Money in our game

[ctw01]

Im feeling rather fed up , disillusioned may be a better way to describe it ,and the reason is football, the state of our national game.
I know England have just had a disastrous WC, but its not that, actually Im Welsh so even though its disappointing, its not that big a deal.....
No the reason is quite simply money and the effect its had on the game we all love.
I read yesterday that a certain Yaya Toure who signed for Man City will be earning £220,000 per week and I struggled to get my head round that, it is simply the world gone mad, and I feel compelled to rant about it, so here goes.
Its a well known fact that football and in particular the PL has never had so much money,the majority of players and coaches are earning so much they simply dont know what to do with it.
I dont blame them, they find themselves in a position that was not of their making and have been thrust into a lifestyle that many cannot cope with due to a lack of education and upbringing etc. but good luck to them, they are amazingly fortunate and privileged right now.
They employ agents to take care of contracts and all matters within the game, they have financial advisors even lifestyle guru"s to help them with the media and suchlike, its a million miles away from the mundane everyday life most other ordinary people have.
Anyway when it comes to choosing a club they wish to play for, it seems a very high percentage believe money is the only option these days, which may seem perfectly understandable, but lets face it they earn enough at virtually any of the PL clubs to live an extremely healthy way of life for ever.
We are currently in the market for players to strengthen and hopefully improve our squad for the coming season, with the possibility of progression in the CL, and challenging for honours domestically, so we are in a strong position to achieve this but......
Incredibly we are struggling to convince players to even consider signing for THFC and this for me is ridiculous, I mean what do these players want for goodness sake.....I know more money and guaranteed CL.
Just lately we"ve had names such as Fabiano amongst others who have turned us down for various reasons which can only be construed as not being offered enough money.
There"s no doubt the agents are badly advising their employers, but I wish some players would make a stand, they need to understand they ALL cant play for Barcelona, Inter Milan and Man Utd for example, they need to wise up even grow up if they want to make something of themselves in the game.
I should like to see young players understand the pitfalls, and realise that with ambition they can achieve success for themselves by winning trophies for club and even country, not just get rich quick and do nothing.
There is a lot wrong with our game in the UK which needs addressing urgently by the various FA"s but sadly I dont see the problems , which are too varied to mention being sorted in the near future.
Meanwhile the fat cats..........
I hope this makes some kind of sense if anyone finishes reading it haha !

[rudi]

But what do you suggest doing about it? Is Platini correct to try to force teams to only spend what they bring in? Is the German model of club ownership the one to follow? How about the Spanish version?

Most importantly, where do you draw the line and how?

[ctw01]

Well Im sure a few of us on here could come up with some ideas to redistribute the huge amounts pumped into the PL, a lot of it is common sense I reckon, but would anyone listen to us I doubt it.

[vadimivich]

As an American, I've never understood the hang wringing over wages of this type. Toure's 220,000 GBP per week works out to a little more than $17mil per year. That would make him about the 10th highest paid baseball or basketball player in the US. For comparison the highest paid baseball player (Alex Rodriguez) makes the equivalent of 418,000 GBP per week.

And remember, US athletes get to keep all their own image rights - so their total earnings are even higher. Kobe Bryant makes $23,000,000 per year in wages and then another $16,000,000 in endorsements.

Quite frankly, because of the restrictive contract laws and the nature of transfer market which limits the freedom of players to move and negotiate their maximum value the way the free agent system in US sports does - soccer/football players have always been paid less than their compatriots in other sports.. This is slowly relaxing and players are starting to leverage their value more, so you'll see wages shoot up - maybe even into the range of US sports.

Sports Illustrated does a list each year of the 50 highest earning US athletes and the 20 highest earning international athletes. The only soccer/football player in the top 10 international athletes was Messi (not counting Beckham, who is under a US style contract with control of his own image and was #1 on that list). That's very surprising when you consider soccer/football is the most popular sport in the world ... but it makes you realize just how little the players have been paid in comparison to other sports.

[rudi]

Firstly, you're not comparing like with like. A footballer's contract guarantees that money even if he sits on his bum for the duration, only a small proportion of the US sports player's wages is guaranteed (hence why Sam Bradford's larger-than-usual guarantee raised many an eyebrow).

Secondly the average length of an Am Footballer (for example) 's career is frighteningly short (3.5 seasons!) so, cumlatively, the average player isn't necessarily better off.

Thirdly, the opportunities are much smaller (32 NFL teams, say, or 30 NBA team in a country of 310 million people) to play your sport of choice.

Fourthly, wages are controlled via caps, squads are affected by transfer rules (those mental byzantine rules about free agents, franchise players etc etc and so on) and a move towards parity is maintained by the draft system and by selective fixture lists.

And I'm not sure of the point you're making anyway. These young American men, carried through college, bahaviours hushed or even indulged, bribed and flattered from high school up all due to their use to the sports programme (Tim Tebow can barely read!), made instant multi-millionaires are royally f***ed up: the cases of addictions, sexual assaults, drug and firearm charges make English footballers look like convent girls.

[grandgramparabbi]

Firstly, you're not comparing like with like. A footballer's contract guarantees that money even if he sits on his bum for the duration, only a small proportion of the US sports player's wages is guaranteed (hence why Sam Bradford's larger-than-usual guarantee raised many an eyebrow).

Secondly the average length of an Am Footballer (for example) 's career is frighteningly short (3.5 seasons!) so, cumlatively, the average player isn't necessarily better off.

Thirdly, the opportunities are much smaller (32 NFL teams, say, or 30 NBA team in a country of 310 million people) to play your sport of choice.

Fourthly, wages are controlled via caps, squads are affected by transfer rules (those mental byzantine rules about free agents, franchise players etc etc and so on) and a move towards parity is maintained by the draft system and by selective fixture lists.

And I'm not sure of the point you're making anyway. These young American men, carried through college, bahaviours hushed or even indulged, bribed and flattered from high school up all due to their use to the sports programme (Tim Tebow can barely read!), made instant multi-millionaires are royally f***ed up: the cases of addictions, sexual assaults, drug and firearm charges make English footballers look like convent girls.

Not sure about the other things you wrote but I know for a fact that the contracts in NBA and MLB are fully guaranteed. Only in the NFL is it allowed to terminate the contract and only pay the guaranteed portion.
I'm just glad ManCity always seems to buy shit and over-hyped players.
Parting a fool with his money...

[vadimivich]

That is correct. NBA and MLB contracts are fully guaranteed. Alan Houston was famously the 2nd highest paid player in the NBA for two full seasons after he couldn't play any more due to his knees (more than $20mil per season contract).

[Luke0405]

Some very good ideas here but I can't see anything being done about the money in our game. It's lining too many important people's pockets, that or they are just ignorent to the problems it's causing.

[steelktm]

it's all the banks that allow these monies to be loaned out. once they start coming for their money instead of just handing out a new loan then you will see the true balance of power in the game in regards to proper GM's and ones that just spend other people's money. So if ManU have £750m in debt then why is the bank allowing something more than 30 years to pay that back? assuming NO interest is on the debt which isn't the case, that means they need to pay something like £25m per year ALONE (equal to about a £480.7k per week player!!). however that debt is just going up which means someone is giving them more money so it's really the banks and the debt holders that should be keeping tabs on this.

[rudi]

Not sure about the other things you wrote but I know for a fact that the contracts in NBA and MLB are fully guaranteed.

Yeah sorry, I should have made that clear (although MLB does use a sries of targets to hit called arbitration in some contracts; I have no idea about the NBA as it's a retarded game).

why is the bank allowing something more than 30 years to pay that back?

Sounds like a mortgage to me.

[Rev John Ripsher]

I seem to remember thinking that Man U were paying back something like £5m a month , which is what all the supporters are freaking at . I mean a change of ownership sees a club go from having money in the bank to being £800M in debt . If they have even a couple of bad seasons, very likely after Ferguson goes , then they are in Huuuuge trouble . The debt will soon pile up without being on TV every week , and playing in 4 competitions till the latter stages .

[grottim]

The thing is about money in the game is that the main reason for it is us, the fans. Lets face it we're all quite happy to pay £30/40 a game to go and watch spurs play. However i also think that a lot of us would be willing to pay £50/£60 a game to go and see the spurs. Even if every ticket at WHL was that price the stadium would be filled every week. Same for OT, stamford bridge and the emirates. Clubs realise that they have to cash in and make as much money as possible because money is the thing that can make a team significantly better.

Also the huge TV deals since Sky entered the fray have meant that clubs get much more money through Tv rights.

Finally inflation in the players and player wages markets is the big problem for clubs. Atm it's unsustainable as player wages are just going to keep increasing. For example Yaya Toure is a fairly average player yet hes on 220k a week. Better players will look at how much hes being paid and say if hes worth 220k then i must be worth 300k. The big clubs will pay that kind of money because they can afford it and the player will demand it and theyll want to get there man. The problem has really increased in the last 10 years as this is when the big money has come into the game.

It's also affecting smaller clubs i come from a part of north london called barnet and they have a side that only just escaped relegation from league 2. It's a small club yet there are players who are very average on 1k+ a week. The money in football just goes around like a vicious cycle and in the end i think that we'll start seeing a huge number of clubs go bust. Imagine what would happen if the Sheikh got bored and left Man City, also liverpool and Man U arent in the best of financial positions either.