Bunch of highliy paid "watse of space" (Money in Football)

Member Name: jpegington

Product:	Money in Football
Date:	07/05/07 (201 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Paid too much money

Disadvantages: None

Footballers, are they really worth the money that is now being spent on them?

I must admit that my first love in sport is Rugby, however I am also a big football fan. I like to follow the Premiership and also International Football, but I do think that the money that is now mentioned in football is totally stupid.

Why?

There are a number of reasons why I think that there is too much money being spent on players (both to buy them and being paid them as wages). Firstly is the impact that this then has on the fans. Tickets to watch Chelsea play this season are between £35 and £60! Other premiership teams are similar as well, surely it would make sense to pay footballers less and then charge less to let people watch those same footballers.

When you look at the financial state of a lot of football clubs (mainly those in the lower divisions) and you have to admit that money is killing a lot of these clubs. Wages are really high, signing players costs a lot of money, and they are not getting a lot of supporters coming through the gates. In the premiership it is a little different as they have a lot of TV money (which means that the majority of people have to purchase a digital package to watch the football rather than being able to enjoy matches on the normal Telly). Football as a sport has to realise that the fans are the most important fact and they cannot continue to just increase the costs of tickets. It is happening now with the a number of grounds not being full and that is a cost issue, which if the players were paid less and the grounds would cost less then they would be full.

The second issue to consider is whether the players are actually worth that much? Lets look at Rugby, I doubt if many of the English Rugby team who won the World cup are rich! While I expect all of the English Football team are mega rich, despite not winning the major international prize.

Also consider the club game, how many boring matches have you watched recently where the so called stars of the show, who are worth millions in transfer fees, just don't seem interested or bothered. They are just going through the paces and not really working hard! I admit there are major exceptions to this, with some players being true quality players who always work hard and put the effort in, but do all these mega rich players always work that hard?

Another thing that makes me wonder whether footballers are really worth so much money, is when you see major millions being spent on a player who has yet to prove himself or who has done anything yet. Paying a young 18 year old £20,000 a week is a crime in my eyes when so many people cannot afford to even eat, even in this country. Having said that, paying anyone the sum of £50,000 a week and a lot more as well to play football and kick a ball around seems crazy in my eyes. £50,000 a week is around £2.5 Million pounds a year! and that is money that fans are paying for one player.

I understand that they bring joy and misery to many people and as long as fans are willing to pay high entry fees and licence fees to watch them on TV, then maybe they are worth the money, but in my eyes it is a huge con. Rugby does not generate such high fees, but gives you just as much satisfaction and joy. A wage cap which allows them to make good money ( and a salary of £50,000 a month would be good money as they would earn around £600,000 a year in wages and would no doubt get some sponsership and advertising revenue on top) and this would allow the fans to spend less money watching their favourite teams play.

In summary therefore, footballers are paid far to much money for kicking around a football and it is the fans which are suffering.

Summary: Bring in a wage cap