Why Do Footballers Get Paid So Much

Polemic – why do footballers get paid so much?

Why do footballers get so much money? It’s ridiculous. No way in the world should anyone get around thirty grand a week (which is nothing in football nowadays) and up to over one hundred grand in some cases, for kicking a football around a football pitch for ninety minutes.

It’s not like they work really hard for it because, let’s face it, most of them don’t even have the passion for the game. Rugby players have passion, singing the national anthem at the top of their voices before international games, whereas footballers have a look on them which says let’s get this over with.

The money is what the players want. Not the trophies, not the medals, not the parades around the city after cup wins, just plain and simple: it’s the money. The money they get most definitely sets them up for life, but are they satisfied? No.

Football in Italy has a rule where by football clubs can only offer players a maximum weekly wage of fifty thousand pounds in our money. Still it’s a lot of money but at least Italy recognise that footballers get paid too much. This rule would be fantastic if it went worldwide. This would stop the players being so demanding of their club. In some cases footballers tell their clubs that they want a certain amount of weekly wages on their new contract or they will leave. If the player is too good to lose then the clubs often cave into the players demands. Football has to go back to the way it was years back in the sense that clubs and managers had more control over players then than what they do know. Getting clubs back in control of the players and the wage cap rule would put an end to all the players’ selfishness, greediness and power. All the great players of the past; Stanley Matthews, Nobby Stiles, Pele etc all great players yet they didn’t get anywhere near as much as players do today. In fact your average premiership player probably gets more in a year than what they did in two or three years. And why do players get more today? It’s because of the TV deals, the sponsorship and most notably the fans. With fans paying up to thirty five pounds for some matches, the clubs are getting huge amounts of money from them which is contributing to the players wages. But, you can’t blame the fans for going to the games but they’re paying most of the player’s wages in reality.

When its time to discuss a new contract I would bet everything I had that all the players want more money and feel they should get more money on a new contract than on their old one. It’s pure greed. They’ve got money people can only dream of having but they want more.

Even though they have all the money, the majority of them don’t play the game correctly, they cheat. By cheating I mean diving. By diving I mean falling over like they’ve just been shot when the opposition player barely touched them. So really I should change it from players getting money for kicking a football for ninety minutes to players getting money for kicking a football and falling over for ninety minutes!

Footballers can kick footballs (obviously) but what makes them better than me or you? I can kick a football. What makes them better than all of those university graduates who have worked hard to earn a decent living? What footballers get in a week, those graduates only get in a year, if that!

As I’ve mentioned, some players get over one hundred grand a week. David Beckham is the perfect example to use for this. It was announced in January 2007 that David Beckham will be joining LA (Los Angeles) Galaxy (a football club in America) in the summer of 2007. According to the BBC, apparently he will get one hundred and twenty eight million pounds (that’s, £128,000,000) over a five year contract which works out to about two hundred and fifty one million dollars ($251,000,000). I have worked it out to be twenty five point six million (£25,600,000) pounds a year, which is about fifty million dollars ($50,000,000). That works out to four hundred and ninety two thousand (£492,000) pounds a week, which is about nine hundred and sixty six ($966,000) dollars a week. Even worse! Also, the cost of living is cheaper in America so potentially he is getting more money.

When I mentioned some players are greedy and only want money, well the perfect example here would be Lucas Neill, a West Ham United player. Lucas chose to join West Ham over Liverpool in January 2007. Anyone who knows their football will tell you that Liverpool are a bigger team than West Ham. To simplify it, Liverpool are the most successful team in England, West Ham aren’t. Therefore he (Lucas Neill) cannot say he joined West Ham because they are a bigger club. He joined because of the money. No other reason. Liverpool offered him about thirty thousand pounds a week, whereas West Ham offered him about fifty thousand pound a week. And where did he go; yes West Ham. It proves he went there for more money when he probably already has millions in the bank!

Something needs to be done about this. It’s getting out of hand. Before you know it players will be getting upto a quarter of a million a week, that’s the way it is heading. Clubs, Football Associations (FA’s), FIFA, UEFA, whoever, needs to realise that the money is becoming crazy and the players don’t do enough to get that amount of money. They don’t save lives; they don’t teach and give people educations. I hope something can be done otherwise it will leave a lot of football clubs in debt and will eventually lead to smaller clubs being unable to keep up with the money for wages. It would be a shame should that happen because it will spoil such as good sport.

Now I know people will be thinking, ‘well if you were a footballer you wouldn’t be complaining’. I think I would. I believe in helping others in need of help and there are far more important things that need funding right now in the world than ridiculous footballers wages. Global warming? Poverty?