I think the FAI made something like €30m profit last year. €1m isn't a whole lot for them. While it can help with investing it in the grassroots/whatever it's hardly going to make a significant impact like some people have suggested.Originally Posted by NeilMcD
If you go to the eircom league forum you will see loads of people who complain about this and laugh at them wasteing their money promoting british soccer. You even get some Irish people supporting English teams ahead of Irish teams and buying their merchindise to make English businessmen richer. Its a funny old world.
The deepest layer of human thinking and feeling somehow knows that God must exist - Pope Benedict XVI
Yeah the dig was great. Loved it!!
Is this Bertie you are talking about. Did he have a comment on Trapp???
source?
O'Brien can keep his tainted money. it would be more in his line to pay his tax here. its just a PR exercise. why not be anonymous?
Initially I felt a little bit uneasy about the mention of O'Brien's name. But I think that's because we've grown up in a society of brown envelopes and our understanding of the word "donation" has a hidden meaning.
Anyways his name is out in the open from the off and as far as I'm concerned it's pretty much a non-issue at this moment in time although I wouldn't rule out it becoming an issue further down the line in some shape or form.
Good man Denis, thank you for helping to fund a world class manager rather than an amateur like Kerr or Stan!
fcuk the begrudgers ...
I cant believe anyone is whinging about this ...
bhs
It's funny because it will really annoy "Independent" News and Media and their owners.
However, this lauding of billionaire tax exiles when they splash a fraction of the tax that they should've paid disgusts me. If they wanted to help Ireland, they could fookin live here and pay their taxes so the democratically elected Government can decide, not come in as some kind of white knight for you current pet project.
For what it's worth, I don't see how the FAI had much choice but to take it.
If you attack me with stupidity, I'll be forced to defend myself with sarcasm.
He isn't breaking any laws. Anybody on here who wouldn't legally avoid tax if they could?
Lots probably would, but would they come back a few times a year splashing the cash expecting to be slapped on the back like some of them (especially some from the Limerick area) do?
If you attack me with stupidity, I'll be forced to defend myself with sarcasm.
If he stayed anonymous it would of came out anyway.Fair play to him for getting away not paying tax. I would do the same. He is a great irishman. The FAI can now put the money there saving not paying Trapps full wages back into irish soccer.Can't believe people are given out about this.
Dont forget that English millionaires have been helping out the FA for years!
Why cant we do it with all the millionaires we have
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist thinks it will change; the realist adjusts the sails.
Couple of quick points on this:
- IF DOB is simply donating the money cos he wants the team to do well then
fair play. However, I suspect the donation may also be metaphorical 2
fingers to Eircom.
- Trap is the type of character that is going to clash with the media here
pretty quickly. The are sinking lower and lower every year. I hope his eats
them alive.
- DOB has absolutely no obligation to dig badly run irish clubs out of the sh1t.
Lets just view the O'Brien money at face value - a generous gesture to secure a Manager of experience and achievement. End of story.
Who would we be discussing if O'Brien hadn't donated - El Tel, Billy Davis, Lawrie Sanchez?
I think the FAI handled this well in stating the facts of O'Brien's involvement straight away. It's out in the open and not hanging over them, which would have suggested some underhanded dealing.
I'd imagine every newspaper editor had to re-write a lot of glaring headlines that they had stored up for the Sunday papers on this yesterday.
Having endured this tortuous process and agonised about who we'd be landed with - lets just enjoy the fact we've appointed Trapp - even for a few days.
Quoting years at random since 1975
Probably still Trappatoni as the FAI have more than enough to pay the full wages themselves.
The fact O'Brien publicised the donation tells you all you need to know about the man.
Anyway, I'm glad he's spending my money (and yours too) on such a worthy investment. He's clearly such a proud Irishman he upped sticks and left the country, because, Godforbid he might have to pay tax to his beloved Ireland which could be used on schools, hospitals and the like.
Huzzah to him, truly an Irish hero........
O'Brien is a tax exile. In my opinion (and nobody has to agree with it), tax exiles don't deserve to be called Irish, because they don;t share the tax burden with the rest of us. 1M is a tiny fraction of the tax he would have paid if he lived here. he made hundreds of millions out of Esat and then went to Portugal to avoid CGT on this money. Michael O'Leary, for all his many many faults at least lives here and pays his taxes here and I admire him for that. The "typical Irish begrudgery" line is a knee-jerk reaction - and I have to say that is those posters on this site who I would regard as the more thoughtful ones who recognise the wider picture.
EDIT: ps I'm certainly not saying the FAI shouldn't take the money, of course they should. And it is decent of O'Brien to give it. But what I am saying is that it doesn't make him into a great Irishman giving it, and he shouldn't be hero worshipped for it. If he was a true Irishman he would have given much much more to the state over the years.
Last edited by monutdfc; 14/02/2008 at 8:34 AM.
Can we add a poll to this thread?
DOB Donation...
A good thing
A bad thing
Who is this guy, Trapper Tony?
It's not as simple as that - good or bad - but reading some of the posts here you would think it was.
btw c. €80M tax he avoided on the sale of Esat by moving to Portugal.
I agree totally. Denis O'Brien has given this money as a PR exercise. He's due up before the McCracken tribunal again soon about the money he gave Michael Lowry. At the moment he's in the High Court trying to block the investigation. If it turns out that the mobile phone license was awarded corruptly the state is wide open to being sued for 100s of millions of Euro by the other companies that didn't get the license.
The last time I saw Denis O'Brien being interviewed he was whinging about having spent over 10 million (we could have had 10 Trapatonnis!) in legal fees because of the tribunal. If you cut away all the smoke and figures and legal jargon the tribunal is basically asking a very simple question. 'Did you bribe a politician?' If the answer to that question is no, then why would you need to spend so much in legal fees?
I could also mention how he got ESAT cables laid along railway tracks (state owned infrastructure) for almost free. All this stuff costs money lads. OUR MONEY.
In short Denis O'Brien gave the money for his own selfish reasons and the FAI are right to take it for our own selfish reasons. It's a marriage of convenience and I can live with it if it means success for the Irish team, which would have a spin off benefit for Irish football at all levels.
Trapatonni's appointment is great for Irish football. It doesn't make O'Brien a great Irishman or a saint any more than it makes the FAI a top class professional outfit. For once we've got a good result and I don't really care how we got it.
Enough talk about O'Brien and his grubby money. Can we just get on with the job of supporting our new Il Duco and the Boys in Green?
Last edited by tblade; 14/02/2008 at 9:01 AM. Reason: typo
Yes but we get our love every day around the corner, instead of every couple of months in Dublin for €60 a go :P And those who would want the team to fail usually want this, not out of spite for the team, but because they want an effect of this - e.g. Staunton/Delany/Givens/Devlin/Granny Exploiters out.
While I recognise a good deed by DOB, its slightly worrying. No club would get away with making such a coup on short term investment that they cannot afford to renew. While people are saying "at least this money will now go into grassroots", thats simply not true. The money was never there in the first place, and now its gone straight into a formerly great manager's pockets, simply because italian managers are en vogue around this parts at the moment. What do we gain out of giving a mercenary another million? We could have appointed an Irish man with knowledge of Irish football from top to bottom, instead we have someone who will probably only come to the country when we're at home. Is it really this difficult to appoint someone who the bunch of primadonnas we call our international team will respect?
Last edited by GavinZac; 14/02/2008 at 9:05 AM.
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