French football (meaning soccer to the Americans) clubs are going on strike to protest the 75% tax on those earning over 1 million euros annually. Ligue 1 and 2 clubs have announced that matches have been cancelled for the last weekend in November.
The two-year tax is meant to be a temporary measure as France deals with an economic crises. Originally meant to apply to households, the French constitutional counsel held that the tax as then written was unconstitutional. Lawmakers rewrote the law so that the tax would be on employers instead.
The clubs, of course, are not pleased. The Union of Professional Football Clubs (UPFC) point out that payrolls for French clubs are a third higher than their counterparts in other countries because of the existing tax rates. The clubs claim that they’re already in a bad financial state and that the tax would put them even further in the red. In addition, they argue that the tax would harm French football by having players leave to foreign leagues. Although Ligue 1 has had a reputation as more of a feeder league to the English Premier League, Bundesliga and the like for the past few years, it has gotten some more respect recently with the arrival of bigger-name players, particularly Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
To most French people, however, the strike is at best tone-deaf. Though not in a catastrophic state like some other countries, the French economy has not grown in five years, 3.26 million are unemployed, with 26.5% of those being young people. According to a poll on L’Equipe, a French sports magazine, 65% of the 32,198 people voting did not approve of the proposed strike, with some voters calling it “shocking” and indecent.”
According to the Guardian, the government will meet with football club heads next week to discuss the tax.
Photo via Wikimedia.
