Football

It’s a divisive subject, make no mistake about it. The very mention of the game will have some people frothing at the mouth about a mistake (or wonderful piece of skill) while others will be equally animated about what a pointless game it is, supported by neanderthals.

I like football, but I’m not a neanderthal (although I am biased). I think my enjoyment came from playing the game first, as a kid, and being a fan came second. Still, I enjoy watching the best players in the world dazzle audiences with breathtaking moments of skill. Like most people though I do not enjoy watching some chancer collapse like he’s been shot in the face because an opposing player brushed his elbow. Gamesmanship, or ‘cheating’ as I like to call it, is increasing within the game but I see little effort to stamp in out (excuse the pun). These cheats never seem to be punished after the game when video replays clearly show they’ve tried to con the ref (and a couple of million people watching). How do these guys have the nerve to face anyone when they know TV cameras will have captured them writhing around the floor in pretend agony before jumping to their feet with a smile on their face once the referee falls for their charade and cautions the other player? It’s embarrassing.

What gets me really going is the word soccer; a word invented to describe football by people who barely play the game (because they quite liked the name football and wanted it for their own sport). Look, we had it first okay? Please make the effort to come up with a more appropriate name for American football. If we’re being accurate, maybe you could go with Handegg since you throw the ball and it’s shaped like an egg. See what I did there? How you can pretend to call a game football when neither a foot nor a ball is involved is beyond me.

I have nothing against the game of American football. It doesn’t really interest me and I don’t find it entertaining but, as an Englishman, I’m not about to go down the ‘real men play rugby’ road I hear so often because I do understand the differences. In rugby you play the ball, in American football you play the man and if someone weighing 130kgs was running at me with the sole intention of flipping me upside down then I’d want armour too. And maybe a gun.

Of course the thing which really gets the anti-football brigade in gear are the salaries. As we know, there is no salary cap in place. When the old English First Division ceased to exist and was replaced by the Premier League (in 1992), the average salary of a player in the league was reported to be £75,000 per year. By 2000 this figure had risen to £409,000 and was up to £676,000 in 2003. Now it’s around £1,200,000. That’s more than £21,000 a week, which is around the national average wage… for a year.

Let’s not forget that those are the average figures. Some will be earning less, but then many of them do little more than warm the bench for a team fighting relegation week in, week out. At the other end of the scale some players are earning mind boggling figures. After Wayne Rooney stated his intention to leave Manchester United he was eventually persuaded to stay and this was doubtless aided by a significant pay rise. Estimations vary, but the figure banded around is around the £200,000 mark… a week. That’s a cool £10m a year, before personal sponsorship deals. It’s not that unusual though and there are more than a few players on similar amounts of money, if not more. When Christiano Ronaldo left Manchester United for Real Madrid in a world record £80m transfer in 2008 he struck a deal which earned him cash by the bucket load. But the salaries from their clubs don’t present the whole picture. According to Forbes, David Beckham and Ronaldo collected £29.3m and £27.1m respectively last year. Reckon you could get by on half a million pounds a week?

The trouble is, people see these figures and they then see the country in a recession and people struggling to pay rent. What do these footballers do that deserves so much money – a ludicrous amount of money? They’re not curing cancer and they’re not saving lives, they’re simply playing a game that many people do across the world for free. Fans are being charged more and more at the turnstiles and must wonder sometimes why they bother when they see a dire performance from one of their team’s players before he hops in his Lamborghini and heads back to his eight bedroomed mansion.

The answer is simple: supply and demand. That’s not an opinion, it’s a fact. You might not agree with Ronaldo’s wages but the point is that you cannot do what he can with a football. People pay to be entertained by him, media pay for broadcast rights and companies pay to be associated with him. Absolutely, it is a far less significant role than the nurse at your local hospital but many more people are capable of performing that role and the salary reflects it. It might not be right and it might not be moral, but it is the way of the world.

Former player Robbie Savage waded into a discussion on the subject, citing that his fellow professionals were worth the money. He was quoted out of context by the press, even though he said that soldiers and medical professionals should be paid more. His final point was “who wouldn’t take the money if it’s on offer?”

Football is not alone in this respect. Forbes list the top ten highest paid athletes and it only contains two footballers. The rest come from boxing, golf, basketball, tennis and American football. Despite Tiger Woods suffering sex scandals, the break-up of his marriage and the loss of sponsors he probably wouldn’t get out of bed for Ronaldo’s wages. He reportedly pocked £37.8m last year. Although that’s a huge amount of money he was still beaten by Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao with the former collecting a very tidy £54.2m. I’m sure that’ll be comforting while he’s sat in his jail cell.

There has to be a ceiling for these wages, but you wonder where it is. Go back to my earlier figure of £21,000 a week for the average player in the English Premier League and compare that to the £100 earned by players when England won the World Cup in 1966. That’s quite some increase (even when you include inflation).

Having said that, after England’s recent performances many people would have begrudged them earning even £100. This is a common complaint: do these millionaire footballers care? Of course they care, but do they care enough? After all they’re set for life and have everything they need. I’ll be honest, I can’t understand an argument which revolves around saying, “you’re paid a fortune, just do better”. You could pay me millions and I wouldn’t be any good; the money is irrelevant in that respect.