FRENCH BOOST

'Some commentaters predict great things for French football after the league clinched the world’s richest football rights contract worth nearly £1.3 billion over the next three seasons with Canal Plus, the pay-TV service.

Do not expect, however, French clubs to attract the world’s best players overnight. The single biggest factor stopping Ligue 1 from competing with Europe’s Big Three and ensuring that Gallic talent continues to move abroad is the taxman.

France’s highest tax bracket is close to 60 per cent and Dominique de Villepin, the French Prime Minister, wants to raise it to 63 per cent. So consider how much a French club would have to pay Rio Ferdinand if he insisted on his £120,000 a week before (British) tax, which is about £72,000 a week after tax.

If Ferdinand wanted the same take-home pay in France, it would mean nearly £195,000 a week. That is another argument against EU tax harmonisation, at least as far as British football is concerned.'