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Newcastle United asked to pay £250,000 to Richard Scudamore

5 years ago
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As yet another example of just how out of touch the people at the top in football are, Newcastle United and the other 19 Premier League clubs have each been asked to pay Richard Scudamore £250,000 as a going away present.

He is on £2.5m per year already and it is he (Richard Scudamore) who is deciding to move on, yet clubs, which in effect fans, are being asked to give him and additional £5m bonus.

Only 59, no doubt the outgoing Premier League executive chairman will shortly find another role where he will be once again be paid a fortune, it isn’t as though he is worried about whether he can afford to switch the heating on in his retirement.

This is one occasion when I do hope Mike Ashley’s reticence to allow club spending does come into play, hopefully instead of £250,000 of Newcastle fans money, it will be five pairs of white sports socks donated by the Sports Direct supremo.

The man behind the idea is Bruce Buck, a close personal friend of Richard Scudamore and also chairman of Chelsea.

Interestingly, this is the same Bruce Buck who only last month said he was determined to block UEFA proposals to encourage more competition in European football.

UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin wants to redress inequalities across European football and has suggested targeting dominant clubs with a ‘luxury tax’ to try and give smaller clubs more of a chance.

The UEFA  President saying he want to stop a small group of clubs having the majority of the wealth in the sport, which he says ‘Threatens the competitive balance that is essential to football’s appeal.’

Quite unbelievably, the Chelsea chairman’s reply to these ideas saw him declare he wasn’t in ‘Favour of dumbing down the large clubs in order to make all clubs the great unwashed.’

Bruce Buck speaking in October 2018 at the Leaders Sport Business Summit:

“In terms of competitive balance, which is always viewed in a negative way…I personally believe that for the development of football, marquee clubs and marquee players are important.

“It is important in developing a fan base, it is important in encouraging young people to engage in this sport and it is also important in terms of the large clubs having the ability to put a lot of money into good causes which they do.

“So I am not, as a general proposition, in favour of dumbing down the large clubs in order to make all clubs the great unwashed.

“I just don’t think it works for the long-term.

“Clubs have to seek their natural position in the football order.

“No matter where you are in that, you want to improve, but I don’t think we should assume that because every club is not equal that therefore it’s bad.”

It is disgusting really, considering all the built-in advantages clubs such as Chelsea increasingly have, where they increasingly squeeze the rest to try and ensure they take more for themselves and cement their position for evermore. Whether it is with seeding in the Champions League, or the recent revelation that Chelsea were allegedly one of those clubs behind plans for a European Superleague which would have no relegation for at least 20 years for clubs such as Chelsea.

Particularly amusing is that Bruce Buck last month gave as one of the reasons why they should keep as much money as possible because ‘it is also important in terms of the large clubs having the ability to put a lot of money into good causes which they do.’

We see where the Chelsea boss is coming from now, ‘good causes’ such as giving his mate Richard Scudamore a bonus £5m.

Richard Scudamore of course trying to push through some great ideas, such as having Premier League matches played overseas….

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