Picture the scene: It’s the 90th minute of a crucial match that Manchester United desperately need to win but are only drawing.

Suddenly Zlatan Ibrahimovic is clear and bearing down on goal, the ball dancing at his feet. The last defender comes out to close him down. From the corner of his eye, the Swedish striker sees Marcus Rashford whose has busted a lung to catch up with play and is now free and unmarked in the penalty box.

Logic says Ibrahimovic passes Rashford for a simple tap in and a welcome three points. That would obviously be in the best interests of United.

Unfortunately he decides to go it alone and loses the ball in his tussle with the defender. Rashford is distraught. The fans are furious. Jose Mourinho is kicking his own ego in frustration.

So why didn’t Ibrahimovic set up his teammate for an easy goal instead of trying to be a hero?

Money.

The example above is, obviously, hypothetical. But the money part is very real.

It was revealed last week that Ibrahimovic is on an absolutely ludicrous goal bonus scheme at Old Trafford that saw him earn an extra £2.86 million (€3.39m) for his 28 goals this season.

Although the rate per goal was incremental, his average reward for hitting the back of the net was around £100,000. And that’s on top of the £367,000 a week basic pay he is getting from the club.

Of course he will argue that he deserves that sort of bonus for scoring.

However, I would suggest this sort of scheme is actually detrimental to the club as a whole. By awarding Ibrahimovic such a ridiculous amount of money – for doing what is essentially his job – the focus is shifted from team success to personal achievement.

In fact, it would be interesting, now these numbers have been revealed, to go back through Manchester United’s games this season and see how many examples there are of the Swede shooting when passing would have been more beneficial to the team. Or how many times he insisted on taking a free-kick which may have been better suited to another player.

This sort of scheme is actually detrimental to the club as a whole

Not interesting enough for me to do the research myself, obviously, but I bet someone will. And I will enjoy reading the conclusions – especially if they prove Ibrahimovic’s selfishness actually cost United points.

So does this mean I don’t think players should get bonuses? Of course they should. But they should be collective bonuses – get paid extra when your team wins a game, avoids relegation, wins a cup, qualifies for Europe or tops the league.

You could even give the whole team a bonus when they score a goal or keep a clean sheet because, after all, a striker only gets chances to score if the rest of his team are doing their jobs, and goalkeepers only keep clean sheets when strikers are ‘defending from the front’.

Bonuses like Ibrahimovic’s, which effectively incentivise players to put their own interests ahead of the team’s, surely don’t make a whole lot of sense.

Unless, of course, you are the one receiving them…

Don’t leave the pitch

While I have a huge amount of sympathy for Sulley Muntari for the disgusting racial abuse he was subjected to during his team’s match with Cagliari last month, I really need to make one thing clear: walking off the pitch is not the solution.

It is wrong, criminally so, that any player should be verbally abused by fans or even other players during a game. I can’t state how passionate I am in my belief that racism of call kinds is abhorrent and has no place in the modern game.

However, on those occasions when it does happen, walking off the pitch is not the answer. This is essentially handing victory to the mindless morons who are dishing out the abuse.

They are doing it partly because they are brain dead, partly because they enjoy the attention but mostly to get some sort of reaction from their victim.

And leaving the field of play without permission is exactly what they are looking for. You can almost hear them thinking “if we manage to keep this up he is going to walk off”.

I’m not saying an abused player should continue as if nothing happened. Of course not. But bring it to the referee’s attention. Go over to your manager and tell him what is happening. Make a point to the association official at the game. Call a press conference at half time if necessary.

Do whatever you have to, just don’t walk off the pitch. That is what they want, that is the reaction they are looking for. And the only way these morons will learn is if players don’t rise to their bait. But they themselves still get punished.

In fact, thinking about it, maybe clubs should have a full-time anti-racism officer who stands pitchside to specifically deal with any reports of abuse. I don’t know if that would work.

But one thing is for certain: walking off the pitch isn’t going to stamp out the abuse – it is only going to encourage it.

sportscolumnist@timesofmalta.com
Twitter: @Maltablade