French club Paris Saint-Germain may have to pay hefty
taxes on the salaries of star players such as Zlatan
Ibrahimovic (center).
France's controversial 75% tax for high
earners drove award-winning actor Gerard Depardieu
to take Russian citizenship.
Now, French football clubs are going on strike to
protest the legislation's planned implementation next
year, claiming it will make them less competitive against
European rivals and cause further financial hardship.
The Professional Union of Football Clubs (UCPF)
announced Thursday that they will boycott all matches
in the top two divisions scheduled between November
29-December 2.
It will be the first such strike in France since 1972,
when players protested about their salaries, and will be
the first in a major European league since the start of
the 2010-11 Italian season was disrupted.
"This unprecedented day must be the
occasion for the silent majority of French
football to express its opposition," UCPF
president Jean-Pierre Louvel said in a
statement Thursday.
Read: Monaco presents taxing problem for
French football
The 75% tax will apply to players who
earn more than €1 million ($1.38 million)
a year. Under the law's initial wording the
earners themselves would have had to pay
it, but after protests Francois Hollande's
Socialist Party government moved the
responsibility to their employers.
However, the UCPF claims this is unfair as
its clubs are losing money anyway --
racking up a combined deficit of €108
million ($149 million) at the end of the
2011-12 season. Their total debt for the
last three season amounts to €303 million
($418 million).
"This tax, unfair and discriminatory, is
estimated by the professional football
industry at €44m ($60m) per year," the
UCPF said.
"The economic crisis has not spared these clubs, who
have seen their income from ticketing and TV rights
decreased for the last three years in a row."
Read: French football's talent exodus
The UCPF claims the tax will make French clubs less
competitive against European rivals in countries which
have lower taxes.
"In a context of a deregulated European competition
where players have the ability to go and play
everywhere they want, the French clubs -- if they want
to stay competitive -- cannot massively decrease their
remunerations," it said.
"For similar salaries, a player in France is
costing the clubs 33% more than a player
would in Germany, England, Spain or
Italy."
The UCPF, which says it pays €130 million
($179.5 million) to amateur sports each
year as an act of "solidarity," claims the
tax will cost jobs in the French football
industry -- which employs 25,000 people.
'We wish to open all the stadiums to all the
fans, football lovers, those people who
make French football on a daily basis,"
Louvel said of the strike.
"The supporters, amateur players,
associations, volunteers, coaches, agents
and employees. All of those who will suffer
from the consequences of this unfair tax.
The social role of football will be impacted
by the consequences of this measure."
The tax will hit clubs to varying degrees.
Big-spending champion Paris Saint-
Germain, which has invested more than €200 million
($276 million) in players since being bought by a Qatari
consortium in 2011, may have to pay just under half
the clubs' €44 million bill according to reports
estimating its salary bills.
Monaco, backed by a Russian billionaire, would next
season be exempt as it does not fall under French tax
laws -- and the principality club says it will fight the
league's plans to change its status in future.
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