Footballers Wages: Where does it stop?

The prospect for anyone to earn from £50,000 to £250,000- a -week is an enticing prospect, but it is a concern whether there will be even more money given to footballers earning these superstar wages.  It doesn’t look like there will be a wage limit  clubs will restrict on players, but eventually by the rate of which the wages are increasing  it won’t be unusual in the future to see players on £1,000,000-a-week.

Premier League Football teams such as Chelsea and Manchester City are supported by extremely wealthy people, so money is not an issue for them, and are able to buy the very best players, from the very best leagues, offering the very best salaries. A side effect of these wages are that clubs who are not able to pay their players as well as some of the “bigger” clubs, lose out on their star performers to those clubs that can offer them the biggest pay checks. In the English Barclays Premier League during the 2011/2012 season, Manchester City dominated and ended their Premier League heartache by winning the title after a 40 year drought. This shows that the money invested in the team paid off, but not all the teams are given unlimited funds to spend.

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In addition to their salary, players are offered bonuses in their contracts. So for example, Barcelona Megastar Lionel Messi, (currently he is earning 180,000 Euros –a- week) is given a clause in his contract allowing him to make 10% of his salary per every goal that he scores. That would estimate 18,000 Euros per goal. Last season he scored 72 goals for his club. That is, 1,296,000 Euros in bonuses.  His contract for the year, £9,360,000. Add to that the bonuses for scoring, his salary would have been, 10,656,000 Euros. In addition add sponsorship deals for Adidas & Pepsi, endorsements, and additional bonuses for winning trophies and he earned over 20,000,000 Euros for the year.

Having said that, footballers are faced with challenges before making it up to the professional levels as Lionel Messi.

To become a footballer takes incredible determination, as many fail trying to fulfil their football dreams. They must start young, and adopt a strict level of training, focus, strengthening and conditioning their bodies. They must sacrifice an ordinary lifestyle, and face the scrutiny of the media. They must be able to recover from criticism by pundits, coaches, team mates, and sports writers. The have to bear the expectation and perform strongly on the biggest stages of all.  They must perform week in and week out in front of millions even billions of viewers. When they do become professional footballers, it is even harder for them to stay professional as there is always more talent being produced and their place in a team can’t be guaranteed.

Certainly, it is a demanding profession. However, more must be done by football governing bodies so that they are able to contain the amount the clubs are paying to their players. It seems like there won’t be a restriction as clubs use money as power to shift players in their favour. Of course it will be difficult for the player to turn down the opportunity of a luxurious salary, but money is beginning to re-shape the future of football.

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