Socialist asks if French soccer worth high salaries
(Reuters) - The Socialist frontrunner for France's presidential election, whose plan to introduce a 75 percent tax rate has drawn groans from France's football association, questioned on Sunday whether the quality of the national league merited such high salaries.
Hollande, who leads President Nicolas Sarkozy in polls ahead of France's two-round election in April and May, sparked a debate over the wages of top earners this week with his proposal for the new top tax rate for those earning more than 1 million euros a year.
Sportsmen are among the best paid people in France - although their salaries are generally dwarfed by the amounts handed out to their counterparts in Britain, Italy and other European countries.
France's highest paid footballer is Olympique Lyon's Yoann Gourcuff with an annual salary of 6.8 million euros ($8.98 million), according to L'Equipe magazine.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/04/us-france-election-football-idUSTRE8230KK20120304