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Transfer Market gone mad – Consequences of Money in the game!

Recent times have seen Premier League clubs have vast resources when it comes to Transfer fees and wages. This week’s transfer of Ashley Young to Manchester United being generally regarded as a good deal for 17 million pounds gives an idea of how far things have gone in the last 15 years since Alan Shearer was a world record 15 million pound player.

It is well documented that the growth of television money coming to the English game from Sky and also television stations across the globe has meant teams have unparalleled annual income. Having such assets and focused attention has made clubs into global brands and in turn means many wealthy billionaire sports fans crave having their own club.  Liverpool have witnessed the down side of this whereas Chelsea and Manchester City seem to have a bottomless pit of funds in order to reach the realms of success.

Is having the money in the top league healthy for the future of the sport? There are numerous positives, the fans get to see the top players in the world each week, the league is considered the most high tempo and competitive in the world and the this can surely only encourage kids to play the game that is now so high profile that matches are on TV more frequently than ever. The downsides are plentiful also, football originally known as the working mans sport is now exceedingly expensive to go and view live, it could be argued that the product on display have never been better but the distance financially between players and normal fan is now astronomical. The English national team hasn’t prospered at all as there are more foreign players than English in almost every team in the league and it has never been harder for a young player to get a break through into the first team of any EPL club. The gap between the other lower leagues will only get greater as the money increases.

The rise of money has been more evident in England than most other countries but others still spend big most notably Real Madrid who in one outrageous summer tried to grasp success back from all conquering Barcelona by shelling out £80 million on Cristiano Ronaldo and £56 million on Kaka. Barcelona too spend big with Zlatan Ibrahimovic and David Villa not coming cheap but as we all know the essence of their team and club philosophy comes from the youth set up. Other clubs such as Bayern Munich, Porto and even Lyon in recent times have spent big money. The rise of the Russian league is also notable and should only blossom further in the run up to the 2018 World Cup. Italy used to lead the way in terms of transfer fees but recent years have seen a slump in revenue due to bad TV deals but large sums are still invested into the top clubs.

 

The difference with the English league seems to be that a lot of mediocre players are being paid massive wages and commanding over the top transfer fee’s especially if they are indeed English. Liverpool’s acquisition of North East due Jordan Henderson and Andy Carroll for a combined 55 million pounds is almost ridiculous, although these players have undoubted talent and huge potential they should not be commanding such inflated prices. Although the English league is considered the best the secondary teams in the league haven’t faired so well in Europe and do not inspire confidence when playing on the continent, all too often teams like Aston Villa, Everton and this year even Man City have fell to so called lesser teams in the Europa league. Man City have assembled a good squad but do I think any other country in Europe would value Joleon Lescott and James miller at a combined price of 48 million pounds, I don’t think so.

So where does the future of the beautiful game lie? The reality is football is big business and new followers seem to be absorbed each year from every part of the globe. With technology evolving at such speed football will be available on even more platforms which the dedicated fan will pay for. FIFA are to bring in a rule in 2014 to try to limit the influence of foreign owners. In short, the idea is that over a rolling three year period, clubs must keep their operating losses below a certain limit. I feel if this is introduced correctly across the board it could work and see a more competitive European competition as just now the top leagues of Spain, England Germany and Italy are growing the smaller leagues such Holland, Scotland and Portugal seem to be in general decline. It was only just over 20 years ago Rangers signed England Captain Terry Butcher, this just wouldn’t happen now. The English Premier league will continue to lure in foreign talent as players now view the league as the promise land of a professional footballer. I don’t think the world record £80 million will be broken soon by an English club but I do see the mid market player value continuing to rise meaning top 10 clubs will all be paying £20 million for average players more often.

Rival sports still eclipse football though with American footballers, basketball players and basketball stars all earning outlandish fees for job they have. Recently retired footballer Gary Neville gives the view of a player on the money earned in football. “Others earn billions selling rights and 75,000 come to watch us every week. There’s a product there that people love. Fans are crucial but without the player you have nothing.”

“Architects leave their business, caterers move restaurants – this is life. People want a better wage. Is there too much money in other businesses, like banking? When a kid kicks the ball aged six, he is thinking about dreams, not money.”

The world is driven by money but football has always been a simple game, things will grow around it but luckily the art of the game will always remain

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