This could prove to be the very point of the beginning of the end, of the true values of football. No longer do clubs in England have to spend years building a reputation by producing great home-grown players of their own, unearthing talent for reasonable prices and winning trophies through sheer great management but instead for clubs such as Manchester City and Chelsea money brings instant success.
The Premier League needs to limit the amount of money a club spends in the transfer window, this is a problem in itself. At first seeing foreign names grace English football was a breath of fresh air. When Middlesbrough signed Brazil star, Juninho and Ravenelli it seemed that English football was moving forward into a new era and the Premier League was making way for ‘a golden age’.
As the new millennium hit this carried on further as yet more money poured into the Premier League, more foreign superstars followed, the likes of Henry, Crespo and Di Canio. It all changed with the catalyst in 2003 when Russian Billionaire; Roman Ambromvich walked through the gates at Stamford Brdge and changed football with his oil money taking the power and popularity of the Premier League to a new level.
The main qualms with money in football is that its affecting the wage structure. Player wages for the 2011-12 Premier League season reached a record £1.6 billion pounds. This represents a 70% wages to revenue ratio, a figure that would be completely untenable in any other business. High wages also eats away at the integrity of the game meaning that football has been ruined and controlled by money.
Players are no longer loyal to their clubs, but act more like mercenaries constantly vying for a larger pay cheque and moving to other clubs who may pay them £200k a week.
The opinion of the economist of football; Arsene Wenger on money within the game is particularly interesting , claiming the Premier League has ‘sold its soul’ to television but calls for fair play in rescheduling; “”We have sold our soul and we do not control our fixtures any more. It is the truth and I cannot say the television is wrong, but it is not normal that you can have a direct influence on the schedule through the television. The Premier League has to make sure there is a bit more fairness in the schedules.”
A football club plays an integral part in the “working class” communities as a sport which brings people together and communities together. A Premier League ticket is now the in demand ticket in the country, BBC Sport’s “Price of Football” has shown, that fans in the Premier League are paying between £15 and £126 for match day tickets this season, with season tickets costing up to £1,955.
It’s a sad state of affairs to see, hard working and dedicated football fans from working class backgrounds, who love the game, are being driven away by ticket price hikes, it exposes the ugly side of the beautiful game.
Last month saw the debate of money in football rage on further, with the ticket price issues but this time Arsenal football club were at the centre of a media hysteria, a club once run by tradition but sadly has left behind its “working class” fans when it moved from the traditional Highbury Stadium to the multi-million pound state Emirates stadium.
The illustration of the fans frustration and anger towards being “priced out” the game they love, hit boiling point, with the protest from a small section of away fans at The Emirates Stadium in the game against Man City. Its ironic in some respects that the richest club in the country fans were protesting about ticket prices but most regions of Manchester are “working class” and high inflated ticket prices for games in the south for Arsenal aren’t economically reasonable or fair.
In protests,the away City fans at The Emirates Stadium held a painted bed sheet with the message reading; ‘Where will it stop?’ It was a complaint about the fact that Manchester City’s travelling fans had been charged £62 for tickets to see their team play Arsenal — a fee that has become symbolic of the apparent money grabbing that governs English top-flight football. The protest against money in football.
The wealth of money brings with it the power to pay over the odds wages, sometimes in excess of £200,000 a week, to attract the most talented players in the world. Changes and restrictions are slowly being enforced in football, with the FIFA implementing a new ‘financial fair play’ regulations in the coming season, which will be interesting to see how effective it is in controlling and restricting money within football. Football may already sold its soul to money and it’s too late to change.
What would the true greats of the past in football think of the influence and power that money has in the game? True greats such as Bill Shankly, Don Revie or Brian Clough make of this? Gone are the days where a manager no matter how talented could take a club of Nottingham Forest’s size to 2 European cups.
FIFA and UEFA are losing grip of football and some rules and restrictions need to be put in place before the real spirit of football is lost forever and it becomes a business rather than a spectacle.
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