Unternehmen gründen ihre eigenen Zeitarbeitsfirmen, um Lohnkosten zu sparen. Kündigungsfristen und Tariflöhne werden so umgangen. Arbeitsrechtlich sind diese Praktiken umstritten, es bedarf einer Klärung.

Vorreiter ist hier der Schlecker Konzern, der seine Mitarbeiter im Bezirk Gütersloh dazu aufgefordert hat Aufhebungsverträge zu unterschreiben und bei der Zeitarbeitsfirma Meniar zu unterschreiben. Den Tariflohn von 12,71 Euro brutto wollte sich Aldi sparen, die Zeitarbeitsfirma bot den Beschäftigten einen Stundenlohn zwischen 6,50 und 7,0 Euro pro Stunde verdienen. Die Art der Arbeit und der Einsatzort sollten sich nicht ändern. Mitarbeiter, die sich auf das „Bäumchen wechsel Dich“ Spiel nicht einließen, hatten kurze Zeit später eine Versetzung im Briefkasten, da sie an einem „Projekt“ nicht teilnehmen wollten und die an das „Projekt“ gebundenen Konditionen nicht akzeptieren wollten. Die Versetzungen wurden vom Arbeitsgericht gestoppt, doch das Formular „Bewerbung um einen Arbeitsplatz bei der Firma Meniar“ wir noch weiter an die Beschäftigten ausgeteilt.
weiterlesen

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a scientist?

Well, here is your chance.

We are launching a ‘citizen science’ project, just for fun (since it is almost summer) and because we want to find out whether some rumours we have been hearing about Tui are true or not. We would like New Zealanders of all ages to become citizen scientists this summer and help us collect the data. All you have to do is flick us an email or add a comment on this website when you spot a Tui as you are enjoying the warm summer outdoors. We will analyse the data and tell you all about it at the end of the summer.

The data will be made public, for anyone to use.

So, to become a scientist, all you will need is a pencil and a notepad. There is only one rule: have fun!

To find out more details about the project click here.

To find out more about the New Zealand Tui click here.

Tūī (Prosthemadera novaseelandiae) is a common endemic bird of New Zealand, and can be found both in the bush as well as in urban and suburban environments.  They can be easily recognised by their magnificent song as well as by a very prominent patch of white feathers on their throat.

They are nectar feeding birds, although they are also know to eat invertebrates, and have an important role as pollinators.

Their beautiful song is filled with clicks and bell-like sounds, and it is said they can imitate a lot of other sounds in the environment.

Watch the video of a Tūī bird in all of its splendor:

Sources and more information can be found at:

• Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand
• New Zealand Birds
• New Zealand Department of Conservation

“Take advice with a grain of salt. You can’t compare your own life or situations to anyone else’s but your own. The only way to truly learn anything, that you can trust anyway, is on your own. That and always trust your gut. Even when it’s telling you shit that you don’t want to hear. It’s always right. The world sucks so bad.”
- Jared Carman.

n this coming Tuesday, the 24th of November, all unions representing staff on the NUI Maynooth Campus are taking part in a one-day strike. The strike is protesting against the threat of further government-imposed cuts in the pay of university employees. Action is being taken following ballots in which the majority of members of the unions that are taking part voted in favour of coming out on strike.

IFUT has worked closely with student organisations, including Labour Youth in the fight against the reintroduction of fees and the Government’s callous and careless handling of education funding must be reconsidered. Pay-cuts are merely one part of a wider package of cuts to third level education funding, resulting in the systematic reduction in the quality of your lifestyle and education. Students and staff have a common interest in the protection of our education system against the kind of destructive changes with which it is currently threatened.

The Irish Federation of University Teachers, among other unions, is actively seeking the support of students in this issue and after a unanimous decision of this Thursday’s committee meeting NUIM Labour Youth is joining the call for solidarity. There will be pickets at the entrances to both North and South campuses and we implore you: do not cross the picket. The only people working or attending classes on campus on Tuesday will be those who have deliberately crossed the picket. If you do not wish to specifically support or oppose the strike, then we advise you to simply stay away from NUI Maynooth that day.

If you wish to join us in supporting the strikers then meet us at Manor Mills Shopping Centre at 11.45 am on Tuesday to stand with our friends on the academic and services staff.

Fonte:  TOP List Aziende 2.0 – Social Media Marketing

Tui have announce the lineup for the big concert in Mangatainoka.

Small Town Big Sounds

You have been waiting patiently for the Tui Small Town Big Sounds concert announcement, here it is, all the information you need to know to book this event into your diary. You will find no better way to make the most of the last days of summer.

Stretch out on the green in the summer rays, surrounded by good mates, family, Tui Brewery Girls, sweet beats and a thousand other Tui lovers. Mix this all together and you get an epic day not to be missed for 2010!

So who is coming…

Evermore – Tui is bringing the boys back!
Supergroove – The legendary iconic Kiwi great
The Beat Girls – Will guarantee to get you up on the D floor
Cassius – Back by popular demand
Deaf Lemon – Battle of the Bands winner
And more.

SPECIAL OFFER: Buy before the 1st of December and receive a free beer to get you started at the event!

Event details:

Date: Saturday 27th February 2010
Time: 1:00pm- 8:30pm
Place: Tui Brewery, State Highway 2, Mangatainoka.
Cost: $50.00

“… The Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland, Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO), and Teachers’ Union of Ireland said almost four-to-one backing for strike action reflects members’ anger at the prospect of further pay cuts in next month’s budget. They will be joined in their walkout from schools and colleges by the 2,000-member Irish Federation of University Teachers …” (more)

[Niall Murray and Stephen Rogers, Irish Examiner, 14 November]

TUI and AWPA join forces to help stray animals and beach communities

A joint initiative between TUI and the Animals’ Welfare and Protection Association (AWPA) is helping to efficiently address the problems caused by stray dogs and cats in various hotels. With many of these animals having a tendency to scavenge kitchen refuse and disturb hotel guests, TUI and AWPA have begun to provide veterinary attention for the strays as well as installing strategic feeding points.

The various problems caused by stray animals were brought to the attention of TUI through their various travel representatives in Sri Lanka. Many hotel guests had expressed their concern about the proliferation of these strays and the effect it was having on their holidays. By enlisting the expertise of AWPA, TUI knew they were receiving the experience of a local partner with a distinguished track record in monitoring the welfare of animals. “We wanted to look after our guests without harming the animals,” explains Roger Zerter, resident Manager of TUI. “With AWPA, we have implemented a scheme which will hopefully catch on.”

After catching all the animals within the vicinity of a particular hotel, AWPA neuter and treat them for endo and ecto-parasites before releasing them on the hotel premises. Simultaneously, a Cat & Dog Café is set up in the hotel grounds, a long way from restaurants and swimming pools. The advantages of this approach are instantly tangible, as testified by the success of the scheme at Browns Beach Hotel and the Beach Hotel, the first hotels to receive the TUI Animal Friendly Award. Within a month of adopting the initiative, both hotels noticed a pronounced change in the behavior of their strays. The neutered animals had become a lot more settled, occupying an area with a reliable source of food-the Cat & Dog Café –and no longer disturbing hotel guests.

“TUI are making a great effort to educate hotel guests and local communities,” explains Mrs Hemantha Jayatilake, President of AWPA. “Hopefully, our joint initiative ca continue to save many animals and help people enjoy their holidays.”

2007 – Ace Magazine Issue 4

Your exam is on Monday and you suddenly feel the urge to.. .

• clean your pencil case [mine is now clean and shiny ]
• willingly do the dishes (I never do the dishes now..)
• wipe down all the surfaces after dinner [I love methylated spirits, it cleans so well ]
• watch C4 instead of revising like hell for Economics
• listen to Taylor Swift songs instead of doing past papers
• type up all your procrastinating ways on wordpress instead of studying (all the good spots at the library are starting to fill up)
• eavesdrop on these two people speaking French next to you at the computers (I have no idea what they’re saying, but it all sounds familiar, except fast forwarded…by a lot)

*Big sigh* On my way home on the bus, I saw a Tui billboard that said “No more last minute studying, not this time…Yeah, right.” I couln’t help but smile in irony.

Rise and Fall last night in London were immense. They get better and better each time I see them and the new songs from Our Circle is Vicious slot in perfectly  alongside the stuff from Into Oblivion and In Circles is one of the best songs they’ve ever done. Bjorn reckoned they’ll be back early next year so that’s another sure thing to hit up, I think they’re coming back with TUI and hopefully with more Deathwish bands too ( BlackListed please?). Really gutted they’re straight out to Aus to tour w/Hopeless and possibly Carpathian as that’d be a bill I’d kill for over here in the UK.

Also this week aaw the best film of the year  – District 13 Ultimatum. An amazing French-language film set in a dystopian future in Paris where parts of the city are walled off, kind of like Escape from New York, but filled with insane parkour stunts and kung-fu action from David Belle and Cyril Raffelli all guided by the hand of Luc Besson. Go get it and the original District 13 if you haven’t already.

i have officially finished all academic aspects of my high school life. last exam yesterday morning, so now im free. saw tui + word up last night, was good. now im going to go make eb games price match kmarts mw2 which is $40 less.

This is the first of a series of interview’s I’m going to keep up on the blog. Hopefully it will be an insight
into the lives of some of the cooler people I’ve met from traveling with my own band.
Hit me with any suggestions / ideas / criticism…. It’s equally as much for me and you, whoever reads this.

Jared is one of the funniest, wildest, talented and most genuine dudes I’ve ever met. One of the people I sincerely miss on a regular basis that always keeps in touch and gives a shit about where his friends are at, a true hardcore kid growing up into a cool ass gentleman.

Yo your Jared, What else do we need to know about you?
im jared. im 24 and im from richmond virginia. just trying to be me.

You are out in Australia right now with Trapped Under Ice. What’s the vibe in the band? Who is stoked to be here?
everyone is super pumped on being here. australia is a place that you work super hard to get to. you have to go all in pretty much to make it happen sometimes. weve wanted to come for a while so its special. the first night we were here brad and i went on a drive and almost hit a kangaroo and then saw some koalas chilling. no one believes us though. where i live its probably snowing right now so im just focused on trying to burn my skin up before i get back on that plane.

For you personally its your second time out here. What are you looking forward to the most?
my number one is seeing all my friends i dont ever get to see. playing is a close second. aus is far man and you dont always get a chane to hit it so everyone at these shows goes hard. playing anywhere in australia has always been a pleasure. other than that im looking forward to grilling in byron bay and hitting the beach everyone second i can.

Since we last met in Japan you’ve played bass in Down To Nothing, Trash Talk and now Trapped Under Ice. What’s the history, how did you end up with TUI?
down to nothing is my band. ive been doing that since i was 19. i grew up in a lot of ways in that band with some of my best friends. i learned a lot. we went as hard as we could for a couple years and did exactly what we wanted to do. just hung out with people and made each other laugh. believe me, no one was pleased but us. we still want to be a band but just not living in a van all year. we still play when we can and were going to record some stuff sometime soon. the trash talk thing was just filling in. one of my best friends was their drummer for a while and asked me if i wanted to go to europe with them for a couple weeks. i couldnt say no. trapped under ice is my band right now though. i loved it since i first heard the demo and dtn brought them down for their first richmond shows. we just became friends. it made sense. ive been in the band for a little over a year now.

Since Down To Nothing slowed down for you guys and vocalist David started playing bass for Terror has he ripped any of your moves?
he has. i get reports from around the globe of him ripping. i gave him full permission to take what he wants. hes got the best stage presence ever if you ask me. i should be jocking his moves. i do actually.

Secrets Of The World is so sick! How involved were you in the writing process?
jusice and sam do most of the main riffing but all the rehearsing for the record was pretty hands on. we all changed some stuff going into those practices and a lot of stuff got taken apart. we all were taking things apart and putting them back together. my favorite songs on that record were the ones we wrote in the last ten minutes of a seven hour practice before we went up to record.

What gear are you running with right now? What did you play in the studio?
i recorded with the stuff i play live. ampeg svt classic head through an svt 8×10. american made fender precision bass and tech 21 sans amp pedal.

What secrets have you discovered about the world in your interactions with it?
take advice with a grain of salt. you cant compare your own life or situations to anyone elses but your own. the only way to truly learn anything, that you can trust anyway, is on your own. that and always trust your gut. even when its telling you shit that you dont want to hear. its always right. the world sucks so bad.

Touring is your life, and through it you’ve travelled extensively. Obviously one of the best things about being in a band. What are your favourite destinations?
seoul, south korea. byron bay, australia. austin. atlanta. syracuse. denmark. sheffield. this list is endless man. there are so many places that i see that make me feel so crazy i dont ever want to stop looking at them. i just wish all my friends everywhere could be with me all the time. touring is awesome. i wouldnt really say its my life though. i dont really like “band” dudes and i cant really take a band seriously that tours just to tour. neither of those are things i want to be. tui is great though because we all have already agreed we only want to do stuff we think is worth our time and we dont really want to get into the habbit of doing dumb shit just to please someone or just to do it. but dont get me wrong. i love touring. its definitely opened my eyes wider than most of the people i know. some of the craziest stuff that will ever happen to me has happened in other places on tour. ive seen some wild stuff and im really lucky. but. ive seen oklahoma enough times and the older i get there are some other things i would like to do too. touring has been great though.

When does it suck? Is there anywhere you don’t want to be ever again?
changing tires in a snow storm. having all your shit stolen. three thousand dollars in gear goes missing. getting charged two thousand dollars for flying two duffle bags full of merch. not sleeping ever. you learn something new when you dont have a dollar to your name and youre thousands of miles away from home.

Our lifestyles are totally consuming, it feels time disappears so fast when your living your life by dates on a calendar. A year can simply be two local tours and a trip to Europe or Asia. I personally find it hard to fit other goals I have into my lifestyle, sometimes feeling like I’m wasting time. Is this something you experience?
everyday man. time just goes right out the window. ill come home and i will have missed entire seasons. its depressing sometimes. all my friends at home have awesome jobs. friends are real estate agents and starting businesses, doing grad school, getting married, and starting families. im happy for them. but when everyone is doing well like that it can start to make you question what you are doing when you come home broke and cant really live the same lifestyle they do when you are home. its hard but its a total trade off though. ive got friends like that emailing me and texting me telling me they wish they could be with me and just hanging out. i wish they were to. you cant really do stuff like that when you have something big going on like that at home. i love them for it. im proud of all my friends doing things that make them happy. i guess its just a matter of what you want and recognizing the small things that make it worth it.

What are your desires outside of the band? Careers? Travel? Lifestyle?
i think my number one is music. i love that more than anything. i love movies almost as much as music. i love the ocean and just being outside. im lovesick over monkeys. thats a real life obsession. i dont really know as far as careers go. i love pictures. i like helping people. i love food. animals. in the last year i got into lifting weights. id like to end up doing something that makes me happy like anybody else. traveling goes without saying. there are always going to be places i have never been that i need to go. i like tropical islands. latin america. im always going to be pretty laid back. i only want what makes me happy.

One of photos I’ve got up is of you with a broke ass bloody nose. What happened?
i was at a show at home in richmond and i was moshing for a friends band. ive never seen a break that bad before. im lucky it went back. i guess i could have gone to the hospital but fuck it. i hate looking at in the mirror from certain angles because its still so crooked. moshing is so dumb i guess thats what i get.

Why were you nearly deported from Australia?
david, you, and i, got pretty carried away one night in sydney (i think). acting real dumb. real dumb.  jay rollins, billabong gardens, graham and resist. here is your formal apology. sorry for being a headache.

Who’s car did you smash in Europe?
we were doing some sight seeing in germany. i dont remember the city but it was a spot that hitler had deemed the center of the world or something. it was cool. to make a long story short and leave out some incriminating details there were some serious nazi dudes hanging in the parking lot. they left their car for a minute and people went to work on that thing. everyone had a job. tire stabber. window breaker. light kicker. we had a basball bat man. rock throwers. like twenty seconds and that shit was DONE. all in the middle of the day. took that license plate too.

What is ’slashing’?
im not sure what you mean. i heard chinese democracy sucked without him. (fake ass answer)

How hard do you find it adjusting to ‘real life’ when your not on tour?
not really at all. its hard sometimes to do small things sometimes. like running errands and stuff. you can always put that garbage off one day and i know thats something i learned from being on tour.

I know your single and a total romantic… why is it so hard to find love whilst touring in a band?
i like that you recognize my romantic side. im a pretty emotional guy. females just arent ready for me i guess. that or its probably too frustrating to put up with a loser in a band. failmefailyou@gmail.com email me maybe we can talk trading citizenships. ha.

What do you expect the future holds for you both personally and musically?
i have no idea man. i like doing what im doing now for the most part but i know its not something that i want to be doing for the rest of my life. i think about it everyday. just like everyone else probably does. the next chance i get i want to go to school either part or full time for a while and see how i like it. i want a dog. i need some normal shit going on for once. catch my breath. i love music though. its a gift and everyday i get to do something with it i consider myself lucky. its not something i really set goals for. im just taking everything in my life as it comes.

Love! Any shouts?
guerilla richmond, d breeze, deeb slice, patrick kitzel, the best label in hardcore, reaper records, chucky edge (hell make it one day, australia), fifty lizards, elmsey cause hes cool. and you. thanks buddy. love you. stay safe.

]]> http://tararualibrary.wordpress.com/2009/11/10/hurricanes-vs-the-blues-mangatainoka/ Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:10:19 +0000 tararualibrary http://tararualibrary.wordpress.com/2009/11/10/hurricanes-vs-the-blues-mangatainoka/

OK rugby fans, especially Hurricanes followers. The Hurricanes will play The Blues under the Tui tower…

On the 23rd of January 2010 (Wellington Anniversary Weekend) history will be made – the Hurricanes will play the Blues at the Mangatainoka Rugby Grounds in a Super 14 Pre-season Game – yes its all true! This game also has significance – these two teams will then open the 2010 Super 14 season on the 12th Feb. It’s bring the big show to the small town! The ground is but a paddock – that is what is so beautiful about this event – its back to basics. Bring the professionals to real grass roots!

Mangatainoka is strategically placed in the centre of Hurricanes territory- within 1 hour drive you have Masterton, Palmerston North and Wanganui! Within 2 hours you have the twin Hawkes Bay cites and Wellington. This is the heart of Hurricanes country, and a game that will never be forgotten! And remember, the Hurricanes won’t be playing outside of Wellington this year so this is your only chance to see them in the heartland.

This rugby game kicks off a series of community summer events at Mangatainoka including ‘Small Town Big Sounds’ (Saturday 27th February) where Kiwi bands will entertain over 4000 visitors at Tui Brewery. Purchase your Rugby/Small Town Big Sounds COMBO ticket now!

See here for details.

Any ideas for boys would be grateful and any to add for the girls?

Maple, Hazel, Olive, Phebe, Tui, Meredith, Pascal, Ivy, Theophania (Thea), Willow, Lavender, Gaia & Linnea

“60,000 educators who are members of the ASTI, INTO and TUI will be balloted on industrial action this week in response to threats to their pay. The three unions – which are working together in a co-ordinated way with other public sector unions – are urging their members to vote yes to industrial action …” (more)

[Education Matters, 2 November]

Tui-Österreich gründet gemeinsam mit Andreas Falkensteiner einen neuen Reisedirektvertreiber namens Reisefalke, der Hofer Reisen Konkurrenz machen soll.

Der unübersehbare Erfolg des Reisedirektvertreibers Hofer Reisen hat den Branchenriesen Tui Österreich (700 Millionen Euro Umsatz, 50 eigene Reisebüros, 700 Mitarbeiter, vierzig Prozent Marktanteil) zur Gründung eines Konkurrenzunternehmens bewogen, berichtet das Wirtschaftsmagazin trend in seiner am Dienstag erscheinenden Ausgabe.

Am 30. November genehmigte die österreichische Bundeswettbewerbsbehörde den Zusammenschluss einiger bislang eigenständig agierenden Firmen der Tui Austria Holding und dem Hotelvermarkter Falktours, dessen Betreiber Andreas Falkensteiner ist. Zum einen geht es dabei um die Beschaffung von Hotelbetten in Großkontingenten – eine Attacke auf den Branchenprimus Eurotours – zum anderen um einen aggressiven Direktvertrieb.

Die neue Firma Reisefalke GmbH, an der die Tui mit sechzig und Falkensteiner mit vierzig Prozent beteiligt ist, soll sich zu einem schlagkräftigen Gegenpol zu Hofer Reisen entwickeln. Verkauft werden die Reisefalke-Angebote vorerst bei allen Filialen von Zielpunkt und Post, aber auch bei kleineren Retailern wie etwa der Tierbedarfskette Fressnapf. “Der Reisefalke wird genau das machen, was Hofer Reisen jetzt tut”, sagt Klaus Pümpel, CEO der Tui Austria Holding. Führen wird den Angriff auf den Konkurrenten Hofer Reisen eine Frau: Eva Pasternacki-Booz, bislang Verkaufschefin von Berge & Meer. Der umtriebige Tui-Chef hat seinen Österreich-Konzern in den letzten zwölf Monaten personell und organisatorisch völlig umgekrempelt. Zuletzt holte er den Ex-Verkehrsbüro-Vorstand Norbert Draskovits ins Tui-Boot.

Quelle: OTS-ORIGINALTEXT PRESSEAUSSENDUNG UNTER AUSSCHLIESSLICHER INHALTLICHER VERANTWORTUNG DES AUSSENDERS – WWW.OTS.AT

I read in todays Irish Daily Mirror that the Department of Education and Science have drawn up plans to scrap the Junior Certificate. These plans, which I believe have been discussed at cabinet, would save over €30 million per year in terms of the expense of organising and correcting the exams.

Minister O’Keefe said in September that he is favour of a radical shake up of the Junior Certificate system and that we need to move away from the rote learning style of education that is so prevalent in Ireland today. I have to totally agree with the Minister on this issue. The proposals, as outlined in the Irish Mirror refer to a system of continuous assessment throughout the first 3 years of secondary school. This is undoubtedly better than terminal assessment. It gives pupils a chance to see how they are progressing and allows teachers ands parents to intervene far earlier in a child’s education if there is a cause for concern in his or his learning.

Strange how the Teaching Unions i.e. the TUI and the ASTI are against any such proposals. All educationalists accept that continuous assessment is a far fairer and more exact indicator of a childs educational development. Yet they are against it. Would it be because their members would lose out on the lucrative exam correction fees each summer, or the allowance for supervising exam centres? Or perhaps, they know that many of their members wouldnt be up for working all year-round. Many teachers focus all the attention on to the exam at the end of the Junior Cert. They look at the cycle of exam questions and teach to that level. There is no incentive to go beyond the narrow scope of the exam.

It is important to remember that even with continuous assessment, schools would still be free to set summer and winter exams. Junior Certificates would still be issued but this time based on a child’s endeavours over a 3 year period instead of a week in June.

Minister O’Keefe should bring these new changes in not because of the money saved but because of the better education we will give our children.

“Jetzt haben wir die Hosen an” ist ein Beitrag in der Frauenzeitschrift “Lifestyle” (Nr. 45) betitelt. Weiter heißt es: “Konkurrenz für unsere heißgeliebten Jeans: Weite HAREMS-, Bundfalten- und Marlenehosen oder Röhren – Stoffhosen liegen voll im Trend.” Gut zu wissen, dass meine Holzhosen out sind.

Die “stylische” Haremshose sei “der Liebling der Saison”, erfahre ich, sie ist auch der Liebling der Redakteurin und nimmt den überwiegenden Raum des vierseitigen Artikels ein, denn: “Die ausgefallenste aller Hosenformen steht tatsächlich jeder Figur.” Jedoch: “High Heels oder Ankle-Boots sind ein Muss.”

Das Modell “Party-Alarm”? Nur für die, die sich trauen! Über das Modell “Aladin” heißt es: “Die Haremshose ist ein Figurschmeichler. In den Falten des extra-tiefen Schritts verschwinden kräftige Oberschenkel. H&M, 40 Euro.”

Also, liebe Leserinnen, rein in die Haremshose und ab auf den Sklavenmarkt von Dubai mit TUI für nur noch 499 Euro. Aber aufgepasst – da ist schon manche verschwunden wie der kräftige Oberschenkel im extratiefen Schritt!

Time am 1. November 2009

Real Mallorca. Pronounce “Real” correctly and it sounds “ray-ahl”. Pronounce it incorrectly, in English, and it is real. Real mess, as in right mess. Not even a hundred days have passed since the new owner, Javier Martí Mingarro, took over, having paid something around 4 million euros for this basket-case of a club. Yet now, he has announced that he has nary a euro to spend. And so the club is up for sale – again. Part of the problem is that banks won’t extend credit. Well, what a surprise. Perhaps someone might have asked them before pen was put to paper and the club went into new ownership. 

Even less of a surprise is the fact that Real Mallorca is awash with debt. Anyone could have read the papers to learn that some 64 million euros (and rising) of short-term debt existed, to say nothing of the other 20 million or so. Anyone could have checked the books and discovered that monthly outgoings on first-team players and other staff amounted to 360,000 euros. Not everyone would have been able to say that other players and staff would not have been paid for two months.

A real mess. A real mess that has been gathering force for some time, thanks to the debt run up by the former owner, Vicente Grande. Force and farce, the latter surrounding the ludicrous episode with Paul Davidson who made a monkey of the fans, the club and his one-time cheerleaders in the local English-speaking press.

What is it with football clubs and pretenders to the ownership thrones? For Real Mallorca, read many others, such as Portsmouth or Newcastle United. Whatever one thinks of Mike Ashley, he did at least have money and did pay off the club’s debts. Real Mallorca cannot even bank on this happening, because the banks won’t chip in. And who can blame them? 

Football appears to attract, more than any other “business”, charlatans, dreamers, egoists and nutters. In England, there is at least more money sloshing around from TV. Not so in Spain, unless the club happens to be Real Madrid or Barça. What does Mallorca get from TV? 1.3 million a month. One comes back also to the fact that the club doesn’t even own the stadium with its capacity not that much greater than that of … hmm, Portsmouth’s Fratton Park. There may be real estate lurking elsewhere, but what would be its prime asset, one that might act as collateral, is not its to put up as security. Again, small wonder that the banks are unwilling to play along. The only salvation is that the team, remarkably, is doing well this season.

The so-called “humid space” that is La Gola in Puerto Pollensa enjoyed a visitation a couple of days ago. Up popped the environment minister, Grimalt, alongside Mayor Cerdà to do some sort of topping-out ceremony on the parking area. For once, he wasn’t cutting some tape or helping to plant a tree. The environment minister does get about. One day he’s opening walkways in Son Bauló, then he’s doing the same around Artà, the next he’s giving the boss of TUI Germany a hand with the spade and planting the first pine in the TUI Bosc (forest). The latter is a splendid example of corporate sponsorship for parts of Mallorca. I am all in favour. Indeed, I have previously suggested that resorts could be sponsored. Maybe they will be. The sale of naming rights can bring in a pretty centimo. Just ask Mike Ashley who wants to flog off the naming of St. James’s Park. But there is one more sponsorship that TUI should consider. Indeed one ownership it should consider. 

TUI Real Mallorca. TUI-owned, lock, stock and barrel. There you go. Problem solved.

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