By John Considine
Why were there only 11 non-British or Irish players in the top flight of English football in 1992 and 250 of them in 2007? This is a question Richard Brooks raises in his 2013 book The Great Tax Robbery. Not surprisingly, given the title of his book, Brooks says tax law can help explain this transformation.
The central role played by Arsenal in his illustrative examples is interesting. Brook begins by naming the starting Arsenal eleven from Valentine’s Day 2005. It was the first occasion in the top flight of English football that a British player was not in the starting eleven. The use of illustrative examples involving Arsenal is also interesting given comments emerging from the club about financial doping in soccer.
Like Arsene Wenger, Richard Brooks plays Dennis Bergkamp up front. He shows how Bergkamp led the line when it came to getting some of his rewards from Arsenal paid to an off-shore entity he had established while playing for Inter Milan. The Dutch and Arsenal striker with the quick brain and feet was no slouch when it came to innovation off the field. Bergkamp showed that footballers as celebrities could profit from their image. Image rights, says Brooks, are “an intangible commodity as pregnant with income tax possibilities as drug’s companies patents were for its corporation tax bill”.
Like Arsene Wenger, Richard Brooks plays Dennis Bergkamp up front. He shows how Bergkamp led the line when it came to getting some of his rewards from Arsenal paid to an off-shore entity he had established while playing for Inter Milan. The Dutch and Arsenal striker with the quick brain and feet was no slouch when it came to innovation off the field. Bergkamp showed that footballers as celebrities could profit from their image. Image rights, says Brooks, are “an intangible commodity as pregnant with income tax possibilities as drug’s companies patents were for its corporation tax bill”.
Three English men that played for Arsenal also feature in The Great Tax Robbery - Parlour, Platt and Campbell. The example of Ray Parlour is at least as important as that of Bergkamp for the author. Because of his personal troubles, Parlour’s finances makes for some interesting reading and comparisons. If we stick to the football comparisons, we see that tax-resident British footballers could not benefit to the same extent from the tax law as those players that were
“non-doms”. That is not to say they did not benefit from the various schemes!
Because players are interested in the net rewards, clubs could get better foreign players for the same net payment. This is the competitive advantage foreign players have and it goes a long way towards providing an answer to the question Brooks raised: Why were there only 11 non-British or Irish players in the top flight of English football in 1992 and 250 of them in 2007?
Brooks goes further and says that it also means that “talented British youngsters struggle to find places at the top level and the national [English] team plumbs new depths of under-achievement: failure to qualify for Euro 2008, a dismal showing at the 2010 World Cup and a further also-ran finish at Euro 2012”.
(Comments are enabled on this post. The comments will be moderated.)
“non-doms”. That is not to say they did not benefit from the various schemes!
Because players are interested in the net rewards, clubs could get better foreign players for the same net payment. This is the competitive advantage foreign players have and it goes a long way towards providing an answer to the question Brooks raised: Why were there only 11 non-British or Irish players in the top flight of English football in 1992 and 250 of them in 2007?
Brooks goes further and says that it also means that “talented British youngsters struggle to find places at the top level and the national [English] team plumbs new depths of under-achievement: failure to qualify for Euro 2008, a dismal showing at the 2010 World Cup and a further also-ran finish at Euro 2012”.
(Comments are enabled on this post. The comments will be moderated.)
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