Usain Bolts From UK Tax System
Jamaican speedster Usain Bolt celebrates after winning the men's 100 metre race during the Colorful Daegu Pre-Championships Meeting 2010 at Daegu Stadium
Usain Bolt has withdrawn from next month’s Diamond League meeting in London for tax reasons.
Britain’s sports minister Hugh Robertson said he could intervene after Olympic and world 100m and 200m champion Bolt revealed he wouldn’t run at next month’s event because of Britain’s prohibitive tax rules. Robertson has alluded he could work something out with UK Athletics and promoters Fast Track.
“I’ve not had a direct approach from either the sport’s governing body or the promoters of the Crystal Palace meeting so I don’t know exactly what we are dealing with here,” Robertson said in an interview on BBC radio on Tuesday. “It is a problem we have come across and addressed with other sports and clearly if they write to me I will take it up with the treasury. It’s a problem across other sports.
“Golfers and tennis players have come to me, and I’m pretty sure that at the back end of the 2012 Olympic bill is a commitment not to tax overseas stars who come over to compete in the Olympics,” said Robertson. “If there is a particular problem (with Bolt) I’m happy to look at it and see if I can help.”
The British tax system means that Bolt would be taxed on his earnings at the lucrative event and also on a proportion of his huge personal endorsements throughout the year, even though he does not reside in Britain. It is a system that has already undermined Britain’s attempts to host some major sports events, including this year’s Champions League final, which was staged in Madrid rather than Wembley.
Robertson, however, said that it might be too late to prevent the world’s fastest man taking on Asafa Powell and Tyson Gay in a mouthwatering 100m in London. “Ideally (he will be at Crystal Palace) which is why I say when they write to me, I will see what I can do. Three weeks doesn’t give us a whole lot of time to organise a tax concession.”
REUTERS
Roger Federer: I Still Have Plenty To Achieve
Roger Federer
On the face of it, there appears nothingRoger Federer lacks.
The world number one has 16 major titles, the career Grand Slam, more than $50m in career prize money and the seductive-yet-subjective label, applied by many former champions, as the best player of all time.
He is embracing family life with wife, Mirka, and twin daughters, Myla and Charlene, who are seasoned international travellers at nine months old.
Certainly, he is all smiles as we meet in a first-floor room at the Caja Magica in Madrid, completely free of entourage, his white tracksuit top and black baseball cap boasting the now familiar “RF” logo.
He has achieved so much in such a relatively short space of time (he is still only 28) it is sometimes easy to assume he has nothing left to shoot for.
Far from it. Despite some unexpected defeats recently, these are wildly exciting times for Federer as he plots the next phase of his career.
Retirement doesn’t even cross his mind.
“No it doesn’t and I don’t think it should,” he tells me in an exclusive interview for BBC Sport. “It’s just not something I’m even in the mood to think about because I want to enjoy my time as a player and not talk for years about how I’m going to retire or when I’m going to retire.
“That’s why I told the press a few years ago that I’m definitely going to play until the 2012 Olympics, just to give them some sort of timeline. Now people think I’m going to retire at the 2012 Olympics – which is not true! Even though you never know, it depends on your body, but I would like to play beyond that so we’ll see how it goes.”
Since winning the Australian Open, Federer has suffered with a lung infection and lost to Tomas Berdych, Marcos Baghdatis, Ernests Gulbis and Albert Montanes.
But I detect a definite twinkle beneath those magnificently bushy eyebrows of his as he tells me: “I’m sure my best tennis is just around the corner, I’ve just got to keep believing. It’s a lot of fun right now and I obviously want to do this as long as possible.”
There are records to chase, prizes to be won and Federer has several diary dates ringed in red ink.
On June 14, seven days before the start of Wimbledon, he should overtake Pete Sampras as the longest-serving world number one in rankings history.
Sampras held the top spot for a total of 286 weeks (followed by Lendl on 270 and Connors on 268) but Federer will move ahead on to to 287 weeks, unless he has an appalling French Open.
On September 17, Switzerland should be back in the World Group of the Davis Cup – they have been drawn against Kazakhstan in the play-offs – and Federer will consider whether the time is right to commit to the competition in 2011.
He desperately wants to win the event one day and needs Stan Wawrinka as an able number two, but like Andy Murray, Andy Roddick, Rafael Nadal and others, he chooses his matches carefully to fit around his personal schedule.
Then, of course, there is the aforementioned business in the summer of 2012.
Having won Olympic doubles gold in Beijing and celebrated more wildly than at any time in his career, Federer now dreams of the day he stands on Wimbledon’s Centre Court with a singles gold medal around his neck. He will take some stopping.
Twelve months ago, Federer arrived in Spain with a bad back and an eight-month title drought. Then, in the space of three months, his life changed forever as he mopped up in Madrid, Roland Garros and Wimbledon before becoming a father for the first time.
The Difference
“There were a couple of things in the belly of my wife’s stomach!” he chuckles. “I think that definitely got the ball rolling for me, seeing how well she was doing. That was inspiring for me, seeing her so happy and excited.
“Shortly after losing in the semis of Rome, I went to practice even more, felt great and said ‘you know, I think I’m ready to win the Madrid tournament’. I beat Soderling, Blake, Roddick, Del Potro and Nadal. From then I never looked back. I definitely got a bit lucky at times in Paris but it felt like destiny.
“Looking back now, one year ago I didn’t have two daughters, I didn’t have three more slams and one more slam final. It’s quite amazing what has happened in the last year.”
He will be in the United Kingdom twice this year. He defends his Wimbledon title in the summer and then plays the season-closing Barclays ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 Arena in November.
“I’m very excited be going back there. I’m sure it’s going to be another wonderful week with the best players competing for the ultimate prize in tennis,” says Federer, with PR perfection.
Courtesy of BBC Sport
Loading ...
.PNG){kind=icon}
