Business of Sport/Daire Whelan: Is the English Professional Football Association chief executive, Gordon Taylor, losing his touch? The Leeds United survival saga trundles on and the players it seems won't heed his advice. Despite calls for players to take a cut in wages to help stave off administration, it is a bridge too far for Taylor's members.
Coming in the wake of his questionable position on the Rio Ferdinand drug test case and his lamentable warning to the FA to be careful in taking on the world's biggest club, it has to be asked if the Britain's most highly-paid trade union official is losing his influence in the game. Are the PFA losing control over members?
Of course, Taylor will counter that every time there is an issue over player wages the question of his own salary will arise and in the wake of the PFA seeking the Leeds players to take a pay cut it is worth noting Taylor earns an estimated £600,000 per annum. Taylor has said he is willing to consider salary-capping to ease financial pressure on clubs.
In October, 2002, he said: "The term 'salary capping' is emotive because people think of a maximum wage. But we do not want clubs to be spending more than they have. If they started talking about a ceiling on the amount that goes out to players then we would talk about it."
And the PFA stated last year they had no more cash to help pay player wages having given grants of £163 million. Meanwhile, the Lowry painting, Going to the Game, which the PFA bought for £2 million in 1999 gathers dust and another £600,000 is paid to Taylor for 2004.
Should some of the estimated €2 billion that is gambled every year in Ireland go towards funding Irish sport in the future? A report in the Oxford Review on Economic Policy has said UK sports organisations should negotiate a levy with bookmakers as a means of bridging the gap in funding from other sources, such as TV.
So isn't it something Irish sport should consider? It is becoming obvious the main sources of funding for Irish sport are beginning to dwindle. This week, the Department of Sport announced €61 million had been spent in 2003 under the National Lottery-funded Sports Capital Programme. However, the downturn in sport's fortune and the uncertain future is made clear as 2003 was the first year of decreased funding under the programme. The following are the figures for the previous five years under the programme:
1999 - €25m
2000 - €35m (40% increase)
2001 - €55m (57% increase)
2002 - €75m (36% increase)
2003 - €61m (18% decrease)
Rob Simons, a sports economic specialist in Britain, has suggested sport should be doing more to get some return from gambling as an alternative means of income.
"The way to do this is not legislation because there is always the risk that gamblers could go offshore because gambling is now a global business. Sports governing bodies need to reach a deal with bookmakers so that they receive money from them for their funding. The gambling industry needs sport but so far, sport has not really benefited from gambling and that situation needs to be addressed."
Is it likely to happen in Ireland though? The 2004 estimate for the total Exchequer take from off-course betting tax stands at €40 million while €4-5 million of this comes from bets on Irish horse racing which represents between 10 per cent and 15 per cent of off-course betting turnover. The Irish betting tax stands at two per cent, reduced from five per cent in 2002.
On-course bookies for horse racing must pay a 0.3 per cent levy of turnover to Horse Racing Ireland and the healthy state of the sport was seen with the release of the 2003 figures: total prize-money up nine per cent from €46.2 million to €50.4 million; total betting from on-course up 14 per cent from €208.4 million to €237 million; total tote betting up 14.1 per cent from €38.8 million to €44.3 million; and total sponsorship up nine per cent from €6.5 million.
While the likes of the Sports Capital Programme sees its funding decrease and with bookmakers like Paddy Power making six-month pre-tax profits of €7.2 million (January-June 2003), and with an estimated €2 billion being gambled each year, surely Irish sport should start tapping into the vast reservoir of its betting money as a means of income?
In his end-of-year statement, the Minister for Sport, John O' Donoghue said: "There continues to be a huge improvement in the level of sports and recreational facilities and programmes being provided all over the country."
But now that the money is starting to dry up, will betting money fill the breach?
bizofsport@eircom.net
It's going from bad to worse for Gordon Taylor. FIFPro, the international players union of which Taylor is chairman is facing a financial crisis if the ruling on the Oliver Kahn case is upheld. Last week, Hamburg's highest state court upheld the verdict by a lower court against Electronic Arts (EA), the maker of the computer game FIFA 2002.
The German goalkeeper, and former world player of the year, sued EA for violating his personal rights by using his image and name in their computer game without his permission. The case came about despite a multi-million dollar licensing agreement between EA and FIFPro.
Although EA plan to appeal to the federal court, Kahn's lawyer has said the ruling could open the way for other players to seek damages. But it will also call into question the deals signed between FIFPro and commercial partners such as EA and Konami. These companies signed up with FIFPro on the basis the union owns the right to sell their member's image and naming rights. If the Kahn case is upheld, FIFpro will be holding its breath that no more members will seek redress.
$47.75
(up from $46.02 of previous month)
Electronic Arts holds its ground in the wake of Oliver Kahn's case.
£600,000
Annual earnings for PFA chief executive, Gordon Taylor.
"You never win a game unless you beat the guy in front of you. The score on the board doesn't mean a thing. That's for the fans. You've got to win the war with the man in front of you. You've got to get your man."
