SanguineDirk GentlySutekh No wonder there's talk of dumping all this stuff that's so open to abuse and moving to the simpler method of salary caps on squads.
Sadly that's open to abuse just as much.
All the morden-day equivalents of players finding a roll of fivers in their boots at training - secret payments to overseas bank accounts; inflated image-rights or marketing agreements with players from companies who happen to be owned by the club's owners; other third-party or agents' payments; - all sorts of secret and creative ways to do it.
Yep. The impact of a salary cap is it basically stops the likes of Mbappe existing, in a financial sense. And so Real (in this example) would just find other ways of paying him.
I agree, but as this sort of abuse is obvious so it should also be obvious to the authorities who should a) close every loophole and b) make it abundently clear to clubs that any "naughties" will be punished to the maximum with points deductions, excessive fines and, ultimately, demotion depending on the extent of the "naughties".