Motorists, Equity & Unity Party
Opinion Column Archives
No. 21 The Astronomical wages of our footballers
Is it not amazing how some of our players think they are Gods ? A player in the Manchester City team recently refused an offer of £30,000 per week ! Do these players not realise that the money they earn is paid for by the supporters, most of whom earn less than £20,000 per year. A large percentage of the supporters are teenagers, some still at school and therefore earning what they can doing paper rounds or part-time work in superstores during the weekends.
If the supporters stayed away there wouldn’t be any money to pay the wages of the office staff, let alone the players demanding such high remuneration for their talents.
It’s about time that the contracts for footballers was based on performance. The deals that are struck at the present time seem to bend over backwards to please them in order that they will agree to play for their club. Weekly wages should be constructed in two phases; a basic weekly wage plus an incentive, (25% - 30% of the basic) which would only be paid on results. If the team doesn’t get a draw or win they would be on the basic.
With such an arrangement the players would be obliged to play as a team rather than individuals trying to gain the headlines in the Sunday newspapers. How many times do we see a player taking a shot at goal from a hopeless position when they could have passed the ball to another member of the team far better placed to take a shot at goal ? The reason for this is simply that they don’t lose out if the team doesn’t win. With an incentive scheme they would have to start thinking in terms of the team rather than their own future prospects !
When the players have the same amount of enthusiasm as the supporters then perhaps they can demand these Astronomical wages. Until that time, they should be grateful for wages that the average mortal will never achieve in their entire lifetime.
The sooner that Football Clubs negotiate deals that help to ensure maximum effort from their players the better, not only for the game of football but also for the faithful supporters, many of whom have to scrimp and scrape in order to find the gate money each week.
Shame on any player that thinks £30,000 per week is not enough.
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