Thursday 22 November 2007

Football, business, exec pay and the Pope


Nice to see that our esteemed now former England manager Steve "tufty" McClaren is getting a £2.5m parting gift for his 18-month reign of error. Of course it's due to his contract, but can you think of a better example of rewards for failure?

Even with his newly whitened teeth, McClaren never really won any fans, so it's not surprising to see him used as a scapegoat. Companies like Sports Direct and JJB Sports have seen their shares slide today on the basis that England's failure to qualify means less sales of shirts, St George's flags and all that other embarrassing Ingerlund 'fan' paraphernalia. Don't be surprised to see sports retailers blame McClaren for poor financial results for quite a bit.

Finally, back on the issue of pay there is a great story on the Beeb website today about the Vatican introducing a performance-related pay system. According to the Beeb:

it will take into account issues such as "dedication, professionalism, productivity and correctitude" when awarding a pay rise.


I will resist taking the mickey too much. I'm sure this is more intended as a little bonus, rather than the Vatican deciding that financial incentives are necessary to encourage moral behaviour. (And yea they did smite the options scheme, for its targets were not sufficiently challenging!) But you do have to wonder about perverse incentives...

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