# Being fined in sports leagues, and overages

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-fined-in-sports-leagues-and-overages/652994>\
**Category:** The Game Room\
**Created:** [March 15, 2013, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-fined-in-sports-leagues-and-overages/652994 "2013-03-15T09:42:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\
**Post date:** [March 15, 2013, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-fined-in-sports-leagues-and-overages/652994/1 "2013-03-15T09:42:38Z")

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How do professional sports leagues handle the process of fining athletes and coaches for infractions, from a technical standpoint? Which of these is true?

1. The player has to write a check (or pay cash money) directly to, say, the commissioner’s office.
2. The fine is garnished from the player’s paycheck over an extended period of time.
3. The player doesn’t get paid _at all_ until the entire amount he would’ve gotten paid is collected by the league, and then he gets paid again.
4. Something else.

Other questions occur to me. Let’s take an extreme hypothetical scenario and say that the player is fined so severely that not only does it eat up his entire year’s salary, but he has to actually pay _the league_ for the privilege of playing. Would the league go so far as to take this matter into debt collection?

Recently, former New York Knick Renaldo Balkman was fined a considerable amount of money, _and_ banned for life, from the Philippine Basketball Association. If he’s being banned for life _anyway,_ what possible incentive could he have for paying the fine?

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**Author:** ![bucketybuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@bucketybuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bucketybuck)\
**Post date:** [March 15, 2013, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-fined-in-sports-leagues-and-overages/652994/2 "2013-03-15T10:06:21Z")

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I have seen a picture taken that is supposedly the wage slip of Manchester City footballer Carlos Tevez. Among the astronomical figures he is both getting paid and paying in tax was a deduction from his wage listed as £24 for an FA fine.

This link is one of many showing the supposed pay slip - [Carlos Tevez's pay slip leaked | Sport](http://www.sport24.co.za/Soccer/EnglishPremiership/Carlos-Tevezs-pay-slip-leaked-20121126)

Its always amusing to see a guy getting almost half a million after tax having to pay a £24 fine, but it does indicate that in the Premier league fines are handled by the clubs who take them direct from players wages.