The strange case of Arsenal’s penalty statistics.
- Why are Arsenal’s penalty stats so different from all the other top clubs?
- Refs give far more penalties against Arsenal than other clubs: but why?
- Fouls and cards: are Arsenal being hard done by?
- Penalties for and against Arsenal. The Mike Riley factor
By Tony Attwood
In a legal case that has been working its way around the edges of football for a while, it is being alleged that it has been the habit of some clubs to get around the regulations in terms of how they “employ” various young players who are too young to be employed by the club, by paying the parents “travel expenses” so they can watch their sons play – with these expenses running to £1000 a month, or maybe more.
It has been suggested that these payments are wholly fictitious, and a way around regulations about the payment of young players, in that they go to the parents and are put down as compensation for the cost of the parents travelling to see their sons play for the youth team of a professional club – which would be legitimate – IF the parents actually made such trips over distances long enough to warrant £1000 a month.
The suggestion is even that the League and FA know about this but are turning a blind eye to the fact that expenses are being exaggerated or paid by a club whether the parent travels or not, although of course, I can’t verify that at all.
The benefit to the club would be that the parent is induced to keep the child at the club, and also not to make any complaints about, for example, the child being played when injured. It also encourages parents not to seek to move the child elsewhere. What’s more, given there is no pesky paperwork involved showing mileage accounts or rail fares or overnight stays or anything else, there’s no question of the parent needing to declare the money to Revenue and Customs.
Now, however, it seems some furrows are being seen on foreheads as in at least one case a parent whose child suffered a life-changing injury was played by his club despite the child being unfit. The parent was naturally aggrieved and has been threatening to reveal all in court – including the fiction of the travel expenses.
That this scam can exist seems to be as a result of the fact that clubs must not pay a parent an inducement to get his/her child to sign for a particular club. However the monitoring of “expense” payments by clubs to parents seems very slack, and the suggestion is that “everyone does this.” I’ve no evidence if this is true but if it is then the Leagues and the FA need investigating.
Certainly, young players and their parents don’t want to spill the beans because what they want more than anything, is for the youngster to get a chance with a professional club. The FA and League don’t seem to be interested either, although I am not sure why.
However, I must make it doubly clear that these are just stories that I hear. But I would have thought just the mention of the possibility ought to start both a Leaue and an FA enquiry into the accounts of football clubs looking for dubiously round monthly figures being paid to parents for “travel”.
Certainly, I can say in the areas of employment I’ve been involved in, any claim for expenses must be accompanied by receipts to show that the expense was incurred and was legitimate. Indeed when I was chair of a plc if any member of staff incurred expenses we required a proper receipt in relation to the money spent, and they were then fully recompensed. The rules of Revenue and Customs were clear and we stuck to them.
Indeed in my 20+ years in the chair of the company, we did have three occasions in which Revenue and Customs suggested that we were not paying our VAT properly. Each time it was a nonsense claim brought by a young inspector looking to make a name for himself, each time we defended ourselves and won, through the simple mechanism of presenting the paperwork and pointing out what the legislation actually said. And my point is that expenses are not handled flippantly by Revenue and Customs.
Thus the argument being made is that clubs are paying fictional expenses to parents as an inducement to get the parents’ children to sign for clubs. Further, since if such a story ever emerged it could seriously damage the club involved, clubs, it is alleged, go to great lengths to keep these tales quiet.
It’s a very serious complaint and I can see why a club might want to go to enormous lengths to keep it quiet. I have merely been told the story, so I don’t have more details, but can only hope that someone is willing to stand up to any club that just ditches youngsters who have been injured playing for the club, without any compensation.
