[Football] Could long term player contracts become the norm?

[AZ Gull]

I didn't want to write he doesn't actually need the £70m a year!

It's such a odd contract and to my knowledge the first of its kind.
The sort of thing that you know is being studied across all big money sport.

Certainly the AMOUNT of the deferral is extremely unusual, but deferrals themselves are not uncommon (in baseball for sure, probably in basketball and maybe other US sports). For instance, in the contract the Arizona Diamondbacks made with Madison Bumgarner a few years ago, salary was deferred in each of the three peak-earning years.

Of course, perhaps the most famous deferred salary of all belongs to the New York Mets and Bobby Bonilla:-

 

[Greg Bobkin]

I didn't want to write he doesn't actually need the £70m a year!

It's such a odd contract and to my knowledge the first of its kind.
The sort of thing that you know is being studied across all big money sport.

I think a US sports guy on the Twitter say similar deals has been done before, but they are very rare. But yes, very odd!

I think there were some State tax advantages at play, too.