Forget Raiola’s £41m cut, it’s the Balotelli bonus that’s ridiculous
AT A LATE stage, Jermain Defoe’s transfer to Portsmouth in 2008 hit a snag. Harry Redknapp was summoned from the room next door. Mrs Defoe, Jermain’s mum and a famously tough negotiator, wanted a goal bonus for her son.
Redknapp was not entirely placatory. ‘ Mrs Defoe,’ he said, ‘Jermain is costing us £12million and we’re giving him £50,000 a week. We’re not paying him to miss them.’
Mrs Defoe said she thought a bonus would encourage Jermain to score. ‘ We rather hoped the 50 grand would do that,’ Redknapp replied, tartly. These were the good old days before footballers were rewarded for doing what they were supposed to do, and in some cases for not doing what they aren’t supposed to do, as well.
The most startling figure in the Football Leaks documents is not Mino Raiola’s £41m. It is Mario Balotelli’s one.
Raiola actually did something for his share. He got arguably the finest midfielder in Europe out of what might prove to be the continent’s best club, Juventus, to one that did not offer Champions League football this season and, even now, cannot guarantee it next year: Manchester United.
He got the selling club a greatly inflated, world-record fee; he got the buying club a player they did not deserve; he beat off superior rivals on their behalf; and he made his client insanely rich. He might not be worth £41m — but he’s definitely worth something.
Balotelli, meanwhile, was due £1m from Liverpool for not getting sent off three times in a season. Now that is ridiculous. Not obscene, disgusting, repulsive or any of the other adjectives that have been thrown around as wildly as agents’ cuts this week. Just really, really stupid.
Why pay a player to simply stay on the field? You’re meant to stay on the field. Paying strikers to score goals, as Manchester United did with Zlatan Ibrahimovic, seems mildly extravagant, but to reward a player for not acting against the interests of his employer? That’s madness.
And three times? How did they reach that number? It is as if Liverpool knew they were buying a deeply flawed, unreliable individual but, instead of trying to control him, chose to offer as much leeway as possible. Balotelli’s contract actually sets out the offences covered by the clause. ‘ Violent conduct, spitting, using offensive, insulting or abusive language and/or gestures and/or dissent…’ If that only happened twice, remember, he got a million quid.
So he could be shown a red card for spitting, twice, and still be due £1m on June 30, each year. Violent conduct carries a three-match ban, four for a second offence. Liverpool were permitting Balotelli to miss seven games through suspension, minimum, in a season and still collect his bonus money.
It was New Labour architect Lord Mandelson who was intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich. And if football is, too, that is understandable. It’s their money, after all. The Glazer family might ponder the wisdom of Ed Woodward’s dealings over Pogba, but if they’re happy with the return, it really is nobody else’s business.
And the same goes for much contained within the Football Leaks revelations. Wages, transfer fees, agent percentages: that’s the market. Fans, media, clubs, owners, we can all choose not to play. If a club gets its numbers wrong, it ends up like Leeds United. Yet Roman Abramovich has spent more than the GDP of Slovakia sacking Chelsea managers and has five Premier League titles and the Champions League to show for it. He probably reckons he’s got decent value.
Andy Holt, the chairman of Accrington Stanley, earned easy praise for his comments accusing the Premier League of destroying the game with their thoughtlessness and wealth. Yet two years ago, his club attempted to sell 250 special edition commemorative tickets for a third-round FA Cup tie with Manchester United. One problem: Stanley had already lost their second round replay to Yeovil, so these were tickets for a nonexistent match. While decrying the Premier League, Holt is quite happy to make money off its profile when it suits. ‘We run our club with less than £2.2m, that’s the problem with the English game,’ said Holt. No, that’s a problem for Accrington Stanley. Not enough people want to watch them, even fewer in imaginary games. And if Manchester United have a choice between paying a man who can deliver Pogba (below) and paying Stanley to exist, one can hardly blame them for prioritising business. Yet if Liverpool can afford the Balotelli bonus, if Manchester United can give Ibrahimovic an extra £2.85m to do his job, it is time to take stock. At the very least, football should be making its money, not to mention its players, work considerably harder.