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EXCLUSIVE SS Article 2 - Commissions Provoke Controversy
The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association’s annual accounts disclose that companies operated by two board members, Sir Rodney Walker, its chairman, and Lee Doyle, have drawn substantial commissions in relation to WPBSA contracts.
Walker controls Myerscough Developments Ltd; Doyle is chairman of 110sport management.
The commissions paid to Walker’s company relate to continuations of the BBC television contract and to the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield’s staging contract for the world championship; those to Doyle’s to “securing” Betfred as world championship sponsors last April.
In the three years to June 30 2008, Myerscough Developments, received £243,649 for “negotiating key contracts including those with the BBC and Sheffield City Council.” In addition, Walker’s salary for chairing WPBSA (£20,000) and its wholly owned commercial subsidiary, World Snooker Ltd (another £20,000) was increased to a total of £49,000 without any publicly notified change in Walker’s original contractual commitment to work four days a month.
Walker declined an invitation in July to appear on a Radio Five debate on The State of Snooker when the ethical justification of such commissions from “willing buyers” extending contracts dating back almost 30 years was questioned.
However, the accounts to June 30, 2009 show Walker claiming another £74,907 in commissions (£20,000 of which waived in favour of the NSPCC as it was in previous years) while his “fees and pension” package has been increased to £54,600 in a year in which 10% cuts on all staff salaries were imposed.
The world ranking circuit, reduced from last season’s eight events to six, carries total prize money of £3,063,600, a season on season reduction of £435,500.
When Doyle succeeded his father, Ian, as chairman of 110sport three years ago, snooker’s political landscape changed. Ian was WPBSA’s most forthright critic; Lee became a loyal member of the WPBSA board.
110sport’s stable of players, who are on either full management or agency contracts, includes Stephen Hendry, Stephen Maguire, Ali Carter and, in all, nine members of snooker’s top 16.
Its new offshoot, 110sporttv, recently concluded a deal with WPBSA for the rights to cover its qualifying competitions to show on the internet on a pay per view basis.
This year’s accounts show Doyle receiving £16,380 in salary plus £3,875 for “extra hours”, both of which payments are increases on his 2007/8 figures.
In addition the accounts reveal that his company received £37,500 commission “in respect of securing Betfred” as the £2.6m sponsors of the world championship, spread over four years.
“Our company, 110sport, has nothing to hide in terms of commissions. Everything has been treated in an appropriate and transparent manner,” said Doyle. Neither Walker nor the WPBSA responded to my request for comment.
Fred Done, Betfred’s driving force, said on the day of the sponsorship launch that his company had made the approach to WPBSA rather than the other way round: “I talked with my guys and somebody said something about the snooker championship. I said ‘what are we talking about?’ He said the world championship was up for grabs. I said: ‘Well, why is nobody doing anything about it?’ The phone calls happened after that meeting and it was done very quickly.”
As reported in June Snooker Scene one of those calls was to John Carroll of 110sport who, like Lee Doyle has been on very friendly terms with Betfred executives, particularly Fred Done himself and their managing director, John Haddock for many years dating from Betfred’s sponsorship of the Premier League and of waistcoat logo patches for various 110 players.
It would be easy to accept that Carroll and/ or Doyle might have urged Betfred, perhaps repeatedly to sponsor a WPBSA event.
However, at the time, the powerful sports agency, International Management Group, who also produce BBC’s television coverage, was the WPBSA’s exclusive sponsorship agent for BBC events and had itself been in contact with Betfred in relation to WPBSA sponsorships, including the world championship.
Arguments broke out with WPBSA over commissions and IMG, it was announced last month, have been replaced by another agency, Essentially Group Ltd. It is understood that IMG is considering legal action against WPBSA.
WPBSA posted a net loss for the year ending June 30, 2009 of £150,857. Its “net current assets” are stated to be £3,255,936.
“I would like to know how these figures were constituted,” said Pat Mooney, manager of John Higgins. “So many tournaments have been run without sponsors it’s surprising that the loss is not more than £150,000. On the other hand, if there is £3.2m in reserve, why does their circuit comprise only six ranking tournaments and the Masters?
“If the argument is that the £3.2m is for a rainy day, many players would say that it is raining now.”
A sponsor for the UK Championship, Pukka Pies, who are understood to have been introduced by IMG, was announced last month, albeit only three weeks in advance of the event; the Malta Cup is expected to be restored to the ranking circuit on a three year deal; a five year extension of the contract with Highland Spring as water suppliers has also been signed, of which Ian Doyle said: “We negotiated it. We were entitled to 15% commission but didn’t claim it.”
None of this seems likely to stifle the unrest within the game which has led to the formation of the Snooker Players Association, a brainchild of Mooney and Higgins, who also set up World Series, under which banner events have been promoted in emerging snooker countries which WPBSA has not begun to develop like Germany, Poland, Russia, Portugal and the Czech Republic.
The WPBSA has so far refused to recognise the SPA, who claim 40 of the world’s top 64 players amongst over 100 members, and claims that it already fulfils the function of a players union at the same time as constituting the professional game’s management.
The SPA wants a more direct say in how the game is run and would also advise and represent players arraigned on disciplinary charges. WPBSA says that players can make their feelings known through annual elections to its board and through its Players Forum although this has no formal or independent standing. Its proceedings are also subject to players signing confidentiality agreements which preclude them from informing other players what has been said.
“If the WPBSA would as requested sit down and discuss our objectives we could amicably work together for the development of the game,” said Mooney.
“The same people who run the SPA couldn’t constitute a new WPBSA board because that would merely be a repeat of the current situation.”
Walker controls Myerscough Developments Ltd; Doyle is chairman of 110sport management.
The commissions paid to Walker’s company relate to continuations of the BBC television contract and to the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield’s staging contract for the world championship; those to Doyle’s to “securing” Betfred as world championship sponsors last April.
In the three years to June 30 2008, Myerscough Developments, received £243,649 for “negotiating key contracts including those with the BBC and Sheffield City Council.” In addition, Walker’s salary for chairing WPBSA (£20,000) and its wholly owned commercial subsidiary, World Snooker Ltd (another £20,000) was increased to a total of £49,000 without any publicly notified change in Walker’s original contractual commitment to work four days a month.
Walker declined an invitation in July to appear on a Radio Five debate on The State of Snooker when the ethical justification of such commissions from “willing buyers” extending contracts dating back almost 30 years was questioned.
However, the accounts to June 30, 2009 show Walker claiming another £74,907 in commissions (£20,000 of which waived in favour of the NSPCC as it was in previous years) while his “fees and pension” package has been increased to £54,600 in a year in which 10% cuts on all staff salaries were imposed.
The world ranking circuit, reduced from last season’s eight events to six, carries total prize money of £3,063,600, a season on season reduction of £435,500.
When Doyle succeeded his father, Ian, as chairman of 110sport three years ago, snooker’s political landscape changed. Ian was WPBSA’s most forthright critic; Lee became a loyal member of the WPBSA board.
110sport’s stable of players, who are on either full management or agency contracts, includes Stephen Hendry, Stephen Maguire, Ali Carter and, in all, nine members of snooker’s top 16.
Its new offshoot, 110sporttv, recently concluded a deal with WPBSA for the rights to cover its qualifying competitions to show on the internet on a pay per view basis.
This year’s accounts show Doyle receiving £16,380 in salary plus £3,875 for “extra hours”, both of which payments are increases on his 2007/8 figures.
In addition the accounts reveal that his company received £37,500 commission “in respect of securing Betfred” as the £2.6m sponsors of the world championship, spread over four years.
“Our company, 110sport, has nothing to hide in terms of commissions. Everything has been treated in an appropriate and transparent manner,” said Doyle. Neither Walker nor the WPBSA responded to my request for comment.
Fred Done, Betfred’s driving force, said on the day of the sponsorship launch that his company had made the approach to WPBSA rather than the other way round: “I talked with my guys and somebody said something about the snooker championship. I said ‘what are we talking about?’ He said the world championship was up for grabs. I said: ‘Well, why is nobody doing anything about it?’ The phone calls happened after that meeting and it was done very quickly.”
As reported in June Snooker Scene one of those calls was to John Carroll of 110sport who, like Lee Doyle has been on very friendly terms with Betfred executives, particularly Fred Done himself and their managing director, John Haddock for many years dating from Betfred’s sponsorship of the Premier League and of waistcoat logo patches for various 110 players.
It would be easy to accept that Carroll and/ or Doyle might have urged Betfred, perhaps repeatedly to sponsor a WPBSA event.
However, at the time, the powerful sports agency, International Management Group, who also produce BBC’s television coverage, was the WPBSA’s exclusive sponsorship agent for BBC events and had itself been in contact with Betfred in relation to WPBSA sponsorships, including the world championship.
Arguments broke out with WPBSA over commissions and IMG, it was announced last month, have been replaced by another agency, Essentially Group Ltd. It is understood that IMG is considering legal action against WPBSA.
WPBSA posted a net loss for the year ending June 30, 2009 of £150,857. Its “net current assets” are stated to be £3,255,936.
“I would like to know how these figures were constituted,” said Pat Mooney, manager of John Higgins. “So many tournaments have been run without sponsors it’s surprising that the loss is not more than £150,000. On the other hand, if there is £3.2m in reserve, why does their circuit comprise only six ranking tournaments and the Masters?
“If the argument is that the £3.2m is for a rainy day, many players would say that it is raining now.”
A sponsor for the UK Championship, Pukka Pies, who are understood to have been introduced by IMG, was announced last month, albeit only three weeks in advance of the event; the Malta Cup is expected to be restored to the ranking circuit on a three year deal; a five year extension of the contract with Highland Spring as water suppliers has also been signed, of which Ian Doyle said: “We negotiated it. We were entitled to 15% commission but didn’t claim it.”
None of this seems likely to stifle the unrest within the game which has led to the formation of the Snooker Players Association, a brainchild of Mooney and Higgins, who also set up World Series, under which banner events have been promoted in emerging snooker countries which WPBSA has not begun to develop like Germany, Poland, Russia, Portugal and the Czech Republic.
The WPBSA has so far refused to recognise the SPA, who claim 40 of the world’s top 64 players amongst over 100 members, and claims that it already fulfils the function of a players union at the same time as constituting the professional game’s management.
The SPA wants a more direct say in how the game is run and would also advise and represent players arraigned on disciplinary charges. WPBSA says that players can make their feelings known through annual elections to its board and through its Players Forum although this has no formal or independent standing. Its proceedings are also subject to players signing confidentiality agreements which preclude them from informing other players what has been said.
“If the WPBSA would as requested sit down and discuss our objectives we could amicably work together for the development of the game,” said Mooney.
“The same people who run the SPA couldn’t constitute a new WPBSA board because that would merely be a repeat of the current situation.”
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