Football riches under threat from nosy Aljazeera

[newcastle]

Mo Salah’s father blasts Al-Jazeera after interview request

Salah Ghali, the father of Egyptian and Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah, said that Qatari-owned Al-Jazeera tried on Sunday evening to interview some of their relatives in 6th October City to talk about the life of Salah, adding that he believed they wanted to defame Egypt.

In statements to Al-Masry Al-Youm, Ghali said “Al-Jazeera offered LE100,000 per person to appear on the channel, and when they told me, I asked them to be kicked out immediately, and to report them to the police if they tried to repeat it again.”

”This channel tried to exploit the name of Salah and we will not allow them,” he said, adding that his son is concerned only by the matches of his club and national team, and does not pay attention to such channels that attack the country.

Ghali issued a statement in which he affirmed that his family never appears on any media outlet and does not conduct any press or television interviews, and does not watch ‘infiltrator’ channels that attack the country. He said that personally views Al-Jazeera news channels as working against the interest of the country, and said they should not talk about his son.

He revealed that his family supports President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in his second term, and that he was part of his presidential campaign team in the first and second electoral campaigns, expressing his love and affection for the president and wishing him every success.

http://www.egyptindependent.com/mo-sala ... w-request/

No harm in a bit of sycophancy in today's Egypt

Political allegiances aside, you can see why the Salah family would not wish to upset the apple cart with their golden goose son earning 2.5 million EGP a WEEK with Liverpool FC, rumoured to being offered a rise to 5 million EGP a WEEK soon, and likely to be courted by Real Madrid for even more.

[Dusak]

I wonder if he is paying his tax bill? And how did these journalists get into Egypt anyway, they are supposedly banned from entering, unless the one still languishing in jail here got out on parole for the day.

[Major Thom]

Who would he be paying tax to? I would assume he is a registered business, (Self Employed) and giving himself a low wage, the other part of the income would then be subject to Capital Gains Tax which is lower than actual Income Tax.

[newcastle]

I wonder if he is paying his tax bill?

As I doubt he's tax resident in Egypt, he's not liable to Egyptian income tax.

As a non-domiciled tax resident of UK, I would imagine his advisers have arranged his affairs so that he pays minimal UK tax.

[Major Thom]

I would think so Newc. I do not know how the system works for people like footballers, and I don't know about the tax system for them, with them not being residents. I always thought it was a similar system to Egypt where residency depends on a legal marriage. If they are not residents do you think they will be exempt from UK Taxes? In Luxor you can buy homes has a foreigner but cannot become a resident fully, I wondered if that's a similar set up for footballers? It may be that the football club they play for, sponsor's them.

[newcastle]

I would think so Newc. I do not know how the system works for people like footballers, and I don't know about the tax system for them, with them not being residents. I always thought it was a similar system to Egypt where residency depends on a legal marriage. If they are not residents do you think they will be exempt from UK Taxes? In Luxor you can buy homes has a foreigner but cannot become a resident fully, I wondered if that's a similar set up for footballers? It may be that the football club they play for, sponsor's them.

Without getting into complexities :

A person is tax resident in UK if he is here for more than 183 days in fiscal year.

Footballers are regarded as employees of their club and taxed under PAYE. The mega earners thus pay something like 39% of their income in tax and NIC.

The club may divert a considerable part of the footballer's income tax efficiently into pension arrangements.

Some prominent footballers are able to arrange for up to 20% of their income to be diverted by their clubs into "image rights" companies where corporation tax is only suffered at 20%.

A non-domiciled , but UK tax resident footballer, can usually enjoy the fruits of his "image rights" company tax free.

These "image rights" companies are often subject to close scrutiny by HMRC. Elsewhere, Ronaldo and Messi have fallen foul of the Spanish tax authorities for tax evasion associated with such schemes.