What does a typical PL footballer's contract look like?

Just out of interest does anyone on here have an idea how a typical Premiership footballer's contract is put together and/or how the tax man treats them?

A business contact who sees a few PL contracts once told me they are full of all sorts of add-ons and allowances but didn't elaborate. I ask as I'm intrigued to understand how the industry operates.

So for example:
- are footballers treated as PAYE individuals or can they trade through a Ltd co without falling foul of IIRC rules?
- can those that are non-UK domiciled and resident have their income paid offshore?
- we all talk about a footballers wages but do they get a monthly base with add-ons or, if they're self-employed do they work on a day rate basis?
- I understand the added bonuses include those for appearances and winning but what else, and how much are we talking?
- are bonuses paid monthly or annually like most people receive them?
- how much would an agent charge and if the client is a Ltd co is that charge a legitimate taxable expense or non-integral to them performing their job?
- what should they expect an agent to do for them?
- if they drive a club sponsors car does the taxman treat it as a company benefit and charge tax as a benefit in kind?
- if they are contracted to a club until a specific end date what say do they have if the club want to transfer them elsewhere within the term of the contract?
- is there some sort of code of conduct the PFA lay down relating to contracts and is this publically available?
- any other insights gratefully received

 

http://www.inbrief.co.uk/football-law/football-player-breaking-contracts.htm

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/23923904

 

not worth the paper it's written on

 

This is the pay slip of Carlos Tevez

 

You can find a proforma contract on page 265 of the Premier League Handbook which has the common terms which apply to all playing contracts in it.

http://m.premierleague.com/content/...handbooks/premier-league-handbook-2014-15.pdf

There are also other forms before it which show how clubs have to demonstrate to the league what and how they pay their players.

 

That monthly £24 FA fine was hitting him hard.

 

And that pay slip was 5 years ago 7.9 million a year, crazy!

 

According to the BBC report in the above link (no2)
average wages as of Sept 2013 are as follows:-

Premier League: £25,000 to £30,000 a week. Top earners: £250,000
Championship: £4,000 to £5,000 a week. Top earners £8,000 to £9,000
League One: £1,700 to £2,500 a week
League Two: £1,300 to £1,500 a week

Interesting figures!

 

This was apparently the offer from Besiktas for Layun when he decided to join us instead

 

I once found in car park a copy of Paul Gascoigne's contract for when he went to play for a club in China, was a bloody interesting read but I can't remember all the fun bits.... or the boring bits.

Did consider selling it to The Sun

 

This is probably fake.

 

Dunno, but a musician friend of mine who nearly made it big once showed my a copy of his contract that he had with a major record company. It was the thickness of a telephone directory (200+ pages) that outlined all of the company's "rights". His (and the band's) "rights" covered almost five pages.

 

Out of interest, I wonder how many League 2 players end up taking non-football related jobs after their careers, £1'500 a week seems like a lot, but they'll probably only earn that for around 15 years.

 

That is £70-£80000 a year!

When you consider that the majority of the population will never earn that much money and those that do may only do so in the latter stages of their career, I don't think the qualifier 'only' is appropriate!

If that is 3 times the annual median wage and they earn it for 15 years, they are earning 45 years of pay which is basically an entire working lifetime.

 

Not quite, someone earning a third of that is going to be paying less tax during their 45 years of work than someone who's paying 40% tax on nearly half of their salary. However one thing that can be agreed, is that when a L2 footballer retires, even a prudent one will have to find meaningful employment for another 25 years or so.

 

Thanks UAE - this is actually quite an interesting read. I'm personally a little surprised its publically available but I guess the arguments for have outweighed those against.

 

This sounds like it might be a good read ...

In his book Goal, Manchester City chief executive Ferran Soriano says he usually aims to "pay two-thirds fixed salary and one-third variable based on the success of the team and a player playing at least 60% of first-team matches".

 

If they're prudent they'd probably be putting 20-30k into a pension each year thus saving a lot of tax and having a decent enough fund that they don't have to work for that long.

 

It’s hardly normal behaviour for people earning 90k a year to put 20k/30k into a pension!

 

In the real world most people live to their means, I would’ve thought most league one players will have relatively nice houses, cars, a couple of kids etc. No doubt some will be sensible, but I can’t see many putting 20/30k into a pension. More likely they’ll try and buy up a few buy to let’s or something like that, then hope they can probably get some sort of coaching job when their career ends which will probably pay less than half of their salary as a footballer, with their investments topping up some of the difference.

 

My point was 'If they were prudent'. It's not normal behaviour but they are not in a normal job.

That said i would think it would be <1% that would even consider it.

 

Dennis dealing with a five year gap in the discussion like an absolute boss.