Despite an outcry from fans and most right thinking people, Premier League clubs have voted to pay £250,000 each to outgoing executive chairman Richard Scudamore.
The 59 year old, who earns £2.5m per year including bonuses + expenses, will be replaced by Susanna Dinnage from early next year. Chelsea chairman and close friend of Scudamore, Bruce Buck, proposed the payment in a letter to all club owners, and at a meeting today the majority of clubs voted in favour of the idea.
Believing football fans are completely and utterly stupid, the Premier League dressed it up in a way which made it look as if it wasn’t just a whiparound for a man who doesn’t need the money and announced that it would be paid over the course of three years during which time Scudamore’s services would be retained on a consultancy basis.
Given his basic salary was £900,000 a year, this part-time consultancy will see him earn more than if he stayed in his previous job as the head of the organisation. Nice ‘work’ if you can get it, eh?
With fan groups now mobilising on an almost weekly basis to seek contributions to food banks and other good causes up and down England, it’s an insult that a man so handsomely remunerated over the last 19 years is handed this kind of parachute payment and shows that the Premier League and the owners are ever-more out of touch with the real world.
£250,000 from each club could go back into grass-roots football, community projects, paying part-time staff a living wage, subsidising tickets for young fans, and so much more that would do some actual good, but instead it will simply be used to make an already rich man even richer.
Let’s remember, this is an organisation that spends actual money on GIF police to suspend social media accounts of fans who might like a share a moment from a game they’ve paid a healthy TV subscription or season ticket to watch. If they wanted to use their own funds to give Scudamore a bonus then who could argue?
But for the 20 Premier League clubs to sanction this steaming load of shit tells you a lot about them. It’s unclear if Arsenal voted in favour, you’d like to think we didn’t, but either way all of these clubs should be ashamed of themselves.
Meanwhile, VAR is to be introduced from next season.
Crazy. The money has gone up a lot in the game over the time he was there.
But he is still doing well enough not to have to get money taken away from our poor players.
Lol jks for those that think that I think our players are poor and there aren’t better people to spend the money on.
What in god’s name are you on about, “our poor players”?
Players aren’t the issue here. A while ago Arsenal were recently caught in a PR mess of our own when it turned out we weren’t paying some club employees a living wage. Makes me sick to think we may have okayed this naked display of greed all for some fatcat.
Players (mostly) earn their pay. They’re the ones putting their bodies on the line for sport. It’s unaccountable club owners, shady agents and corrupt administrators like Scudamore that are sucking the life out of the game.
I’ve never heard of anything like this ever happening. To be fair it would be more outrageous if the FA paid him a £5m bonus from their funds. Regardless, if you’re getting all the clubs together to raise funds, I’d like to think it could be better used going into grassroots football or some way to give back to the fans. Disgusted by this story tbh.
It’s a sort of bribe to the incoming chairwoman: take care of us and we’ll take care of you.
I hope we did vote against this even if it doesn’t matter now. It’s ridiculous and he really does not need the money. If he had any decency, he would invest it into something worthwhile but I wouldn’t be surprised to see him buy a holiday home or something with it instead.
So what? It doesnt matter whether he needs it, did he earn it by making the clubs we love richer, and satisfying our thirst for more investment in the team? Yes, yes he did.
Wtf was he paid £900,000 yearly for? Whatever he’s done he’s more than earned it. This £2.5mil rubbish just reeks of nepotism
Torn on this. It’s certainly tasteless, but is it any more tasteless than giving your start player 350k per week? Commercial revenues for EPL clubs have sky rocketed in part due to the job he has done. Fact of the matter is that money is small change for most of these clubs… It’s just the equivalent of the office whip round when your favourite boss retires, then handing over a fancy gift or a big wad of cash while the minimum wage, single mum office cleaner looks on. The money in football is sickening but if you want to make… Read more »
I’d love to work where you do if you think this is the same thing.
An office whiparound in my place for people leaving is usually about 150 odd quid, maybe the managers will shout a few rounds at the bar. It’s definitely not five times their yearly salary
Fair point.
These players actually put their bodies on the line. They earn their sums however you evaluate their talents.
What is there to be torn on? You’re confusing a salary with a payoff. Whatever a player negotiates as his salary, he is getting paid for a service he provides… comparable to Scudamore’s 900k pa wage. Would you be happy for club money which triples his annual wage to go to a player when he’s leaving?!
If it’s fine to give £5million to a man who was simplying doing what he was contractually obligated to carry out, can you clarify exactly what sum you would feel is OTT?
Honestly, some people are so indoctrinated it’s a genuine worry. The dreams of the rich and powerful are cemented when they have convinced those below or those who could challenge that everything is as it should be. It’s flashes of a medieval mentality to those concious enough to process the true ramifications of capitalism.
so , lets say for arguments sake that Aaron Ramsey was on £100k a week for the last 4 years and will leave arsenal in the summer , that would be the same as giving him a £26,000,000 goodbye “gift”. ( 5 x his annual salary ). Would you be ok with that ?
no ,no you wouldn’t. and if you were then you should be allowed near sharp objects.
Of course we voted against it 😉 we do have our own hornyforcash in mr Kronke, remember? (FUCK KROENKE)
Absolute Disgrace. Too annoyed to say anymore
How is this a disgrace?
Because these cry baby morons dont understand what this chap did was increase our teams income, therefore allowing us to buy Ozil’s and Sanchez’s. He did a good job and deserved some good severance.
Right, and companies that make millions of pounds a year should pay their executives 300x more than their staff as well right? Because the execs are the ones that “make the money”?
Capitalism has utterly brainwashed some of you. You need to learn about class consciousness, because you sound like the turkeys that voted for Christmas.
Amen
If you don’t like the system change it but don’t whine about a man taking money we all know deep down we would take ourselves. And what’s the point of mentioning how much money he already has? Daily Mail much. None of us would complain if we brought a player that won us the title and he was on 500k a week while Arsenal staff are on minimum wage. Think about that next time you walk passed a beggar with a pocket full of change. Keep your movable morals cause haters are going to hate.
How do you propose people change a system without first expressing their unhappiness with it?
I find the whole thing grotesque, and it illustrates these people are detached from any kind of reality. You might be happy to accept that as the way it works for movers and shakers at the top of the industry, but personally I think it’s about time football fans made their voices heard on matters like this.
What a dumb shit. Yeah, yeah don’t approve this comment. But people need to be called out when they are absolute morons. And this person fits the bill.
Oh behave. Executives aren’t born into the role, they’ve all had to do the hard graft the same as the employees below them to get to where they are! Corporate structure exists whether we like it or not. Scudamore oversaw the huge expansion of tv rights income, this as a result meant all the PL clubs got richer, and many went on and expanded their own charitable projects. Did the Arsenal foundation do as much as they do now 19 years ago? I highly doubt it. Everyone crying over a bonus that probably would’ve amounted to the respective clubs’ paying… Read more »
Lots of stuff exists whether we like it or not, and lots of stuff we don’t like exists because people don’t do enough to combat it.
I agree with the sentiment but you can’t combat things like this unfortunately. I mean what effect did the uproar have when KSE took out £3m from Arsenal for whatever reason? Nothing. In fact they then proceeded to take the whole club into private ownership and now no one knows what’s going on internally anymore.
To be fair this “gift” has probably given fans an opportunity to urge clubs to allocate more profits towards charitable causes since they had 250k spare to give away. I do hope things change!
Yes we can combat things like this. Thousands of football fans are doing it right now by expressing their disgust and it’s been amplified by football journalists. The Premier League has already been forced to put out a hasty official statement which doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. For example, if Scudamore is truly being “retained as a consultant” he should be paid by the Premier League, not the clubs. You ask what effect the uproar about KSE taking 3m out of the club had – well Arsenal officially ended those “advisory payments” after 2 seasons. Not a great example to… Read more »
Remember the big public uproar when the RBS boss was being paid a bonus after the financial crisis? 10 years later, the current boss is still being paid one. This is the culture of PLCs, it’s not going to change. I don’t agree with it, but it is what it is. Btw I wasn’t defending Scudamore, was highlighting the issue that many work their way up the ladder through hard work. Everyone does hard graft, but some bring more to a company than others. Should the Arsenal CEO be on the same wage as the head of Arsenal Media? Different… Read more »
Nah mate, you’ve defended Scudamore’s right to that money with every argument you can muster. You think he (and he alone) earnt it and you said it with your chest. Bringing up RBS bonuses or KSE taking money out of Arsenal is just deflection. It’s pure false equivalence. KSE more or less own Arsenal. The Premier League PLC does not own the football club! Few of us care if the Premier League PLC chooses to reward it’s departing chief exec. We just think asking or accepting a *special handout* from football clubs and handing it to a single person like… Read more »
The Ozil Sanchez thing: it’s all relative. We needed/had huge money because of the money pumped into the sport, true. But as all clubs become richer things become more expensive for everyone. Paying £50m for a player isn’t impressive when that’s what a player costs. If football was ‘poor’ we’d still have very good players, they’d just cost less as all clubs would be in the same position.
The fans are no better off as a result of the football hyper inflation, and this just seems so out of touch it’s obscene.
He did his job very well and was payed very well. He’s not a waiter/server. He doesn’t require a tip now that he’s done.
£250k, loads of players earn that!! So how is paying a man that has worked hard for 19 yrs to improve d league a disgrace?
When he worked, hard or otherwise, he was paid a salary, a good one at that, that’s how jobs work. On top of that, he received bonuses and expenses in the region of £600k. He has been handsomely rewarded for his efforts over the last 19 years. When was the last time you left a job and got given around 6 times your basic salary as a leaving present? Also, comparing the payment to a players wage is a bit of a weird argument, and one I’m struggling to grasp. The point of better uses for the money was made… Read more »
cos murrr Capitalism murrr Rich getting richer, poor getting poorer murrrr… 1% murrrr
A disregard for moral decency.
What morals?
Seems like every day there’s something new comes out that leaves me caring less and less about modern football
Seriously! As if Arsenal being involved in the Super League discussions wasn’t bad enough.
Maybe he’ll invest it in grass roots football but I suspect it’ll go on a yacht
Excellent article, glad this site is reporting on details the red tops are too challenged/conflicted to address. Whilst I believe the money in football today is disgusting, that opinion is more to do with where the money ends up. If the hundreds of millions actually worked their way back to areas/people in need then I wouldn’t give a crap, but sadly it always makes it’s way to the top of a pile that some filthy rich scoundrel has on their desk. And if anyone gives that half-witted “yeah but they earned it bruv/talent deserves reward” horse crap I suggest they… Read more »
Probably not a popular opinion but the man has given 19 years of his life to the PL and taken the income generated from TV rights for the league from £670m to over £5 BILLION. I know nothing about the man etc, but it’s clear he’s made all the clubs in the league hundreds of millions more over the years than they would’ve made, so if they see fit to give him £5m as a farewell gift, surely it’s not that a big a deal? That 250k would be sitting in all the clubs’ bank accounts anyway! It’s not as… Read more »
Correct, not a popular opinion, and part of the reason why shit like this continues to happen because people just accept things with a shrug rather than actually thinking about them critically.
If anything giving a rich man more money is just unimaginative. So many industries have the depth of thought to use meaning rather than money to say goodbye to contributors, not football though sadly. If he’s done so much for football why not spend the £5million on an incredible project like a trust that secures the footballing futures of those less fortunate? The Scudamore School of Sports, stick a bust of him outside, and let everyone reap the benefits of a legacy he can take pride in and a family name people would attribute to decency, not greed. The fact… Read more »
Good post. So he’s great. How about a foundation in his name to support lower leagues or disadvantaged kids. Payoffs like this lack imagination, financial thought, and just reek of institutional leadership having so much money that they don’t know what do with it.
????
That the Premier League has an extremely marketable product isn’t really down to anything they did. It’s mostly because of the quality of the players and the footballing contests, but also because of the historical, atmospheric character of English football grounds that are always full because actual football fans dig deep to pay for tickets and travel to games. Scudamore hasn’t got jack to do with that. At best he’s like the Zuckerberg’s of this world, who act like they’ve created somethidng new out of nothing, when what they really excel at is repackaging. In Zuckerberg’s case repackaging people’s public… Read more »
Before everyone loses their minds, I believe that there are strong arguments to both sides of the story. I think people are more upset with the fact that time and time again we are told by the clubs that contrary to popular belief they don’t have endless supplies of cash and then they go ahead and donate 250k to a guy that’s already doing well enough. Furthermore, from what I read on BBC the comments from Levy and Gold suggest that they are so far removed from their fan base that they see 250k as something quite acceptable whereas for… Read more »
I have thought about this critically, and I do understand why people aren’t happy with it, but football has become a PLC culture, it’s no different to bankers or other CEOs of big companies being paid huge bonuses on top of mega salaries. It’s not about accepting it either, it’s just a reality of how the corporate world has been operating for the past few decades. Would I rather the money be used for more worthy causes like grassroots football? Yes, of course, but ultimately he’s being rewarded for developing the PL brand into one of the worlds biggest leagues.… Read more »
It’s like feeding the hand that you feed…
This article is a load of bollocks. A contract is a contract: I assume this payment was built into Scudamore’s contract, so he should get his money. That’s how the real business world works. If the Premier League tried to renage on the deal they could be sued. And they would deserve it.
Nobody complains about multi-millionaire footballers getting loyalty bonuses: this is no different.
It’s called capitalism. Wake up.
“Nobody complains about multi-millionaire footballers getting loyalty bonuses: this is no different.” I can only assume you don’t talk to many human beings. “It’s called capitalism. Wake up.” Yes it is, I think anyone could tell you that, but just because you can identify something it doesn’t mean that it is right or just. “Oh look at that unusual man over there, dear, I’m not sure I like how he’s approaching our children on the swings.” “Who? Oh the man in the trench coat seemingly wearing nothing else other than some smeared egg-stains and heavy framed glasses?” “Yes, that little… Read more »
Before you boil your bollocks in broth I’m not saying you’re defending Diddler’s, it’s more the fact that we’ve got people in so many walks of life not challenging those that damage the well being and opportunities of others. And the whole “get with the programme” mindset that people push to sound tough only highlights their frailties in confronting those that they fear. Irks me a bit ?
It wasn’t built into his contract, one of his mates ho happens to be on Chelsea’star board decided to ask the rest of the clubs for a whiparound because Scudamore needed a new ivory backscratcher
I don’t believe that. Clubs don’t just give money away. If this was all about a friendly “thank you” then the PL wouldn’t be asking for the same amount from each club. This is clearly a bonus that is owed. So it has to be equally divided.
How is it a bonus that was owed? Think about it, the FA knew Scudamore was going to retire at some point, but understandably probably only got a date in the last 12months. Bearing in mind that the contract you feel he signed would have been monogrammed several years ago, how could the FA request 20 Premier League teams set a side £250k just in case he retires. Did they agree it with the 20 PL teams at the time of contract signing? Baring in mind only 17 teams stay in the PL each season how on earth could that… Read more »
Stop assuming it was built into his contract fats, chelsea chairman ( a close friend of his) proposed it (probably engineered by scudamore himself over drinks in a bar, anyways not important) and every other CEO agreed.
If it was built into his contract the teams wouldn’t have had to vote on whether to give it to him or not.
I might be in a minority but the premier league tv right grew from £670m to bout £6billion. He deserves his bonus for a job well done in the last 16 yrs or so.
Any other business with such a growth dimension will do thesame
I hope your in the minority, he was paid pretty handsomely for growing revenues. I’ll repeat the point, he doesn’t need the money and there are lots of cause that do
if you work for a company for 20 years and are intergral for it growing exponentially in that time. And your colleagues decide to chip in for a farewell gift for you, what have you done wrong in that scenario?
Surely it’s about moral obligation as a multi-millionaire in the public eye? Part of the reason why he is paid so much
I don’t know mate, can’t speak for people’s moral values. The corporate world is a world of its own, crazy money and the footballing world is becoming more of one every year. It’s no wonder why there’s so many hospitality boxes at the grounds now, because they’re more lucrative than normal season tickets. Football is now entertainment, rather than just a sport. Personally I pay every tax I should be paying and donate 10% of my annual income to charity, and I’m far from being a millionaire. I’d love for all the big corporate earners to do the same as… Read more »
There is nothing about football which speaks to socialism. In fact, it is possibly the bleeding edge example of competitive models, especially economically. Create something like £10bn revenue over 20 years and get half a percent back as total pay over the same period?
I’ll pay anyone the same if they can do it for me
I’d have no problem with that were in originally ingrained in his contract
Yes but was Scudamore personally responsible for generating this 10 billion revenue you speak of? You make it sound like everybody else involved in football was sitting on their hands and the fans were contributing nothing. How much worse off would football be if he hadn’t been there over the last 20 years? This idea that these people ‘deserve’ these huge quantities of money just because they ‘worked hard’ is laughable. Guess what? Lots of people work very, very hard in our society and contribute a lot but they don’t see penny one from people like Scudamore, who often believe… Read more »
The cry babies who are mad that a man who made millions for these clubs is getting a farewell bonus are ridiculous. He got paid well because he did a tough job, and did it well. Stop boo hooing about him getting a send off. Whine whine whine.
Wow sorry Trump, I forgot that life is all about the rich getting richer. Must be great having no morals…..
Charity should not be forced…if it is, it is no longer charity but a tax.
Downvote all you like but my statement was not an opinion. It is an absolute truth.
Sounds totally absurd. On an economic level, why pay a “bonus” when he was already getting one. Is the FA actually hedging their bets by paying for a training program for the Animal Planet executive by providing this “consultancy fee” to Scudamore over three years? Is this some kind of tax dodge for him and the FA for that benefit? If he “needs the money”, how about working past 59! Whatever is going one, these people really don’t seem to care about how shameless this is. As someone already alluded to, “out of touch, and in your face looks” to… Read more »
Ugh
English premier Fantasy league! These guys are really blind to everything else. Bunch of lazy ass money grabbers.
This just makes me feel like Ramsey deserves whatever money he’s asking for. At least he has an engine and runs around a lot.
Of course there are millions of things that it might be nice to see football clubs spend money on rather than a making a rich man slightly richer. However the fact is if they didn’t spend 250k on this fat cat they would have spent on either 1) making already rich players slightly richer 2) fat cat executives slightly richer or 3) kept it in the bank for a season to do 1 or 2. Football clubs aren’t charities. And while it would be great if arsenal took a stand on this and said “no we’ll invest in a local… Read more »
There seems to be some confusion in the debates going on. Yes, most people would take £5million if it was offered to them, even though it is blatantly a gross overpayment, but him receiving it isn’t the main issue, the bigger issue is the normalisation of these big executive payments, when 99% of the time within the same company there’ll be real grafters fighting for hours on minimum wage, or less. How on earth is that justified? It’s not that he’s receiving a financial gift (that also makes it non-taxable I believe – though can’t say for certain) it’s the… Read more »
This is disgusting but unfortunately in today’s age 250k is a drop in the ocean. Mesut gets that for less than a week’s work for example. While “According to the BBC, the average 3G pitch costs around £500,000.”
If the FA want to keep him on a consultancy or whatever level basis, shouldn’t they be the one remunerating him for that employment?
Is the £5 mil just a bonus for job well done over the years or remuneration for his consultancy for the coming 3 years ?
A lot isn’t really clear and I find it strange that every club consented on a whim without as much as a word prior.
Maybe he’s played his nepolitic politics with the big boys and the others are probably forced to agree. Who would wanna face the FA’s wrath… ??
While I personally don’t like this move, I can at least understand it. This guy helped make these teams a ton of money over his time. The tv rights ballooned from about £670m to £5.14bn! Pretty solid ROI.
Yes, this is another example of growing wealth inequality in today’s age, but I think it’s hardly the most egregious example and you can make a solid argument that this guy has justified his worth.
I find the explanation that he’s earning it as a consultant to be more offensive than the payment itself. They must think we’re stupid.
Not seen anyone mention this anywhere regarding this issue, but are the Premier League broke? Couldn’t they have afforded to pay this retirement package out of their own funds (you know, like every other company would)? if they had done this, it would have been a non story or not reported at all. They could easily have got it back in extra costs, or fee increases.
Best thing would be for Scudamore to use the money to start a foundation. All the disgust would be turned on it’s head in an instant. I can’t imagine he needs the money.
The Premier League as an organisation is primarily the teams. Once they take the incoming money and pay for overheads, education and foundation items, etc, the rest (which is the vast majority) of the money goes to the teams. Scudamore is the representative of the teams, acting on their behalf when it comes to collective bargaining and negotiation. FWIW, I think the request is crass and disproportionate and sends out a poor message. Scudamore might have done some good, but what with the 39th game, the sexist email joke scandal and now the totally OTT £5 million golden goodbye, he’s… Read more »
I’m not saying this is the case but would want to understand why it cant be applied here.
If there was a guy leaving my work that I really didn’t like or know very well. And one person asked everybody in the office to contriubute £25 to a goodbye gift. I’d say, ‘You’re welcome to give, but not for me thanks.’
Oh no, another anti-Capitalist, rich people are scumbags, ”the fans should do something about it!” post.
Yawn.
Just because you think someone getting paid an exorbitant amount of money for doing the square root of f**k all isn’t cool doesn’t make you anti capitalist.
I’m not anti alcohol but if my friend was sitting around getting wasted every day doesn’t mean I would approve of it
If Scud has any decency he’ll put the money to some good use.
Doesn’t this blog make money out of fans…