrap the additional rises in fuel duty to make fuel cheaper, and then give a chunk of (borrowed) grants to ‘energy intensive’ industries.
We need to build more social and affordable housing, yes? So we need to give social housing tenants a 50% discount on the cost of buying the house they rent.
We need to create jobs in the economy, yes? So we’re going to lay off an additional 310,000 public sector workers, and then increase the retirement age to 67.
You want to watch the footie on the telly yes? So you need to subscribe to a whole load of food and fashion pash first.
One pure despairs, so one diz.
TopCorner says:
29 November, 2011 at 14:34
Just wondering if a minutes applause is wholly appropriate in this case considering what appears to have happened? Not being distasteful I hope but isn’t it a bit like “Well done”?
Swiss
Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo says:
29 November, 2011 at 14:43
Now if they were a Public Service Organisation even Id agree to the “mass” sackings, but theyre not theyre a private company screwing the tax payer, guys like phil and I who are in this together……..
Tiny Tim- I can’t do the link but on the ‘Philosophy Football ‘ website there’s a Charles Dickens XI t-shirt that might interest you.
Or interest someone wondering what to get you for Christmas ;/)
I expect you know the BBC are doing ‘Great Expectations’ at Christmas, with Ray Winstone as Magwitch and Gillian Anderson as Miss Havesham -should be pretty good.
If Dickens were writing today he’d probably be writing for TV