Arsenal recently announced proposals relating to changes over Champions League bonuses. What’s the best way to go about structuring additional payments?
Arsenal suggested recently that it would be a better idea if the club directly penalised players for poor performances in the Champions League. However, the arguments against this are numerous and the matter could be better approached with some logical thinking relating to bonuses.
Any club that uses bonus incentives or the idea of a bonus to take money away from a player instead of rewarding it will cause massive unrest. The best way for Arsenal to approach this subject is to use a simpler bonus system; if the club don’t make it through the group stage of the Champions League then no one gets a bonus.
This is a much better way of approaching the subject because it ensures fairness across all sections of the Arsenal squad. It’s also much easier to implement in a player’s contract because the club can insert a clause in each contract relating to that player’s involvement in the Champions League.
This will stop certain players from being penalised if they don’t even appear in the Champions League. It would be very stupid of the club to suggest that every single player should pay back a certain amount of money because some won’t even be selected by Arsene Wenger.
If Arsenal do implement the recent proposals then the manager also has to come under scrutiny. Wenger should be punished for poor performances in the Champions League just as much as any of the players. This is certainly way the club could look at dealing with the fallout due to the radical changes.
The club also have to consider the revenue they expect to lose from the Champions League. Each season a club will draw up finances which are based on doing so well in the Premier League, domestic competitions and the Champions League. If Arsenal are going to make players pay cash back for bad performances then they need to be able to justify it from a business point of view so the players simply don’t think it’s just the club being difficult or harsh.
In other professional jobs, individuals are often paid bonuses for certain levels of achievement. Arsenal should look at attaching a basic bonus to a basic salary which is awarded for Champions League qualification and qualification through to the last 16. At the moment it’s still quite clear that any changes that directly punish players on a personal level will cause more problems than they solve.
image: © wonker
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