I saw this article on FTB Pro and thought i'd stick it up on here. At least its something else to discuss and think about. ( 999 ) Footballers... overpaid or not? By*Hotspur News29 May 2012*** Please actually read the article before posting comments. Thanks. This is one of the most common debates in the sporting world and, naturally, everybody has different opinions about it.*I'm going to tell you right now that*my opinion is that footballers are not overpaid*- and now I will tell you why.In the Premier League, the top earners are Rooney, Torres, Lampard, Gerrard and pretty much all the Man City players. These players earn between*£150,000 to*£250,000 per week (which is about 10 million pounds per year).In the Premier League the average salary is*£22,000 per week.In the Championship (2nd division), the average salary is*£4,000/week, which is about*£200,000/year (less than Rooney earns in a week).Then in League 2 (4th division), the average salary is*£750/week, which is fairly close the average salary in England. What I'm trying to get across to you, is that only the best of the best (about the top 1000 players in the world) are payed huge amounts of money. The rest are payed normal salaries and are treated like normal people.Sure you may say that*£250,000 per week is an obscene amount of money and nobody could ever need that much, but that's not the point. The point is that in any profession, the best in the world do earn a huge amount of money. And that is a fact.If you look at doctors, most of them earn about*£300,000 per year, which is more than the Championship players earn - and there are many more doctors than there are footballers in the championship. Then you have the elite doctors, who can earn anywhere between 1 and 5 million pounds per year, which is more than most Premier League players earn. You also get entrepreneurs (Richard Branson etc.) who, if they become successful, can earn hundreds of millions of pounds every year.But if you want to compare football to a more relative profession, you should compare it to acting, since both are entertainment industries.Last year Leanadro DiCaprio earned $77 million, which is about £50 million. This is 5 times more than what Rooney earned last year.*So how come nobody complains about him earning so much?He provided you with about 6 hours of entertainment last year, whereas Rooney provided United fans with about 80 hours of entertainment last year. Hopefully I've got my point across to you (in as brief an article as possible), that in almost any profession, the best of the best are always going to earn obscene amounts of money.So rather than complaining about how much football players earn, rather just sit back, enjoy watching you team play*and appreciate their talent which they are displaying for you.________________A good point from*Felix Gaunt*-*People are only paid relative to how much they are worth or how much money they bring in.*________________
I'd say clubs are willing to pay too much rather than footballers being overpaid. I wouldn't begrudge the truly top class players the £100k a week and more wages- it's the likes of Vine and Agyemang draining clubs of serious dough for their limited services that is damaging the game though if clubs are stupid enough to pay it then more fool them.
Cheers for posting this nines Nice with a bit of perspective/different angle on the whole overpaid arguement. He use a phrase that they earn what they bring to their respective clubs, not sure if he's right about that as many clubs have massive losses each year funded by their sugar daddies. If you ask me, I still believe the majority earn way to much.
I think he's got it wrong about doctors salaries. I'm pretty sure that a fully qualifed doctor earns between £60-80k a year. ( Maybe he was getting confused with surgeons and consultants, but even they earn nowhere near the figures matey has quoted. ) Why he chose that profession though is beyond me. Or anyone from the medical field for that matter. When you think back to the Muamba incident, there were twenty one other players on the pitch. I doubt any of them were earning anything less per week than a paramedic earns a year. ( £26k ) I needn't say anymore really.
I think the inflated wages of the better players are now handled by agents that are in it for themselves. Guess it is impossible to regulate these snakes to a level that would at least even things out a little bit or have more transparency.
No, let the market dictate. Besides, isn't it better to see a working class lad become a millionaire than for all the money to be swallowed up by the Suits in the Boardroom? After all, they are the Stars of the show right? Ask yourself this. Where would all the money go if it weren't to the players? (P.S. Is the average worker in the U.K really on US$1,772.60 a week? I'm gettin' over to London!)
well considering we're about to pay Robert green £50k a week ( according to the sun! ) then the answer is yes!
A good thought-provoking article. No-one would deny the top 'entertainers' will earn the biggest wages, what has totally distorted players wages is that average players have been swept along by the ever-spiralling increases that are negotiated by agents who often are working more for their own benefit than their clients. A perfect example is our Joey, a midfielder who has never been anything better than average for us and was probably at his best for Newcastle where he was good but not great. Paid anything between £60-80k depending where you read it, he will trouser £3 million plus a year for not being able to find a team-mate with a simple pass on many occasions. That is where the current ludicrous way players of limited ability can hold clubs to ransom over the period of their contract, you pay for a 'talent' that subsequently proves to be a 'turkey' and are stuck with said 'turkey' for three or four wholly unproductive years and you are even reduced to shipping out, at great loss, on loan to a lower division club to hopefully persuade the 'turkey' to find a new home. It never happens, because like Agyemang and Vine, if you can 'earn' silly money for a fixed period without actually having to make a great effort you'll stay put and bank the proceeds. So the final line of the article is plainly wrong, players are often paid far more than they are worth, often out of the clubs' desperation to get any players in to beat a deadline which in itself has boosted transfer fees and wages. The way football is run is the problem and agents are experts at playing the system to THEIR benefit. Nines' quote about the paramedic superbly sums up the obscenity of the 'beautiful game'...
It's the world gone mad. Inflated everything it seems Her indoors parents selling up in Wimbledon normal semi ... Sold in two days, five asking prices so a mini auction...900k! While other friends struggle to sell better house in remote south for 300k People buying in Brighton paying London prices ... It's crazy and very very wrong only on a crazy greedy island of mixed up people France 100k buys you a normal life
What the idiot who wrote this fails to note is that the top earners in most industries actually create wealth - Di Caprio's films make money. Most football clubs run at a loss. The only good thing about current premier league salaries is that they are unsustainable and one day the whole edifice will come tumbling down- market forces Swords. I really want to hear from Imaz on this one.
