COLUMNIST JOE JENNINGS
Money in Football — Root of all Evil
Comments (10) : I continue to stress and fret about the effect money is having on the tarnished game we call football. Maybe to some it has become tedious, others intriguing, one thing's for certain, it is an issue that must be addressed.
Look at players wages, for example. There is no doubt in my mind that the spiralling wage costs are threatening to cripple the formerly "beautiful" game.
In my opinion, if no cap is introduced you are continually going to have the likes of Man Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea winning everything with the rare scenario where another side does relatively well. Now you have to adore the predictability! It's all rosy if you support one of the "Top 3" but what about the loyal supporters of the sixteen remaining clubs?
Whether a cap will ever be implemented is another question. Can you really imagine England's top clubs voluntarily signing a "treaty" stating they will not offer a player no more than a stipulated amount. It will never happen, it's pie in the sky, and that's what I find frustrating.
For the moment, I suggest merely sitting back with gritted teeth and watch the current competition between Europe's prominent leagues play itself out. The underlying competitive cards appear to be stacked in England's favour, partly thanks to all that competition which a certain Mrs Thatcher introduced, and the way Mr Murdoch responded on the television front.
A salary cap has, as far as I'm aware, in most sports "levelled the playing field" if you like, where every team in the competition, league or division has a chance of being crowned champions, now surely that is a more attractive proposition. The football I fell in love with wasn't based on knowing only one of three teams could win the championship. Look at the 1980's, any team could put a good run together and be in with a chance. Now that's exhilirating, what other major league in the world can now boast that?
Don't get me wrong, I certainly understand how complicated it could and would be implementing a cap, but for the sake of the beautiful game, there should be someway, somehow for the governing body to find that solution that many would appear to crave.
Maybe I wouldn't be so incensed if some footballers actually earned their money rather than have it delivered by the busload. Surely many of us are simply sick and tired of watching useless midfielders shouting a few instructions, then consequently disappearing for the remainder of the game, "Bambi" like wingers and strikers who couldnt finish a bag of crisps. By all means, reward loyalty, commitment and sheer ability, otherwise players wages will be further scrutinised, and will continue to be seen for what they truly are, obscene and scandolous.
Looking at clubs like Leeds and Forest sinking to the depths, partly due to finance sums it all up. Football used to be about identity. Supporters at matches were mainly devotees of the club, as opposed to observers who held no preference. The majority of teams had a core of players who would stay with the club for long periods of time as opposed to moving on when they merely got bored or "homesick". Even managers generally stuck around long enough to be identified with one club too, Sir Alex or Dario, anyone?
There used to be a pretty much full fixture list on a Saturday, with weekday matches being relatively rare and unheard of. Match of the Day on a Saturday night resultingly usually had more than three matches on it, or dare I say decent analyzers.
You genuinely got the impression that the professionals you idolised really put their heart and soul into playing for ninety minutes on a Saturday, rather than simply just turning up to see how many stepovers or fake passes they could tally in a match.
People didn't despair about matches being "boring as there isn't enough goals". Most matches were of poor quality at that time but it didnt particularly matter. Dull football was what most teams adopted in England. Near enough every time a centre-back touched the ball it was to either hoof it upfield or to stick it in the desirable section known as Row Z.
In my eyes, the football I worship is still more about myself working hard as part of a team, scoring goals, chasing titles and cups that anybody can win, playing for my Sunday league side than the Champions League juggernaut as it swallows up international football, and continues to dwarf several national competitions. Maybe we cannot deflect capitalist football from its destiny, its chosen path, but we sure can try. If implemented correctly, I really do believe a salary cap could save the Premiership. Those that believe in it, really should get their full weight behind it. It's all very well that certain groups once fought "so valiantly" in favour of a cap, we need direct action if anything. Petitions are not suffice.
I love Everton beyond belief, but I get the sense, even my greatest passion will soon follow the unwritten equation that will make up the ultimate side, something clubs "should" strive for. This will sadden me deeply, but it is the harsh reality. If you ask me, money is the root of all evil with regards to football. I have continually stressed that money is ruining the game we have all, to some degree, fallen for. The proof is in the pudding folks, believe me now?
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I can see Joe?s overall point. I dont think he?s suggesting he will stop watching Everton nor the Premiership but is just listing the reasons he dislikes it, fair enough.
It works in American sports, whether it could work over here, I dont know.
Also, we do not grant first draft pick of the best prospect in ’soccer’ to the team that comes last.
Were Everton not know as the ’merseyside millionaires’? was this because we were poverty stricken, average or relatively rich? Have Everton never broken the transfer record? Did Everton’s monetary advantage over many years not pay off in terms of relative and consistent high league position and overall trophy history? This moaning article has been written simply because Abramovich did not choose to live in Liverpool and buy a blue shirted club there. If he had your post would have a title more like ’which 2 from 3 of our £70 million strikeforce are the best’?
If you want ’identity’ look at the GAA in Ireland, all players are amateur players play for their home club/county for the whole of their playing career...sometimes that club is a small rural parish in a lower league and the individuals are brillant top-level players but they HAVE TO AND WILLINGLY stay put and play with their family, neighbours and schoolmates FOR LIFE. Football has never had such values. Please don’t pretend it has.
As for the 80’s - four different football clubs won 1st division titles as opposed to 6 in the ninties...and I remember Liverpool dominating then? where were you Joe? does a few different teams coming second somehow distort your perception of this fact?
For what it is worth I think Moyes has built the squad with the most sense of ’identity’ in the league. As much as is possible in "capitalist" football at least.
There is a feeling amongst some of us that the advent of the Premiership and the concomitant Sky Money represents a story of inevitable progress and change and all Evertonians must simply ?get on board? with this mantra and stop hankering for the past. Yes it is true to say that during the seventies eighties and nineties league title wins were dominated by a small number of clubs as they are now, but there were some fairly unsubtle differences as teams like QPR and Ipswich did challenge for titles and teams such as Derby and Forest won it. It is also worth considering the diversity of teams who both challenged for and won the FA Cup. The recent Cup runs of WBA, Barnsley and Cardiff has reignited interest across the board simply because it has reintroduced the concept of the underdog prevailing and has saved us from yet another sterile offering from the usual suspects.
The author Francis Fukuyama (Yes it really is his name) coined the phrase ?The end of History? as he intimated the supremacy of capitalist liberal democracies over all other forms of government. When I read some of the posts in ToffeeWeb I sometimes feel that many contributors have accepted that it is ?The end of History? for football in England and the we must bow down to the Hegemony of the top four forever. I think this viewpoint is as short-sighted as Fukuyamas and just as depressing. As we witness a global credit and finance crisis due to a lack of confidence in the system, can we assume that football and it?s over inflated egos and debts will be immune, perhaps? Perhaps not?
In the film Wall Street, Gordon Gekko states that ?greed is good? a philosophy that Sky, Football clubs and players (and fans?) appear to have immersed themselves in. I think that Joe?s Jennings post is lament for a time when football clubs more accurately reflected the community they are meant to serve, when a sense of fairness pervaded our national psyche, and when we were not subjected to football on TV 24/7 thanks to Sky. I am sick of the marketing, posturing and the circus of the premiership so before you leap all over this and accuse of me being a luddite, remember it is these developments that had Scudamore suggesting we play a 39th game abroad with our club tentatively lending its support to the idea.
Everton the Peoples Club??
I totally agree with your sentiments but I would like to make a couple of points.
I played semi pro in the late 60s and a wage cape was introduced of $27 per week.
Now I have to be careful here but there was something called a brown envelope which was sent around if you did well in a particular game?
Also sport has moved on so much since then and is now controlled by the media and not the supporters and for good or bad football is now a global sport and massive moneyspinner.
Now I object to somebody who was fortunate to be born with a good voice (and some who weren't) earning millions out of the general public.
However, I have to say that given the dedication and skill of some of the top footballers and given their short career span they probably deserve good money. My only objection to this is that there are too many average journeymen making far too much out of the game.
As to your point about ruining the beautiful game, I couldn't agree more but in this age of money and greed it just reflects life in general I?m sad to say.
Salary caps work in other forms of sport and I think it could work in football as well.
Peter - I disagree with some of your comments. You say that a salary cap would see a players exodus to other leagues. That would not be an issue as any cap brought in would have to be done across the board and implemented by FIFA, not just in the EPL. You talk of a Euro Super League, well that’s been talked of already, so I don’t see how a salary cap would have an effect. Again FIFA have the power to stop such a super league.
Let’s just stick our heads in the sand shall we and ignore it for another 10 years. If the game can last that long.
I love football and I love to watch the best players play, but I am not blind to the fact that money is slowly squeezing the life out of the "beautiful game". Even the so called top teams are never far from going bankrupt, a few bad seasons with no CL or domestic titles and suddenly the 2 or 300m gambled on players to achieve success cripples the club and they spiral into receivership.
I don’t have all the answers but I know that this can’t go on for much longer without having a serious and lasting effect on the game we all know and love.
Here’s to us hopefully breaking the monopoly and snatching fourth.
COYB!!
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1 Posted 19/03/2008 at 23:12:06
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A salary cap on the premiership will introduce one of two senarios.
A) An exodus of players to another league, this may be Serie A or La Liga but more than likely the growing MLS in the states or a breakaway asian league (see cricket)
B) It will hasten a pan European league, clubs like the soon to be disbanded G14 will create a league where the top talent in the world will play for greater rewards.
You simply cannot turn the clock back, the old first division is now comparable to the Championship were any team can put together the form to get to the play offs and a bite at the premiership cake.
The championship has all the drama excitement and drudgery that you long for from the past.
The premiership with its impoted players is fast becoming the single dominant football league throughout the world if Uefa do not do something they can forget the Champions League in ten to fifteen years time because it will be thoughly dominated by English clubs with a possible six or eight represented.
My suggestion is you stop watching premiership if you dont like it and watch the championship it really is the old first division.
However I for one enjoy the premiership and I am dreading the end of the season and three months without football.