So Manchester United have admitted in their £500m bond prospectus that the taxman is breathing down their neck. The club say: "There is a possibility that this matter may lead to litigation." They add: "HMRC's position is that payments in relation to image rights may be a form of remuneration and, as such, should be taxed as income. On 18 September 2009, we submitted a letter to HMRC, setting out our view that these payments are not taxable as income."
Well, that might be the view of Manchester United, but it is not the view of Fifa's general secretary, Jérôme Valcke. For Digger has in its possession a document that will form the prosecution case in a French inquiry into alleged football corruption that comes to the Paris high court in March. One of the witnesses interviewed was M Valcke. He explained that image rights came about after the 1998 World Cup, with clubs using them "in order to finance an element of salaries or transfer fees while keeping them out of the hands of the taxman".
Valcke added that by doing so clubs could also confer the responsibility for these payments to a third-party sponsor or special-purpose company, thus keeping them off their books. If that is what has happened at Old Trafford, it would also suggest that the club's true wages-to-turnover ratio is rather higher than the stated 44%.
Hammers' options narrow
From the company that brought you "Qadbak is a wholly reputable organisation" comes another stunning intervention with a football club. Rothschild, one of whose directors, Meyrick Cox, made that outspoken claim of Qadbak, the British Virgin Islands-registered shell company that owned Notts County, is representing Straumur in its attempted sale of West Ham United. The one super-wealthy bidder for the club, a north American, has now withdrawn from the process after being told that he would have to enter into an open auction. And so now Straumur's remaining options are David Gold and David Sullivan, who are not believed to be offering any cash for Straumur's equity, and Intermarket, whose ability to bid is still in question. But then Rothschild, whose director running the sale could not be contacted yesterday, does have one football success story to its name. It provided the Glazer family with crucial funds without which they would have been unlikely to seal their 2005 purchase of Manchester United.
Sven heads for the door
Sven-Goran Eriksson has been telling friends that he will quit Notts County this week. Eriksson is believed to be at the end of his tether after investing so much personal capital in "the project". He is believed now to have concluded that no one will be willing to inject the millions into a heavily indebted League Two club. Now, he confides, it is time to call it a day. But then he has come close to quitting before.
