Pay to Play

You know how in F1 you'll sometimes get a rich guy whose dad pays an F1 team to allow him to drive for them ?(Usually pretty good already, but perhaps just not quite good enough otherwise). Either that or they will bring sponsorship money from their local country to the team that signs them up and pay to drive that way.

Has there ever been any of that in football, where some rich kid, not quite good enough to earn a spot by merit alone, got to join a team by paying to play?

 

No .
Maybe Paul Dalglish

 

Fellaini's dad invented porn.

 

Darren Ferguson.

 

Good shout. He was terrible but played in the PL

 

Nigel Clough?

 

Kevin Bond.

 

Jordi Cruyff?

 

Not pay but we signed Ali Dia on the basis of a recommendation from someone pretending to be George Weahs cousin.

That's gotta take some beating surely

 

At least nowadays you would have the silver lining knowing that you would end up selling him to us for a profit.

 

True

 

Yes..when Gaddafi purchased Juventus or had shares in Juventus and one of his son's managed to turn out for them...back in the 90's i'm sure of it.

 

I remember that.
Someone called Souness pretending to be George Weah, saying, "My Cousin Ali Dia is awesome, you should sign him" and Souness, like a gimp, without verifying any of the facts, or seeing the kid play, just offered him a short term contract
He came on and was a donkey

 

Anthony Pulis had a cushy journeyman career being signed by teams his Dad managed. Only played something like 50 games over 10 years before moving to the US.

 

I would say that Pak Ji Sung's acquisition wasn't based on what he could do on the pitch, does that count?

 

Bendtner?

 

Underrated player.

Fergie always played him in the big games.

 

Good point. I didn't think Park was too bad, but he was brought over for mainly financial reasons.

 

I pay to play three times a week, definitely happens

 

I did until I knackered my knees running on astroturf too.

Not at a professional level though.