I’m just in the process of posting my application off to Sky Sports. I’m proud to say my curriculum vitae is totally devoid of any hint of racial discrimination or misogynistic tendencies. I have never questioned my wife’s understanding of the offside law, just as she as never commented unfavourably on my inability to calculate how long it takes to cook a chicken nor, indeed, an associated aversion to sticking my hand in areas of said chicken where the sun don’t shine. What, however, may hamper my hopes of replacing either Richard Keys or Andy Gray is the fact that I’ve kind of fallen out of love with the Premier League.
It’s not football in general, you understand, just the fact that nobody directly associated with the top flight seems to live in the real world any longer. I watched a news item the other day about how some of the country’s best-known footballers (well, their accountants at least) are exploiting a loophole in British tax laws by declaring a proportion of their earnings as image rights. Product endorsements are a different matter and the taxman is entitled to take his cut. But a footballer can take what is effectively an interest-free loan from a company for the use of his face on a product, which is classed as a benefit and not payment. That may be over-simplifying the arrangement, but you get the idea. Of course, you can’t blame an individual for making as much money as he can but to see PFA chairman Gordon Taylor give an interview in which he churned out the old chestnut about footballers’ careers being short and smugly declare that ‘fans have no interest in whether players are avoiding tax, only that they perform for the clubs.’ is conceited beyond belief. Millions of football fans are going to lose their livelihoods over the next couple of years and the failure of many highly-paid individuals to pay their rightful dues will have contributed to that.
Back to Andy Gray’s successor and Jamie Redknapp is 4/6 favourite with Paddy Power to become Sky Sports’ chief pundit. There is a big discrepancy in the odds for Ray Wilkins to get the job, however. The Dublin firm have the former Chelsea assistant at 13/2, but Victor Chandler are offering 16/1.
January 27th, 2011 / paul - Category: Football Betting
