The Greed of Modern Football

Believe it or not, there was once a time when footballers used to earn less than an average punter.  Before Jimmy Hill led his campaign, football was the only professional occupation to have a maximum wage, meaning that players wages couldn't top a certain amount.  Even though the top wage was a nice sum of money, it was rare that anyone actually earned it.  Clubs could do what they wanted - and with them not being liable to pay their players their full wage during the close season, many had to find a job in order to pay the rent.  On a house owned by the club, naturally.  Clubs could also retain a players' registration once their contracts expired, meaning that they could play god with a players' career and not transfer their registration if they didn't want to.  Football used to be a job where people played it for pleasure, a job which was far easier than working in a factory or down a pit all week.  The lack of money and lack of support from a club seemed like a easy ransom to pay.

These days, it's the supporters who are being held to ransom by the very club they support.  Once, we were the lifeblood of the club, the ones who used to pay the wages and fill the pockets of greedy directors who hung young men out to dry.  Today, we just fill the pockets of greedy directors.  We're not needed to keep a club running.  I don't care if Arsenal are a top side in London - £62 (or £94 against Spurs) is just TOO MUCH for a average person to afford in a climate where more people are being made redundant than jobs created.

For once, I'm not going to blame the players for the rise in ticket prices, because lets face it - there is no club that pays it's entire wage bill on gate receipts alone.  Wages of players have gone out of control since the abolishing of the maximum wage, but is it really the fault of a player when a club offers you that amount of money?  Once the maximum wage went (and more recently, the introduction of the Bosman rule), then clubs knew they had to do something to keep their better 'assets', rather than see them go to a rival for nothing. Paying them a ridiculous wage seemed like the only way for them to do it.  Is that really the fault of the player?  .

Looking back, you can see that it's the clubs that created this high-wage culture in football, through their own greed and for them to act all innocent about the issue and blame players, is just wrong.  Don't get me wrong, today there's probably many players out there who are only interested in money, but when you grow up in a culture that throws £1,000 a week at a 16 year-old, in order to keep him at the club, how are you supposed to turn out? On another hand, Football players seem to be an easy target for this type of criticism, whereas movie actors, for example, are paid $20 million for 3 months work on a film that isn't that great anyway. And who foots the bill for it, after it's passed from studio to studio to distributor to cinema? You the moviegoer!  Football seems to be too transparent at times, giving people the opportunity to tear it apart, but yet when it comes to the important things like finance and where it goes, the truth is hard to find. I wonder why?

If we look at the league now, the majority of each clubs outgoings are paid off with money from Television.  Latics relies on this even more than most clubs though, but still keep lower ticket prices to attract supporters.  True, our chairman had his fingers burnt with trying to rise prices during our second season (when in reality, he should have lowered them to keep those 'new' supporters who appeared from nowhere for our first season in the PL), but since then the reality has set in that people from Wigan can't afford to spend £35 a week each on a football match.  Statistics show that our fanbase is slowly growing and without the heavily discounted tickets, this wouldn't happen.  So fair play to the club for actually having a think about things and putting a long-term plan in place.

When I mention something like the above though, you always get the same argument 'well, Arsenal are better than Wigan and don't need to attract supporters'.  True, but there's always that loyal Arsenal supporter who will never be able to afford a season ticket.  The club knows this and they know that a richer type will roll up and splash the cash. Maybe buy a Bruschetta or two?  But are they a true supporter? Do they love the club? Are they only there for a status symbol, so they can brag to others?  If you ever hear that argument from someone, just point out that Bayern Munich charge barely £100 for their cheapest season ticket.  Bayern Munich, one of the world's most successful club sides. Argument over.

To be honest, I'm sick of hearing how the Premier League is 'the best in the world' - just compare it to Germany.  The only people that rock the 'best in the world' statement are the media types, SKY especially.  Personally, I'm a football supporter, you know one that actually wants to go to every game but can't afford to these days.  In Germany, they don't just offer fans cheap tickets, they offer free use of public transport and some even offer free away travel.  And this a league who gets LESS TV money than England.  The atmosphere inside the grounds is amazing too and that's because the true supporters are able to afford a ticket.  Football shouldn't be excluding these people, it NEEDS these people to further enhance their 'product' to the world, watching on their televisions and computer devices.  People will point out that Germany has a problem holding on to the very best players, but again, England gets much more TV money so holding on to them shouldn't be a problem.  And if things carry on the way they do - Germany will become the more attractive model to foreign television, in a couple of years anyway.

As I've said - let's stop this argument of 'the ticket prices pay for the players', because they clearly don't.  Obviously, the bigger clubs are able to spend more than the likes of Wigan because of an higher income from gate receipts, but Arsenal have been making profit upon profit every year and spending very little on players. Even if they halved their ticket prices and then drew up a sensible wage structure, they'd probably still clear a profit, or at least break even. But they have owners and directors to make money for. Some clubs have loans to pay off - and that's where the majority of the ticket money is going to. And that's the problem with the game - too many third parties who aren't interested in developing a football club for the local community. Which is what the majority of clubs were formed for.

I really hope the league gets a kick up the arse and lowers the prices, which will get the true supporters back. Maybe if something was done about getting more away supporters to games, the atmosphere inside every ground will be even better? Just think about it, Premier League and club directors - maybe you'll end up getting EVEN MORE television money to slip into your big pockets?