David Carruthers

Rewards for failure!

In today’s business world the notion of rewards for failure is not new. With the age of the “golden parachute”, the high profile and even higher paid CEO’s who are ousted because of performance dissatisfaction are, at the same time, rewarded with fat severance packages to ease their fall.

We now see this highly questionable practice has migrated to the world of Sports Management with the recent announcement of over $7 million in severance pay for the disgraced management team of the England National Soccer team who this week failed to qualify for the final stages of the European Championship.

I wonder what the fans think, having planned vacations, invested in tickets, travel, shirts, hats and possibly even HD TV’s to follow their team for the glory of the game?

In short, it is a disgrace and the gentlemen who allow this to happen are more culpable than the individuals who take the cash and run.

David Carruthers 24th November 2007.