Fawaz al-Hasawi, the "increasingly beleaguered" owner of League Championship side Nottingham Forest, has been "asking potential buyers of the club for an annual salary" that could rise above £1M ($1.23M) and a series of financial demands that include an "extraordinary clause entitling him to whatever the players earn in bonuses," according to Daniel Taylor of the London GUARDIAN. Hasawi has also had to "stave off a threatened revolt from the club’s players" because of the frequency with which they have been "paid late or not received their bonuses." However, his financial conditions for selling the two-time European Cup winners, "while insisting he remains" as chair with a 20% stake, highlight Hasawi’s determination to negotiate "a remarkable deal for himself only a few days after the Kuwaiti issued a public apology for the erratic way he had run the club" and admitted whoever replaced him would be "more professional." Hasawi has been asking for £50M ($61.4M) to sell 80% of the club "as well as being allowed to stay at the City Ground with a condition written into the deal that he no longer makes any financial contributions" but takes 20% of future profits. Under the proposed terms, Hasawi’s salary would start at £480,000 ($589,000) a year but go up to £1.08M ($1.33M) if the club was ever promoted -- the equivalent of around £21,000 ($25,800) a week at a club where the average player salary is currently £12,000 ($14,700) -- and all the money he has put in "would be paid back in three lump sums." On top of that, he would receive a promotion bonus of £480,000 and if Forest stayed in the top division the following season "he would bank another one-off payment amounting to a year’s salary" -- meaning he would get £2.16M ($2.65M) in one season, "even discounting the players’ bonuses and any share of profits" (GUARDIAN, 10/19).
