Cricket-Match-Special ... A forum for discussion

yuppie wrote:Interested to hear peoples thoughts on who has been England best strikers in the last 20 years?

For me it would be Shearer, Owen at his peak and Sherringham. Rooney has the goals record but was he more important than any of those three?

He was obviously a very good player, but his WC record is not good.

A fit Owen would have better them all I hazard to guess, but he was shot by his mid 20s. Shearer was a beast, but only played just over 50 caps, surprisingly.

Rooney charged with drink driving after being stopped at 2am this morning.

Probably wishes he hadn't retired from international football as he'd have been in Malta last night.

The twat.

perhaps he can persuade them that his cat was in trouble

Swanny'll tell him what to say

I think Ronaldo is still at RM, so I guess he persuaded them to clear his tax fraud account for him

another twat

Durhamfootman wrote:I think Ronaldo is still at RM, so I guess he persuaded them to clear his tax fraud account for him

another twat

They can probably afford it, they haven't been paying much tax themselves over the years.

budgetmeansbudget wrote:

Durhamfootman wrote:I think Ronaldo is still at RM, so I guess he persuaded them to clear his tax fraud account for him

another twat

They can probably afford it, they haven't been paying much tax themselves over the years.

Was it Real that got bailed out by the goverment?

It has been strange that whilst Spain has been suffering economically, the top teams have been able to spend big wads of cash whilst their top players have seemed to enjoy avoiding paying tax.

As far as I understand, the Spanish tax system is incredibly complex for earnings from foreign workers (trust me, from experience). In the 2000s, they brought in "the Beckham law", when times were economically excellent, in order to attract growth foreign workers paid something like a top rate tax of 23% on earnings with no higher ceiling. When times got bad, they hurried in a change to stop it, but it left an incredibly vague and nuanced system that they are still trying to work out. Of course with anything to do with tax, people will exploit it, but in this case it seems that (a) no evidence suggests that footballers are attempting, or have been successful, at avoiding/evading tax on their salaried income (b) the problem comes in how foreign earnings outside Spain should be assessed.

I think the fooballers argument, one that I am actually quite sensitive to, is that they may play in Spain, but they are global figures that generate money all over the world. The Spanish Governments view are, they were those boots in Spain, so if they want to make money marketing them, then that money is generated inside Spain. A middle ground hasnt really been worked out. So, if you live in Spain, but sell a product in Argentina where you were born, where is that money being "made". In Argentina or Spain?

As for the government bail out, again its not an easy answer, but personally I think the whole deal stunk.

In order to understand the nature of it, you first have to consider the fact that a lot of European clubs are not only football clubs, they are sporting and social clubs that have many entities. The biggest examples are Barcelona and Real, basketball is a huge deal in Spain and these clubs own and run hugely popular basketball wings too, as well as other sports like hockey, swimming, athletics. Its common in Spain, and also Eastern Europe a lot.

Real used to own a complex in the city that was given to them by the local council decades ago. This was on the basis that the land used to build the complex was used for such sporting purposes, so the football team train there, but also the basketball team play there, 40,000 people swim there a day, there are gyms for public use, there are open public parks for people to walk through etc. The whole complex is seen as being part of the community, and represents the whole sporting output of the city in all strands of sport. However, the land is strictly designated for non-profit, to stop the club receiving it and then simply shafting the public.

By the turn of the millennium the club was in crappy financial position, the training ground had been swallowed by the urban sprawl of the capital, and the area had become a huge financial and commercial district with land hugely sought after. The council, pressured by the club who were desperate to sell for the cash, had a vote to rezone the land so that it could be used for commercial reasons in the future. This motion passed, with the club giving the council a portion of the land as part of the deal.

The land was sold, and it made Madrid eye watering cash amounts. Something like an estimated 700-800 million. Ironically, the Madrid president owned construction companies that contracted the building of a series of skyscrapers on the land too. As part of the deal to give the council part of the land, the council substituted that land for fresh stuff to build a new training and sporting complex outside the city.

As part of the deal, the council rated the land at something peasly, like 500,000EURs despite Real building the worlds biggest sporting complex within it. Subsequent valuations had rated it in multiple excess of it, millions of euros. The EU courts ended up forcing Real to pay money on the under valuation of the land, but it was like 10 million EURs, it didnt come close to the actual value. So essentially, since the 60s the council have given madrid the best part of a billion Euros in land and saleable assets.

The deal is untouchable though as the sporting complex being for the public still maintains the fact the council were working in the interest of the public

Durhamfootman wrote:perhaps he can persuade them that his cat was in trouble

Swanny'll tell him what to say

Better than that

Since Rooney was allegedly driving a VW Beetle at the time of the offence, he can say Herbie was doing the driving.

La Liga now wanting Uefa to check out Man City for their finacial dealings.

La Liga getting worried that their influence in the European game is now starting to wane a little?

Perhaps the other leagues can ask Uefa to investigate how many doping samples were taking in La Liga for last season?

just found out that England are to close the transfer window before the season starts

makes sense to me, but not sure how practical it will be, given that the rest of Europe will still be doing deals

Can this man ever get in toych with real life?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-s ... s-41201279

budgetmeansbudget wrote:Rooney charged with drink driving after being stopped at 2am this morning.

Probably wishes he hadn't retired from international football as he'd have been in Malta last night.

The twat.

2 year ban.

170 quid fine.

100 hours community service.

Any suggestions what he can do?!

He can't have employed the solicitor known as Mr Loophole.

He gets everyone off.

Aidan11 wrote:He can't have employed the solicitor known as Mr Loophole.

He gets everyone off.

3 times over the limit!

Apparently he was going to be doing his community service at a local old folks home, but concern was raised that he'd try to jump some of them.