In what will not go down well with the already discontent Tottenham Hotspur fanbase, their club owner and chairman Daniel Levy has increased his salary by 500k according to the financial statements of the club for 2022. Amidst tensions growing around the club and the constant backlash faced from the Spurs fans, Levy took home a handsome salary of 3.2 million pounds after yet another trophy-less season last year even though the team did manage to achieve Champions League qualification.
Journalist Alasdair Gold had some fiery words to describe this move by the American businessmen on his YouTube channel. He said, “I don’t know who decides whether he decides himself I’d imagine it’s not the case. I imagine it’s more of it has to be ratified and agreed by the whole board. But yeah, is it a good look? Absolutely not. But that’s business and unfortunately, we have to accept that football is a business and that’s why you’re gonna get stuff like that’s gonna come out.”
It is not at all surprising that club owners see the business side of the football as more attractive than catering to the club’s football side of affairs. Several club owners in the league have done a similar thing and their main objective of running a football club has been to pump out money though that isn’t exactly the case with Spurs.
Why the fans’ anger is justified towards the club?
Tottenham Hotspur are a side who in recent seasons have been more or less a team who finishes in the top 4. Their best finish in the league has been 2nd place which came in the 2015/16 season. As their fellow “Big Six” rivals have enjoyed successes and trophies in the last decade or so, Spurs have failed to replicate the same despite spending almost the same amount of money on signing players every transfer window.
This has been the reason behind the Spurs fans voicing their concern regarding the long-term future of the club and the pressure is mounting on Levy to sell the club. There have been reports in recent weeks linking Iranian American billionaire Jahm Najafi who is reportedly interested in buying the club for 3.75 billion but Levy is reluctant to sell the club at such a low valuation as the construction of the new stadium makes the club valued at around 5 billion according to him.
It remains to be seen whether the club will be sold or not in the summer. This season is yet another disappointment for the fanbase as their side crashed out of the Champions League this week and are knocked out of all domestic competitions. With another trophy-less season to end the footballing calendar, the mood around the club doesn’t look like it will change any time soon. The uncertain future of talisman Harry Kane further adds more misery onto Levy and the Tottenham board.
