DAVID JAMES has been in the news recently for breaking David Seaman’s clean sheet record but also for something far more revolutionary. He has become a leading advocate for footballers earning performance related pay rather than fixed wages.
Last week he voiced concerns about the rising cost of the game for supporters and said there were times when players from his club, Portsmouth, hadn’t tried hard enough. Given the distances that supporters travel and the sacrifices that some make to afford to follow a club, the England International argued that there should be more bonus related contracts in football.
Music to my ears. It makes a lot of sense for the game but bonuses are usually expected by players as rewards for success on top of a very good basic salary. As a general rule, they don’t face any penalty for failure. However, in any competitive situation for a player’s service it would be difficult to persuade him and his advisers to take a decrease for failure or less than satisfactory performances.
It would take a very confident player, like David James, to accept performance related pay that reflected poor performances as well as good ones.
It’s interesting that he has made these remarks at a time when he’s breaking records and back in contention for England. Would he feel the same after a bad spell? I’d like to think that as one of the most experienced players in the game that he would.
The proposal has received the backing of the Football Supporters’ Federation but I suspect Gordon Taylor at the Professional Footballers’ Association will have different views.
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