Having a beer, with my brother last night he announced that he wasn't going to watch football anymore as he's fed up with the greed of footballers. Is he right in thinking that? He pointed out Luka Modric and the "saga" that is now becoming his will he/won't he deal to Chelsea. The official line is he wants Champions League football, however as my brother pointed out he's been offered at least two times his current wages to join Chelsea. Modric is apparently "only" on £60k a week at Tottenham, what a tough life for him. But it got me thinking, will the greed of the modern footballer eventually kill football? Take Modric, he earns in 1 week what most will take 2-3 years to earn..Or put it another way. In 6 months he'll earn what the average man will in an entire working life time. The old drivel of "they only have a short career" Doesn't hold up anymore, an average footballer on £20k a week will earn in around 2 years, what the vast majority could never hope to in a lifetime. When Modric signed his new contract with Tottenham is was for 6 years. 6 years of earning £60k a week or in total over £18.5 million for the length of the contract. And he's not alone, players like Tevez (probably the biggest mecenary in football) Rooney (Look how he played United last September/October) and Torres(Wasn't happy apparently on £100k a week) Are just examples of footballers, hold clubs to ransom for personnal gain. Do the FIFA,UEFA or even are own FA need to step in and act? Will there come a time when the man in the street, does like my brother (A Hereford fan for 40 yrs(yes he's the one!!)) and says "sod this, i'll find another sport to watch", or will the masses like sheep keep paying the over inflated wages that today's footballer thinks they merit?
Will Footballer's Greed Destroy Football? Yes, but not until they've milked all of the money out of it. Unfortunately, I think the only thing they can do is put a wage cap on, but we all know the wage cap will be £100k, because they need money in football as much as the footballers do. As soon as wages start to drop, they will be able to justify prize winnings dropping, television rights etc.. and money starts to leak out of the club. For the FA/FIFA that's all of their funding gone, and they are greedier than the footballers. Unfortunately, I don't think anything will ever be done about it.
The part of the Modric thing that annoys me is that if he wants to move put in a transfer request and not receive your fee. Really shows how greedy he is.
Players don't pay the wages, Clubs do, that's where the problem lies, and it is easy to fix, but the reason it won't happen? US FANS WON'T LET THEM! No point blaming the Player's greed, it's our expectations that have got out of hand.
Fairly topical at the moment, but if you look at a graph interpolating when the seriously big money started kicking in, you'll find it correlates pretty closely to when a certain satellite broadcaster got involved - I believe his name is Rupert Murdoch. I just hope that in his case, what goes around comes around, but I fear it won't.
People who do the lottery are greedy. They want a footballer's lifestyle with none of the hassle or work involved to get there. Is the lottery under threat? Or do the greedy winners end up being the ones with the problems?
It's not just footballers, obviously. There's a bigger question about the morality of a free market economy and the fact that entertainers in general have a monetary value disproportionate to their real value to society. But we're a football forum so I'll say I think that football in general is bringing in far too much money that is not actually generated by the game itself and there's a real danger that the bubble can burst. I've expressed this opinion on other threads and usually been shot down in flames so I'm not hoping for too much here. This is just my opinion, I have no figures to back it up.
no If the players don't take the cash the owners will. people act as if greed is new. it isn't. If supply > demand then the money will shrink If demand > supply then the money will grow That's it.
"no If the players don't take the cash the owners will." Why shouldn't they, they invest in the team, they pay the wages, they pay the bills..why shouldn't they take a little back? When you buy a house, do you do it with the soul intention of living there till you turn up your toes, or making some money on it for your kids?
I agree with you on the morality point. Without getting too technical (or political) we really have to take society back to the Pareto Principle (80/20 rule where 20% of the people controlled 80% of the wealth) and 'magically that appears to make a far happier society. In those circumstances prices and wages appear to sort themselves out.
redconn, Sorry mate but your Classical Economics perspective of self-regulating balance simply does not work. The state of Equilibrum never existed. That's me done with the technical stuff - thank God for that I hear
My point was about the moral perspective, not economic pragmatism. The market "correcting itself" is often a traumatic event. I'd like to see football avoid that rather than me sit back and watch it and say "I told you so".
Is there a difference? Also, at least with the footballers getting more it spreads the economic benefits around more. Otherwise it would all just end up in the holding company of some Arab or yank. agreed. although FFP is horribly flawed, it's a step in the right direction. They can't and shouldn't do nothing.
Will Footballer's Greed Destroy Football? Yes it will. Will people stop watching it? Not a chance. I think many football fans hate how much footballers are being paid but at the end of the day, we are football fans and we love football. I will never stop watching football.
Exactly. Footie is in my blood so I'll watch it no matter what. It doesn't mean I watch it with an uncritical eye though. Money has already damaged the principles of the game imo and it can only get worse in that sense. Trouble is, I can't see any discussion about money in the game without my wider socio-political beliefs kicking in. I just think it's plain wrong for a man to get millions a year for kicking a ball about while someone else has to walk ten miles to fetch clean water. This is a footie forum and not the place for my political soap box so I don't say it very often. But it influences all my comments on this subject. I'm unable to see players' wages in the narrower context of the game. Sorry about that, I'll go back to arguing with mancs now, it's a lot simpler.
Last point, I think you're confusing footballers greed with corporate sponsorship and owner money Someone is throwing massive amounts of cash in and it's not the footballers. They just said "if all this cash is being bandied about, why can't I get a fairer share of it. I'm out there on the pitch bringing in the punters"
