Money, football and MPs

Matt Taylor — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 16:11:48 +0000

There’s been a couple of stories in the media this week about football and money, two subjects which seem inextricably linked.

First, Deloitte announced that the total revenue earned by the Premier League clubs reached £1.9bn during 2008/09 – at the same time, the poor old 72 Football League clubs could only manage a meagre £500m.

The Premier League clubs generates the highest revenue of any league in Europe, with Germany, Spain and Italy lagging well behind at £1.1bn each.

That’s one reason why the Premier League can afford to pay such high wages – and that’s where you really get into financial fantasy land. For example, Gareth Barry has this week left Aston Villa to join Manchester City, for a wage that is reputed to be worth between £80k and £130k, depending on who you believe (Birmingham Post says the former, Daily Mail the latter).

Either way, that’s more than most people earn in a year – even those scoundrels in Parliament can’t match that.

To put it in perspective, most of the so-called ‘honourable’ members earn £65k basic, but can tot up around £200k when office expenses are taken into consideration (and that’s before we start talking about things like bath plugs, duck houses or dry rot treatment).

Those figures put MPs in the top one percent of wage earners in this country, so goodness knows where footballers earning stratospheric wages must figure.

Why are footballers worth so much? Well, I suppose it is a question of talent and how much money they help generate for their employers. No-one seems to question it much.

More importantly, though, why are MPs worth so much? I seem to recall a story in the news not so long ago which said that if they lost their seats, most of today’s MPs would find it hard to get another job, because they have so little in the way of skills and qualifications.

Sounds about right – I guess the only thing most of them are good at is filling in an expenses form. That seems to pay quite well, though.

Pen portrait – not politically correct!

Matt Taylor — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 14:40:53 +0000

Welcome to our new blog-based web site – by way of kicking things off, blog-wise, I thought I would do a pen portrait, along the same lines as the one that makes a daily appearance in Birmingham’s daily newspaper, ‘The Birmingham Post.’

The ‘Post’ pen portrait is a bit of a talking point in our office, as it poses a number of standard questions which the subject has to answer – and the problem is that most people give the answers which they probably think ‘Post’ readers want to see.

So, you usually end up with terribly politically correct nonsense – for example, the question ‘Best thing about Birmingham/West Midlands?’ is often answered by some reference to how wonderful the cultural diversity of the place is, and how fabulous that you can be out of the city and into the countryside in about 20 minutes.

And then there’s the ‘First thing you would do if you were (city council leader) Mike Whitby?’ question – the answers to that range from the ridiculous to the bizarre. For example, someone suggested recently that Whitby should build a Metro system in the sky, to alleviate the transport problems on the ground.

Hmm, yes that sounds perfectly feasible – actually, it reminded me of that old film ‘Fahrenheit 451’, which featured such a system.

Anyway, enough of that, onto the pen portrait:-

Name: Philip Parkin

Age: 53 (groan)

Job title: Partner, Headline Communications

Best thing about Birmingham/West Midlands? Aston Villa FC

Worst thing about Birmingham/West Midlands? Birmingham City FC

First thing you would do if you were Mike Whitby? Get rid of the tramps and ‘Big Issue’ sellers from the city centre – god knows there are enough of them.

Who are you heroes and why? Jimi Hendrix – the world’s greatest guitarist – and former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. We’ll need another Margaret Thatcher to clear up the mess left behind by the current incumbent.

What was your childhood ambition? I wanted to be an airline pilot – trouble was, I was hopeless at maths, so that idea got canned.

What are your ambitions now? To win the lottery.

Central Library: stay or go? Reminds me of the Clash song – ‘If I go there will be trouble, and if I stay it will be double’ …and all that. Yes, if it goes there will be trouble because it just isn’t the right climate to spend millions of pounds on a new library. And if it stays there will be even more trouble, because the current library is such a phenomenally monstrous building.

Favourite phrase: two from the old Stiff Records of the 1970s – ‘Stiff Records, where money makes money’ and ‘If it ain’t Stiff, it ain’t worth a ****.’ Classic!

Headline Communications » Aston Villa

Money, football and MPs

Pen portrait – not politically correct!