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Ballack: I'm too poor to pay speeding fine
Published: 1 Nov 12 10:14 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/sport/20121101-45907.html
Former German national team football captain Michael Ballack has pleaded poverty when faced with a sizeable fine for speeding in Spain. His lawyer said he could only pay €1,080 because he is unemployed.
- Captain Ballack yearns for swan song - Sport (15 Oct 12)
- Ballack ends a career 'beyond his dreams' - Sport (2 Oct 12)
Spanish newspaper El Mundo reported that he was driving an Audi Q7 worth €52,000.
State prosecutors demanded he pay a fine of €10,000 – and lose his driving licence for two and a half years.
Appearing in court for Ballack on Wednesday, his lawyer argued that the former Chelsea and Bayern Munich footballer should only have to pay €1,080, on the grounds that he is unemployed at the moment, and that his licence should only be suspended for a year.
The figure was calculated based on the minimum daily income rate by which fines are imposed - €6 - multiplied by 180.
The lawyer argued that Ballack currently had no income. "Just because you are a famous football player does not mean you have assets," the lawyer said, the Spanish newspaper
Ballack was earning around €150,000 a week during his heyday at Chelsea in 2006, and had an income of €100,000 a week at the same club as recently as 2010.
The former Chelsea star, who turned 36 in September, retired from professional football at the start of October after his two-year contract at Bayer Leverkusen expired having made 98 appearances for Germany. He and his partner of 13 years Simone Ballack also filed for divorce last week.
DPA/The Local/bk
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Your comments about this article:
god these people make me sick with the excuses they come up with!
Anything not to pay the government is more like it!
Sell your cars and buy yourself a limo complete with chauffeur until you get your license back...poor fella!!
We cannot change the law just to suit our beliefs, irrespective of what a skinflint this chap obvoulsy is....
Also, a good lawyer helps.
What assets are you referring too? Did he fly and then rent the audi or did he drive the 1600kms? His assets appear to all be in a hold-co/trust for protection purposes so what are they taking from him?
He was just speeding for goodness sakes, not robbing a bank.
They want rich Germans to come to their country and support their dead economy and they treat them like this ?!!
Maybe Ballack should discover the pleasures of Miami, where everyone pays the same fine for the same driving infraction.
And for that matter accident rates are no higher in Florida than in Spain, so where is the deterrent in this money grab?