French football clubs to strike over 75% tax

France’s top tier football clubs will go on strike at the end of November in an act of protest against the government’s plans to impose a 75 percent tax on earnings over one million euros, the country’s Union of Professional Football Clubs (UCPF) said on Thursday.

"There will be a weekend without a game at the end of the month (of November)," Jean-Pierre Louvel, the UCPF president, told a news conference. “People will be welcome in our stadiums, but there will be no games.''

The strike will affect Ligue 1 and 2 matches from November 29 to December 2.

The UCPF announced they were considering such a move earlier in the week, when they threatened to boycott this weekend’s matches.

The union fears that if the government moves forward with plans to impose the tax, which is due to come into effect in 2014 and 2015, the country’s most talented players will be driven away from national clubs, damaging French football as a whole.

(FRANCE 24)