Some next level plans

IMAGINE a business with an income of £650million, paying their best quality workers £350,000 a week.

It has owners who have milked it for £155m of dividends over a seven-year period, but needs cash to spruce up, or rebuild, its HQ.

How deserving of taxpayer help would you think they are?

You know, using the money you and I pay the Government to fund education and health, and supposedly build a better society?

Manchester United want to build the “Wembley of the North”, and new part-owner Jim Ratcliffe wants help to build the £2bn New Trafford.

And it seems they would like financial incentives from Government “Levelling Up” funds.

It is reported talks have already taken place between Ratcliffe, worth £15bn, and Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, as well as local councillors.

I hope they were laughed out of the civic offices.

Football is capitalism in the extreme. The ultimate pursuit of profit, based on a series of investment gambles. The message from politicians should be, “Stand on your own feet. Fund it yourself.”

The justification will be job creation, because a new cinema or shopping area will be tagged on to the stadium complex. Of course, it may not be hard cash, but in the form of tax incentives.

But we still pay, while the Red Devils cash in on a brand new 90k stadium and get a competitive advantage on rivals, North and South.

Where does it stop? Will Newcastle feel entitled to public cash for a new St James’ Park, while being owned by some of the wealthiest people on the planet? Will Leeds want their own Yorkshire Wembley with some taxpayer help?

Have small-town clubs been bailed out by public cash? No, just ask Bury.

Cash swills around in football being lavished on players, agents and executives. Punters are paying handsomely to watch it in person and on TV. They shouldn’t be paying out of their taxes to give any club a leg up on the commercial ladder.