Beleaguered French president Francois Hollande is facing a strike by French footballers over high rates of tax. Condemning the 75 per cent income tax rate as ‘unfair and discriminatory’, Jean-Pierre Louvel, head of the UCPF professional football club union said: ‘We are talking about the death of French football.’
Beleaguered French president Francois Hollande is facing a strike by French footballers over high rates of tax. Condemning the 75 per cent income tax rate as ‘unfair and discriminatory’, Jean-Pierre Louvel, head of the UCPF professional football club union said: ‘We are talking about the death of French football.’
If the strike goes ahead, all matches in the last week of November will be called off. Employers have to pay the tax for two years on annual salaries about €1m. It was re-designed as a payroll tax after the original plan for a 75 per cent income tax was ruled unconstitutional.
The clubs say the tax will cost them collectively €44m a year. They claim that clubs and players paid €700m in tax and social contributions last year, more than they earned in television rights.
The UCPF insists that the tax will have a devastating effect on French clubs, which mostly lose money. They have to compete for players with English, Italian, German and Spanish clubs which have more favourable tax regimes.
Struggling clubs such as Marseille, Lyon, Lille and Bordeaux, with exposures to the tax of €4m-€8m each, see it as a further hindrance to their ability to compete with Paris Saint-Germain and Monaco which have received big injections of funds by foreign owners.
The President will sit down with club chairman next week in an attempt to defuse the row. However, Jean-Marc Ayrault, the prime minister, said there was no reason to treat football differently from other businesses.
The news is likely to annoy television executives, who paid €607m for a four year deal to broadcast French games. They may seek compensation for the cancellation of affected matches which would include one between Paris Saint Germain and Olympique Lyonnais.