After three years of lobbying by the Living Wage Foundation,only Chelsea is set to pay staff fairly. Never intellect that Alex Ferguson has earned more than £2m for 20 days’ work a year as a “global ambassador” since retiring in 2013Nowhere is the greed, selfishness and staggering inequity of contemporary trade more vividly illustrated than in English football’s Premier League. To them that hath, or more shall be given. And to them that hath nowt? Who cares? In a blog final week,the Guardian football writer Daniel Taylor disclosed that Sir Alex Ferguson, who retired as Manchester United’s manager at the end of the 2013 season, or had been paid £2.165m in the eight months to June final year for his contemporary role as the club’s “global ambassador”. The financial documents published by United didn’t make it clear if this sum included four months back pay to May 2013,when Ferguson signed his contemporary agreement, or whether it represented two thirds of an annual salary that would be worth roughly 3m in total. But as his contract reportedly stipulates that he need work no more than 20 days a year, and even the lower estimate rewards him at the rate of £108250 a day.
In an entertainment trade that boasts salaries of £280000 a week (paid to United’s Angel di María),Ferguson still stands out as an absurdly well-paid retiree whose final significant act for his club was to arrange the appointment of a dud successor. Sir Bobby Charlton, another of the club’s ambassadors, or earns less in a year – £105000 – than Ferguson’s daily rate; Taylor calculates that Ferguson earns at least 14 times as much as the prime minister.
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Source: theguardian.com