QuoteInter Milan pay 40k of robbie keanes wage and spurs pay 20k, at least that was what it was before he signed the new contract.
FAI facing €750,000 players bill for internationals
DAMIEN DUFF may never get to wear the green of Ireland at Croke Park if top European clubs succeed in winning compensation for the release of players for international duty.
A high-powered FAI delegation visited Brussels yesterday to warn EU officials and Irish MEPs about the serious consequences for soccer in Ireland if they had to face a bill of €750,000 for players' wages every time the senior international team played a game.
"Having to play three-quarters of a million euro at today's wages everytime we play an international match is simply not sustainable," said FAI chief executive John Delaney.
"The €10m which we invest in the grassroots would be put at risk and it would mean that our star players might not get to play for their country."
With Croke Park about to be given UEFA's five-star standard it could eventually mean that the only time Ireland's top players actually get to play a competitive game in Dublin would be if their clubs reached a Champions League final at GAA headquarters.
Some of Ireland's current internationals are among the top earners in the English game with Damien Duff earning around €100,000-a-week at Chelsea, while Tottenham's Robbie Keane and Manchester United's John O'Shea would be paid approximately €50,000 per week.
The FAI currently pays an insurance premium of €60,000 per game which covers each player's wages for up 26 weeks should they get injured while playing for their country.
But G14, the lobby group for Europe's top football clubs, is angry that clubs have to continue paying players wages while they are on international duty and is unhappy that profits which FIFA and UEFA make from the World Cup and European Championships goes to associations rather than clubs.
Former German international striker Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, who is both chairman of Bayern Munich and vice-chairman of G14, said: "The legal analysis we have asked for concludes that we have to release our players but we don't have to do it for free."
They are also backing Belgian club Charleroi, who this week sued FIFA in the Belgian courts for compensation after one of their players was out for eight months after being injured in an international match.
That case is expected to go all the way to the European Court of Human Rights and the ruling is likely to have widespread implications for the international game which is why Delaney, FAI director of strategy Declan Conroy and FAI planning and development director John Byrne were in Brussels.
With the help of Fianna Fail MEP Eoin Ryan, they were able to meet Ireland's European Commissioner Charlie McCreevy, EU Director of Sport Pierre Mairesse and the vice-president of the European Premier Football Leagues, Jean Marie Phillips, as well as the Irish MEPs.
The message to all was short and to the point.
"We told them that although G14 may want to be paid for the use of players they are forgetting where those players came from. It was at the grassroots that their talent was nurtured and developed by volunteer coaches and it is the grassroots which will suffer if associations like the FAI have to start paying the players' wages," said Delaney.
"G14 also seem to forget that playing international football increases the capital value of players and also increases their merchandising values. The game's superstars owe their fame to the profile they receive from playing international football. G14 cannot have their cake and eat it."
At today's huge salaries, the FAI estimate that it would cost them €750,000 per game if they had to pay clubs compensation for the release of international players.
Last year Ireland played nine internationals which would work out at €6.75m - around 30 per cent of the FAI's annual turnover.
"Having to pay this money would leave us with two options. We could either slash the amount of money we spend on the development of the game or else we don't use our star players.
"Neither option is desirable so it is a catch 22 situation," said Delaney.
Inter Milan pay 40k of robbie keanes wage and spurs pay 20k, at least that was what it was before he signed the new contract.
Thats bad for Ireland but what about poorer countrys from africa etc. Would these countries be able to fill an international team with their best players?
Originally Posted by livehead1
Inter Milan still pay his wages??? I knew Leeds still bankrolled him a little but even that should be finished by now.
50 grand a week!!!
They can bloody well keep him.
Methinks if it does go through you could see a lot more eircom league players called up.
it won't go through. if it did, they would put ticket prices up.50 grand a week!!!
They can bloody well keep him.
Methinks if it does go through you could see a lot more eircom league players called up.
It doesn't matter if the law is behind G14 as it would kill International football. There are more poor international associations than rich ones so would mean vast majority of international associations (even in Europe) would not be able to afford to pick players from top clubs which of cpurse is really what G14 want afterall.
How Could cameroon afford to pay Eto?
I am sure Damien Duff et al would forgo a week's wages to continue playing for his country...
The big clubs should be ashamed of themselves for being so greedy,
willing to destroy international football for a few quid,
If they don't want to play international players they shouldn't sign/keep
them, afterall who is it who is pushing up players wages in the first place?
A season ticket boycott would help them see sense.
i think its just the g14 flexing their muscles.
probably be a compromise about only releasing for major games or not as many friendlies or something.dont think it will be that big a deal in the end. or expect them to try and get things like the confederations cup scrapped and the african nations moved to summer.....FAI should just put an international release clause in irish players contracts from a young age.
This is the kind of thing that drives me fcuking crazy.
I appreciate all the value added sh!te about clubs and players and players BUT
where would these fcukers get their players if the FA's weren't running under age leagues, coaching etc and producing the players they eventually get - usually for fcuk all - eg Kevin Doyle etc etc etc.
If the clubs want to go this route, let THEM run all underage footie and pay for it.
The supporters groups are up in arms over this and if the clubs win this one out - boycott them - money talks and they'll soon come to their senses. The various FAs could also band together refuse to have anything to do with the clubs. Referees associations could also organise a boycott. Grounds could be made unavailable for competitions, pre-season tours be scrapped if the Asian and African confederations don't play ball when the Chelskis, Real Madrids want to travel there on marketing schemes masquerading as friendly matches.
yes its another one of the problems associated with footballers wages in a sense. If they were being paid 30k a year like most jobs then there wouldn't be a problem. But we must also look at this from the football clubs point of view. for example of Duff was to be injured playing for us in a friendly. He could be out for a year, that could cost his club millions of pounds, and they have to pay a proportion of his medical bills through no fault of their own, simply because they have players with the ability to warrant a place in an international team.This is the kind of thing that drives me fcuking crazy.
I appreciate all the value added sh!te about clubs and players and players BUT
where would these fcukers get their players if the FA's weren't running under age leagues, coaching etc and producing the players they eventually get - usually for fcuk all - eg Kevin Doyle etc etc etc.
If the clubs want to go this route, let THEM run all underage footie and pay for it.
The supporters groups are up in arms over this and if the clubs win this one out - boycott them - money talks and they'll soon come to their senses. The various FAs could also band together refuse to have anything to do with the clubs. Referees associations could also organise a boycott. Grounds could be made unavailable for competitions, pre-season tours be scrapped if the Asian and African confederations don't play ball when the Chelskis, Real Madrids want to travel there on marketing schemes masquerading as friendly matches.
I don't agree that the various FA's should have to pay for players but there are inevitably, two sides to every story.
Take your point Livehead but doesn't the FAI pay a huge insurance fee per match and does it cover the time they're out injured?? Maybe it's just medical costs it covers - it's hardly wages or is it??
I still think that there are many G14 type clubs who see internationals as a nuisance - they should remember that the biggest TV audiences are for internationals and if they want to kill the game as a mass participation sport, mass attended sport and a mass viewed sport, they're doing the right way about.
It makes me laugh when you see the likes of Juventus giving away thosands of tickets for a UEFA Champions League game and regularly getting 25,000 or less for games, whinging about international matches.
Many of the big clubs are all experiencing drops in crowd levels - they should get their own houses in order first by reducing admission fees, paying less money on transfers/wages etc before hitting out at many Associations who have the overall good of the game at heart.
Amy Lawrence had a good article about them in last Sunday's Observer BTW and their crowd collapse.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/sport...734576,00.html
I think compromise will win out eventually but what kind of compromise??
i've just realised, theres a huge flaw to this argument about duff....chelsea are not a member of G14 and don't want to be apparently....?Take your point Livehead but doesn't the FAI pay a huge insurance fee per match and does it cover the time they're out injured?? Maybe it's just medical costs it covers - it's hardly wages or is it??
I still think that there are many G14 type clubs who see internationals as a nuisance - they should remember that the biggest TV audiences are for internationals and if they want to kill the game as a mass participation sport, mass attended sport and a mass viewed sport, they're doing the right way about.
It makes me laugh when you see the likes of Juventus giving away thosands of tickets for a UEFA Champions League game and regularly getting 25,000 or less for games, whinging about international matches.
Many of the big clubs are all experiencing drops in crowd levels - they should get their own houses in order first by reducing admission fees, paying less money on transfers/wages etc before hitting out at many Associations who have the overall good of the game at heart.
Amy Lawrence had a good article about them in last Sunday's Observer BTW and their crowd collapse.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/sport...734576,00.html
I think compromise will win out eventually but what kind of compromise??
I thought they wanted to join Livehead1??
Anyway, here's UEFA's reaction
http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_...737302,00.html
A point that John Delaney made on Setanta last night is that the clubs have an asset. The value of this asset increases hugely with international football. Would Blackburn have got £17 for Damien Duff had he never lit of the world cup? Probably not.
Limerick FC offered £15, but those Chelski gits toppled us by two quid....
I have to agree with everything that sirhamish is saying.
I think the clubs are acting disgracefully. If they destroy international football, they will take any remaining soul that's left in the game. G-14 have done enough damage to the game. As for Chelsea's interest in G-14, I thought Mourinho complained a couple of weeks ago that Chelsea are not a member. He argued that it was Peter Kenyon's fault for not getting them into G-14 and that they would receive better traetment from UEFA and match officials if they were a member.
As for Damien Duff costing them £17, there is no way he would have cost that if he wasn't playing international football. It was the World Cup that provided him with the stage to showcase his talent.
"Love many, trust few, always paddle your own canoe." Dillo
Hear Hear JPM. It's been a long established fact of life that good footballers play international football. G14 should grow up & get on with it. Hopefully the Charleroi case will fall flat on its face.
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