Tax man comes knocking

It’s been another bad week for finances in the Football League. It has been found that more than £28 million pounds of tax money owed by football clubs has been written off by the Government.
18 clubs who have been into administration have been found to have unpaid tax bills.

The rules for Football League sides mean that they are allowed to pay Salaries and costs first, and then fix their tax bill. As much as I love football, this is another case of it being one rule for businesses or the public, and a totally new rule for a sport.

The highest debt fell to Leicester City, who paid off just 10% of their £7million tax.
Another club, Leeds United (predictable, perhaps) had a deficit of £6.1m after only paying off £680k of their bill.

Of the 18 teams that were examined, there was a total debt of £31.7m, with only £.35million paid back by the clubs.
Obviously, that means that the taxpayer must foot the bill, which, as previously mentioned, reached £28 million.

Understandably HM Revenues and Customs want to change the rules, and why not, as it is just getting ridiculous now.

Football will never change if rules like this aren’t imposed. The elitism that runs from the top down is the main issue from my point of view, and penalising those who breach the rules is the best way to sort it out.

At the moment, football clubs know they can get in debt without too many consequences, which in turn is why clubs are buying expensive players that they cannot afford.

Phil Willis, the MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough and a strong critic of the Leeds deal, says clubs should not be allowed to write off such huge tax debts.
He said: "It is quite ludicrous that the taxpayer has to pick up the tab for what are often poor business dealings.
"We should get rid of the football creditors rule and all creditors should get an equal share of the money, as happens when other businesses go into administration."

Hopefully new rules will be implemented to crack down on unpaid debt, and one day, everyone can get back to a level playing field.