Saturday 1 October 2016 11:24, UK
The Premier League has defended players' tax arrangements after accusations by the Daily Mail that players have a secret deal to pay less tax.
The newspaper claimed Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) allows players to receive a fifth of their pay through image rights companies, rather than in regular wages.
But the Premier League says there is nothing new in the story and the practice of using image rights as a source of income is well established around the world.
"The newspaper story regarding the legitimate tax arrangements players have in place concerning their image rights are neither a new development or newly reported," read the statement.
"The Premier League worked with HMRC to agree how to tax the small proportion of their overall income attributable to image rights.
"Image rights as a source of income are established and recognised in the UK and around the world, a practice that has been in place for many years.
"The tax paid by Premier League players is both substantial and transparent.
"The latest available figures from the 2014/15 season show that £891m was directly paid by players as part of an overall contribution to the Exchequer of £2.4bn a year from Premier League activity.
"It should also be noted that the newspaper in question failed to contact the Premier League about their intention to publish this story in order that we could respond."
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