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29th April 2024
10:58am BST
Ryanair boss, Michael O'Leary, has rather bizarrely compared himself to Pep Guardiola while defending his €100m bonus.
The bonus is set to payout if Ryanair's share price hits €21 and stays there for 28 days.
At the time of writing, it's share price is €20.35.
O'Leary, who has been a lifelong Man City fan, explained that there's never a fuss made about the humungous amounts paid to football managers but that there is for businessmen.
Speaking to The Telegraph, O'Leary said: "If I do get it [the €100m bonus], all the city types will be railing against excessive executive pay and I'm not putting up with any of that mewling nonsense.
"Footballers are getting half a million a week. Pep, who I think is a genius and deserves every penny, is getting £25m a year. Klopp too. And nobody says boo.
"Yet some guy running a serious business employing 20,000 plus people gets paid £5m or £10m and it's suddenly excessive."
O'Leary added that his potential bonus comes after years of hard work expanding Ryanair's business in Europe. He also explained that the bonus comes via shareholders and is not a company bonus.
Talking about the secret behind Ryanair's successes, O'Leary said it's largely down to him being a 'boring' Trinity educated accountant.
He said: "Airlines for many years were run by former pilots, who were only interested in flying the next toy. What we’ve demonstrated at Ryanair is that you put the accountants in charge and it will be dull, boring and repetitive, but actually, we’re very good at delivering.
"You should put accountants in charge of the world. It will be dull and boring but they will do the detail and they will do the execution. We’re a much-maligned species."
O'Leary recently made headlines when asked what he would do if he was in charge of RTE.
To that, O'Leary responded that he'd remove a lot of RTE's content saying, "there's a lot of rubbish that needs to be cleaned out."
On his chopping list, O'Leary wanted rid of RTE Liveline, the Louise Duffy show, and soaps.
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