Tax Justice UK
  • Home
  • Projects
    • Taxing Wealth
    • Tax and public opinion
    • Tax and the climate crisis
    • Ending tax dodging
  • About
    • Our approach
    • People
    • Funders
    • Sign up
    • Jobs
  • Blog
  • Donate

Football's dark week could be cause for hope.

22/4/2021

 
Picture
Image by Álvaro Millán

The Manchester United player Marcus Rashford is a footballing genius. He is also a formidable anti-poverty campaigner.


​In many ways Rashford represents all that is glorious about the beautiful game. A local boy made good and he’s deeply committed to tackling injustice when he sees it.
He’s an example to all.

However, we learned this week that at the same time that Rashford was campaigning for free school meals, some of football's billionaire owners were plotting to create a breakaway football league. The proposed European Super League would have been a closed competition for making these billionaires even richer.

It’s yet another example of a small group of very powerful, and very wealthy, people profiting at the expense of everyone else.

Fans, politicians, and even Prince William were outraged. The new league looks unlikely to happen after the six English clubs backed away from the idea.

It probably isn't the last time we hear of plans for a super league in football. But for now at least we can take a message of hope that it is possible for popular outrage to make usually unaccountable billionaires back down.

Football has a long history of inequality and murkiness. The Tax Justice Network have investigated the offshore structures used to run the game. They found that owners can become entirely unaccountable. Questionable financial decisions have condemned century-old institutions like Rangers FC to liquidation.

The Super League was yet another example of the dangers of unequal wealth. Concentration of economic power is a bad idea. The Balanced Economy Project has been established to look into precisely this issue. As they say: "dominant firms are using raw economic and political muscle to squeeze the life out of our economies".

We need to stand up to this and demand a different way of running the economy for the benefit of all of us.



Comments are closed.

    Posts

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    June 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Tax Justice UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee in England & Wales (no. 10761736)
Registered Address: C/O Godfrey Wilson, ​Mariner House, 62 Prince St, Bristol BS1 4QD

Tax Justice UK is a partner of (but independent from) the Tax Justice Network

Privacy policy
Terms and conditions for using this website
Equality and Diversity Statement

If you have concerns about Tax Justice UK, you can make a complaint using this email address complaints@taxjustice.uk.

This website is published under the Creative Commons Attribution Licence
​Tax Justice UK campaigns for a better tax system to benefit everyone in the UK.
Media enquiries:  +44 (0)7413 729 505 (24hrs) 
Phone: +44 (0)20 3637 9137
​Email: mail AT taxjustice.uk
Picture
  • Home
  • Projects
    • Taxing Wealth
    • Tax and public opinion
    • Tax and the climate crisis
    • Ending tax dodging
  • About
    • Our approach
    • People
    • Funders
    • Sign up
    • Jobs
  • Blog
  • Donate