Like many top tiers of professional sport, football's got itself into a right tangle over player wages. If what I'm reading is correct, the drop in ticket and other sales revenue during covid coupled with having to pay many players ridiculous amounts of £££ has led to a financial squeeze.
• English Premier League salary 2018/19 | Statista
If you take Man City, in £ their average player salary for 18/19 was £6.3 million, roughly £121k per week. Now, let's imagine it was agreed globally that player wages should be capped at £2 million annually, roughly £38.5k weekly. So, no matter what club a player plays for, they can't earn more. The top players, even those purely driven by money, would still want the top club positions as they couldn't earn more elsewhere. For youngsters, the drive and ambition to get better and climb through the ranks would still be there, as earning tens of thousands a week would still be preferable to having a so-called ordinary job, no?
This is what makes me laugh whether in business or sport when people trot out the line 'it's what the market demands.' If the market capped the wages, those wanting to reach the top would still have that desire.
In short, the ridiculously high wages aren't needed.
And if anyone thinks the top clubs are still connected to their roots, even tenuously, they're deluded. Many of these clubs were maybe started by and for the average working person, look where they are now.
• English Premier League salary 2018/19 | Statista
If you take Man City, in £ their average player salary for 18/19 was £6.3 million, roughly £121k per week. Now, let's imagine it was agreed globally that player wages should be capped at £2 million annually, roughly £38.5k weekly. So, no matter what club a player plays for, they can't earn more. The top players, even those purely driven by money, would still want the top club positions as they couldn't earn more elsewhere. For youngsters, the drive and ambition to get better and climb through the ranks would still be there, as earning tens of thousands a week would still be preferable to having a so-called ordinary job, no?
This is what makes me laugh whether in business or sport when people trot out the line 'it's what the market demands.' If the market capped the wages, those wanting to reach the top would still have that desire.
In short, the ridiculously high wages aren't needed.
And if anyone thinks the top clubs are still connected to their roots, even tenuously, they're deluded. Many of these clubs were maybe started by and for the average working person, look where they are now.
