The French Professional Football League (LFP), Professional Football Club Union (UCPF) and Professional Footballers National Union (UNFP) have strongly opposed the 75% tax "for high earners" being prepared by President François Hollande's government, according to EUROSPORT.fr. In a statement, the organizations said, "It will have a disastrous effect on the competitiveness of French football. The clubs, which for the immense majority, are completely incapable of increasing their salaries, will be deprived of numerous talents that are indispensable to their sporting and economic success ... It is the entire sector of French professional football, comprised of 25,000 jobs, that will suffer the very negative consequences of a reckless tax measure (EUROSPORT.fr, 9/28). REUTERS' Blachier & Pretot reported that the French government said that the new temporary levy would be in operation until "the country's debts were cleared." The current tax rate in France is 40% on earnings above €69,505 ($89,328). UCPF General Dir Philippe Diallo said that the new tax would cost clubs "around €150M ($192.8M)." Diallo said, "The impact is significant for us in a very unfavourable period for French football, since we lost €131M in 2011." The package has the objective of cutting France's deficit to 3% of national output next year from 4.5% this year, "bringing in €30B ($38.6B) for the treasury" (REUTERS, 9/28).
