Is Soccer's Financial Demise the Responsibility of the Players?

[Budgie 0]

I am an avid reader of this forum and try to think deeply and carefully before attempting to have an input in any of the threads.

But I believe it is time to speak my mind on the financial demise or not of Norwich City FC and many similar clubs.

I hear all sorts of conflicting stories of whether or not City have a transfer/loan budget; is it all gone; is the club being prudent and planning for the future, etc.

To me, however, the culprits of the financial decline in the sport at all levels has to be the responsibility of the players themselves - they appear to be pricing themselves out of a career.

The current financial plight of the sport was forecast way back in the 1960s when Jimmy Hill, as chairman of the PFA, smashed a hole through the sport''s wages policy by getting his former club, Fulham, to pay England international Johnny Haynes a basic £100 a week.

At that time £100 was an astounding amount of money for a weekly wage. At that time I was a married man who had just finished a 5-year apprenticeship and was on top-whack journeyman''s wages of £13 a week before deductions.

Now it appears the finanical state of the game has reached the point that some journalists forecast back in those days.

Players have agents demanding their cuts of transfer dosh; the Bosman ruling and other regulations have imo drawn the teeth of the clubs who like Norwich want to be ''prudent'' in their financial dealings. It appears, also, that clubs have been gagged by player-power because I firmly believe that many struggling clubs would love to reveal just how much money their players are demanding each week.

Perhaps their has to be another way. In no way should we return to the 1960s-type wage structure, but surely today''s structure has to be looked at and revamped?

We are constantly told that a players'' career is a short-lived one but does that give them the right to strangle as much dosh as they can from the clubs they represent? I believe not.

 

[Citizen Journalist Foghorn 0]

you have to make the best of the situation you are in, short term loans are a short term solutions, as for a wage structure - well no top players would come play here again, especially if they could earn twice as much in italy or spain (also its illegal under law)

theyre is nothing wrong with paying only as much as you can afford and it seemd to me other clubs are spending their money more wisely than we are at the moment.

[gazzathegreat 0]

I completely agree Budgie, the players of today are indeed pricing themselves out of a living, bar a fortunate few who inhabit the Premiership.  Things are similar in other walks of life, ie the plight of youngsters trying to afford their first house!  (I am not talking footballers here, but you need to be on those sort of salaries to buy your first home nowadays).

As you say we will never be able to go back, should anyone want to, to the pre-60s era, so we have plenty of years of the present scenerio to look forward to, ie Chelsea and a couple of others will dominate all competitions because they can simply afford the best players. 

Clubs like ours cannot compete with Chelsea anymore.  It''s sad, but our great year of 92-93 will probably never be repeated.  I feel sorry for those not old enough to remember seeing us playing such great football and for a year being one of the best teams in the country.  We might, some day be able to play great football again, but not to compete with Chelsea et al, but hold our own, as do several clubs our size in the Premier right now.

This can only be achieved by a board who hold the club''s best interests at heart.  I feel the present board do this, and financially they haven''t let us down.  However it is somewhat surprising that we can, half way through the season have to look to our major shareholders'' personal resources to fund a modest transfer fee and wages.  To say a great chunk of club finances goes on agents must stick in their throats somewhat!

I am pretty optimistic that we will one day return to compete with the best, maybe not with the elite, but most of the Premiership clubs, however we first need to rebuild our team and get back to playing the best football we can, and should be playing.  Coupled with a board unlikely to go too mad I think we will get back there one day, question is, how much more difficult will it be next time?

[Rudolph Hucker 0]

budgie wrote (but I only got halfway)

I am an avid reader of this forum and try to think deeply and carefully before attempting to have an input in any of the threads.

Etc etc

 

Respect Budge,'' I have to confess I am only a patchy reader of these boards and give it about 5 seconds worth of thought before putting my ten penneth in....does it show?

[Fat Barman 0]

It seems that only a Uefa edict can alter the current situation, as any unilateral English move to control wages would lead to a flood of players to the airports!The most sensible idea I''ve seen mooted is for a maximum wage bill per club - set to a different level depending on which division you''re in. This would be the same for each country (ie Premiership = Serie A = La Liga;  Championship = Serie B etc.) Uefa would have to set the maximum after negotiations with country FA''s. The decision would then have to made at club level as to how their wages pot was divided amongst their assorted superstars.Can you picture Mourinho trying to keep all his stars happy? Top clubs wouldn''t be able to afford as many established ''galacticos'', they''d be forced to either negotiate lower wages for the stars, or employ a larger percentage of ''squad players''. Not only would this help control the wage inflation within the game, but you would see a fairer distribution of talent amongst clubs and (by knock on effect) in the lower divisions also - Spurs would never have sanctioned Jols army of midfielders last summer, for example, the club wage bill could never have afforded such a huge squad!Unfortunately, I fear this might fall foul of some form of European Union anti-cartel, or restraint of trade law and may prove impossible to bring in.

[Syteanric 1]

football could learn so much from the NFl... American football is my other sport.. they bought the salary cap in around 10 years ago and its revitalised the sport.. its now the most lucrative business in the sporting world....

 I have been saying for years we need to cap the wages over here.. Distribute the revenue more fairly etc...

 The winners of the superbowl for example get a total of $75 million for example.. hjowever due to the NFLs "share revenue" the team who finished 32nd gets more money over the course of a year.. making the league tight and competitve.. anyone could win it! everyone has at least 1 star player.. and the attendances and the games are nearly always sell outs...

each team has a salary cap, i cant rmemebet the amount off the top of my head.. but basically u can pay anyone whatever you want as long as it fits in with the cap... if u have a guy on $110,000 a week and u want someone on $120,000 a week if it takes u over the cap then the deal cant go through unless u get someone to take a wage cut....

 This would, i feel ultimately lower transfer fees and bring a sense of normality back to football... the Cap is there to ensure normality.. i gaurentee try it for 5 years in football and managers and chairmen will be saying its the4 best thing ever... as will players!

jas :)

[Rossi 0]

Just to add a slightly different perspective, whilst the bosman thingy certainly helped pave the way for player power, the massive growth in wages has to some extent got eveything to do with SKY. Whilst we all love to be able to watch matches on TV, the number of matches has mushroomed massively, it is the huge amount of money that SKY injects to the Premiership that allows clubs to be able to afford the wages and debt repayments. I know that football is a global affair, but i would love to see the percentages of money that is put into the club by fans compared to outside revenues - sponsorship, TV rights etc. I suspect that fans do not really matter that much for top teams.

I have said for a long while that without a global pay agreement or cap, the only way to continue the growth will be for new ''super'' leagues. For the top clubs in Europe, imagine the additional revenue of a European league (just look at the Champions league.) If this was to happen the teams left in the Prem would be totally skint and unable to service their long term debt due to reduced payments from SKY etc as their interests move.

This has already started with the Champ league, they have increased it from a knock-out to a league to boost the number of games and revenue, but they cant go even further.

Further, the increase in financial investment by ''outsiders'' has allowed teams to increasingly lift ''the bar.'' Just look at Chelsea and now the investment into Pompey. On a lower scale just look at Wigan and the Walker millions at Blackburn. Unfortunately (and i''m not linking this to any person or club) due to the hugh amounts of money involved, football appears to be one area where massive amounts of dubious cash can disappear. How long will it be before new ''investors'' are subjected to checks from the ''football police?'' Just a thought....!

 

[Budgie 0]

Thanks for some very interesting replies.

I feel the sport of football could soon be on the road to recovery simply because of the examples shown here of the concern and possible solution to the financial problem.

You can bet your bottom dollar that if ''ordinary'' punters like us are aware of the situation somewhere ''higher up'' is also concerned and looking at changes.

Or will they all remain ostriches?

[Gentleman Jim 0]

good post budgie,

I am a firm believer that a club''s wage bill should be directly proportional to the gate revenue.

In that way the supporter would be the sole contributor to the quality of the playing staff rather than that of a wealthy benefactors who will throw money  whilst the whim takes them. 

This will of course automatically lead to a lowering of the player''s individual pay as no club can afford to pay the current wages with just their present gate income to rely on. The less the players earn then the more "hungrier" they will become to perform, at the moment one decent contract can make them millionaires overnight and less inclined to perform.

If things stay as they are the players will indeed price themselves into, as you say, financial demise.