The Premier League has issued a staunch defence of the tax contributions made by its club and players following a critical newspaper report.
British outlet The Daily Mail published a story on Friday claiming teams and stars benefit from a "secret deal" with Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC), relating to image rights.
However, the league has rejected out of hand any insinuation of wrongdoing.
"The newspaper story regarding the legitimate tax arrangements players have in place concerning their image rights are neither a new development or newly reported," the Premier League said in a 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 paid by players as part of an overall contribution to the Exchequer of £2.4bn a year from Premier League activity."
