Sports Minister slams "obscene" salaries

[Skirge]

It is a disgrace when compared to professional Rugby players and professional cricketers who make on average £1000 - £1500 per week.

[GM]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/7074523.stm

 

And the debate evolves and moves on with Gordon Taylor of the PFA and Sir Alex Ferguson weighing in with their tuppence worth:

 

PFA boss backs players' salaries

 

Players' chief Gordon Taylor has defended top football stars' pay after Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe said John Terry's salary was "obscene". Sutcliffe said "people in the street cannot understand" salaries like that of the Chelsea captain.

 

But Taylor insists that Sutcliffe should back the country's leading sports stars. "I find it an incredible statement coming from a sports minister," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

 

"We're talking about paying millions to have an Olympics or World Cup here in England, but if we're not careful we're not even going to have the sportsmen and women to do ourselves justice.

 

"He should be pleased that we've got a lad here who's managed to break through in a world when there's a massive amount of foreign players, and he's proved himself one of the very best in the world."

 

Taylor added: "Is he going to have a go at Lewis Hamilton's money, Jonny Wilkinson's money?

 

"He should be supporting sports people, who have that incentive for youngsters who take up sport, to reach that level.

 

"Every labourer is worth his hire and Mr Abramovich (Chelsea owner) thinks he's worth it. More than half of that money goes to the Government in tax.

 

"There's so much money coming into the game, surely it's only fair that they get their share of that?"

 

"There are some tennis players and golfers earning enormous amounts of money. Is that wrong?

 

"People tend to think that because they are individuals they deserve it.

 

"But football is the national game. Without question, it is the biggest sport in the world.

 

"It is very easy to say footballers get paid too much. In some cases, I would not argue with that.

 

"However, there are also some tennis players who get great sponsorship deals but never win a tournament."

 

Ferguson also hit back at Sutcliffe's criticism of the Old Trafford club increasing ticket prices by 13% and the controversial 'automatic cup scheme' (ACS).

 

The ACS policy forces season-ticket holders to buy tickets for cup games whether they want to attend or not.

 

But Ferguson added: "It is unfair and inaccurate.

 

"If you want to talk about obscene, he should look at the prices they charge at Chelsea and Arsenal.

 

"He works in London, I am sure he knows where Chelsea and Arsenal play, so he must know about their ticket prices. They are almost double ours, so I do not understand why he is picking on Manchester United."

 

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger was another to reject the criticism from Sutcliffe over players' salaries.

 

"I think John Terry is a top professional and is ready to go on the football pitch to win," said the Frenchman.

 

"We are in an economy where the company decides who pays who and how much and we have to respect that.

 

"There are other activities where people earn much more money but they hide it better because people are not aware of it."

 

Story from BBC SPORT:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/sport1/hi/football/7074523.stm

 

Published: 2007/11/02 11:56:23 GMT

 

© BBC MMVII

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Hmm, the PFA boss sticking up for the players? Surprising...

[Keefaz]

Hmm, the PFA boss sticking up for the players? Surprising...

 

Not really and no reason to dismiss his opinion out of hand.

[Skirge]

Hmm, the PFA boss sticking up for the players? Surprising...

 

Not really and no reason to dismiss his opinion out of hand.

It was pure class sarcasm

[NE5]

the trouble with top footballers wages is not so simple as just comparing them to top sportsmen in other sport, such as Tennis or boxing or golfers.

 

There aren't 20 x 15 [approx] top earners in England earning millions who play golf, or tennis, as there are footballers.

 

Taylor is talking crap, as he always does.

 

Ferguson is spot on. Football has created its own market, but whatever happened to the new sky money which we were told would be used to reduce travel costs for grass roots fans for starters ?

 

 

[NE5]

Performance/appearance-related pay should be enforced IMO, but it won't be.

 

is the correct answer.

 

Could only happen with the backing of the Union boss and members though, with a view to looking after the game and lesser players overall.

 

Would be interesting to see how many members of the PFA who play in the lower leagues would vote in such a scheme, for the good of the game of course.

 

 

 

[Guest Strunz]

I wonder if Mr Sutcliffe would have had the same opinion had been good at football and a bit younger

 

Well, as he says "good luck to John", I assume he has no problem with Terry for accepting the contract. It's not his fault that people are daft enough to pay him a reported £150k per week. The fault lies with the football clubs.

 

If no team in the world was prepared to pay Terry anything more than £5k per week, it's not like he'd say "F#ck you then, I'm retiring to stack shelves in Tescos!". He'd accept £5k, and continue to play to the high standard he does now.

 

The clubs pay £150k though because us, as fans, make it viable. Be it by going to the matches, subscribing to Sky, buying replica tops, whatever. It all counts. It's only when we say "No more" that we'll see an end to all this.

 

 

I said "no more" fucking ages ago.  Talking to Kieron Dyer in Po Na Na a few years ago kind of influenced that decision.  The little cunt.

[ChrisJbarnes]

yes, they put risk a lot of serious injuries and retire young, yes they have to deal with a load of fans on the street but £150000 per week is mental. i reckon for a player like john terry (the best) , £10000 a week should be the most. half a million a year is a bloody good salary. that way we can put ticket prices down so i dont have to go and pay £48 to sit in the corner at chelsea. £20 a ticket is a reasonable price. football is a rip off, but hey, what power have we got?

[fredbob]

Performance/appearance-related pay should be enforced IMO, but it won't be.

 

is the correct answer.

 

Could only happen with the backing of the Union boss and members though, with a view to looking after the game and lesser players overall.

 

Would be interesting to see how many members of the PFA who play in the lower leagues would vote in such a scheme, for the good of the game of course.

 

 

 

 

Its an impossible theory, its easy sayin a player should get paid on how well he performs, or how many appearencens he makes but hae you actually thought to applying this theory to reality. It wouldnt make it to the game because its absoltely impossible to control. There are so many uncontrollable variables. Personally, i think that a salary cap should have been enforced years ago, id have put the salary cap at something such as £150k, which is standard for a top player nowadays but years ago was an extorionate amount.  Another idea would be to introduce a standard wage cap increase every x amount of years. For example the maximum wage for the next five years could be 170k, after those years the maximum wage could increase 30k, so on and so on. Its an idea which would put perspective on the value of a player, ensuring we arent overpaying the average footballer in accordance with the cap.

[Guest optimistic nit]

mackems.gif a wage cap of 150K, aye, that'll stop footballers earning too much money, oh whats that? what if more money comes into the game and us footballers are left out of pocket? better allow a 30K increase after 5 years. That'll show them!

 

 

 

 

 

footballers get paid vastly more money than they should, but thats capitalism for you.

 

i think the best solution would be to set a wage cap to say, 30K (no lower than 25, no higher than 35) a week and then allow, say up to 15K per appearence/goals/assists on top. Thus the maximum a player earns is no more than say 80-90K if he player all the games in the week or maybe 110 if he performs really really well.

of course every fa would have to sign up, and there could be a lot of clubs trying to go though loopholes at the start, and leagues such as the russian, american and maybe chinese leagues could use the wagecap as a way of enticing players to their nations and improving their leagues.

[fredbob]

mackems.gif a wage cap of 150K, aye, that'll stop footballers earning too much money, oh whats that? what if more money comes into the game and us footballers are left out of pocket? better allow a 30K increase after 5 years. That'll show them!

 

 

 

 

 

footballers get paid vastly more money than they should, but thats capitalism for you.

 

i think the best solution would be to set a wage cap to say, 30K (no lower than 25, no higher than 35) a week and then allow, say up to 15K per appearence/goals/assists on top. Thus the maximum a player earns is no more than say 80-90K if he player all the games in the week or maybe 110 if he performs really really well.

of course every fa would have to sign up, and there could be a lot of clubs trying to go though loopholes at the start, and leagues such as the russian, american and maybe chinese leagues could use the wagecap as a way of enticing players to their nations and improving their leagues.

 

How the hell can you possibly enforce a performnace related pay structure....have you actually thought about this? How would it acutally work, how could you make it fair? Like i say, its a nice theory but is impossible. There are so many uncotrollable variables...people need to scrap entertaining thoughts of performance realted pay...it just doesnt work.

 

Now as for your first "point" i did say 150k should of been enforced years ago. Put a little context into this concept, as it stands there is no limit to how much a player can earn, there is no perspective on how valuable a player actually is. If say 10 years ago when the highest earners were earinign say 30-40k a week, how many players do you think would of objected to having a salry cap of say 120k for the next 10 years, i dont think that there would of been many, now think about this, you have a more competve market, sure he bigger clubs are still able to pay the cap, but how many would be willing, and with the context of 150k being paid to the best players, how many players do you think would be able to demand 115k (Owen) knowing that a club would only be obliged to pay 120k to the max, they'd definitely have to be able to back it up. Now the money in football is gettting astronomical, and with so much money in the game, it is obvioulsly that wages need to increase.

 

So thinking about how i said that 10 years ago a wage cap of 120k should of been enforced, that was approximately 80k increase in wages for those 10 years, if that same amount was enforced in another 10 years that would make someones maximum possible earning be 200k. As it stands, we're looking a our first 200k player in a few years. Do you see the context yet?

 

Sure the money is riduclously high, but its all about context to the future. Its the best way in my opinion.

[juniatmoko]

why wages always be problem? why income  through another sector of industries never be problem ex. club/company owner income never be problem...  are because wages is for employee... and an employee is just a weak target?

[LooneyToonArmy]

Arsenal's Nicklas Bendtner says he deserves to be paid £50,000-a-week because he has to make a number of sacrifices to play, one of which is not being able to go skiing

 

"If you ask me if I am one of the best strikers in the world, I say yes,” he added..

 

Read more >

 

http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2896/premier-league/2011/02/08/2342838/arsenal-striker-nicklas-bendtner-says-he-deserves-50k-a-week-for-

[Guest Tdeans]

This is why sky not having exclusive rights will be a good thing cause players won't be able to ask for extreme wages and thus clubs who aren't willing to be paying out 150k a week (like us) won't be losing players handing in transfer request every time a club like Man City comes along with an offer.

[PRL]

I raised this to my arsenal supporting friend today and in fairness, the actual context was he was asked by a journalist if he was worth the money he was on and the full quotes were as follows:

 

“I would lie, though, if I said I didn’t enjoy the money I earn in football. I think we spend an incredible amount of time, energy and focus on our football career, because when we are not training or playing matches we still have to live for football.

 

“It is always fair to ask whether the players are worth the incredible amounts of money we earn and ask whether we earn too much.

 

“I believe we must be worth our salaries because that is how the mechanisms of the society works. As long as I work as hard as I can, I believe I am worth what is coming my way.

 

“There is a price to pay as well for us players and, personally, I think I pay a big price with my body, my time and with never being able to have privacy when I am out and around other people.

 

“Understand me correctly, I do not complain about that. It’s a natural part of being a professional footballer, but there is definitely a price to pay, when, for example, you can’t go out to eat in a restaurant with your girlfriend without having people chasing you.”

 

Bendtner yesterday refused to talk about his love split and said: “I have never commented on rumours in the magazines regarding my private life. And I certainly don’t intend to do that now, either.”

 

I certainly wouldn't be arguing if my salary got whacked up 20 fold overnight and wouldn't feel like a mercenary if I accepted 3 times what I am on to go and work somewhere else. It's only when there is an allegiance involved where things become clouded, for example I genuinely feel in Carroll's shoes I'd have stuck where I was, but for Bendtner, he appears to be a professional footballer doing it as a job, so fair play I suppose.

 

[NG32]

pots n kettles tbh but its his job to raise the issue.

[Village Idiot]

I raised this to my arsenal supporting friend today and in fairness, the actual context was he was asked by a journalist if he was worth the money he was on and the full quotes were as follows:

 

“I would lie, though, if I said I didn’t enjoy the money I earn in football. I think we spend an incredible amount of time, energy and focus on our football career, because when we are not training or playing matches we still have to live for football.

 

“It is always fair to ask whether the players are worth the incredible amounts of money we earn and ask whether we earn too much.

 

“I believe we must be worth our salaries because that is how the mechanisms of the society works. As long as I work as hard as I can, I believe I am worth what is coming my way.

“There is a price to pay as well for us players and, personally, I think I pay a big price with my body, my time and with never being able to have privacy when I am out and around other people.

 

“Understand me correctly, I do not complain about that. It’s a natural part of being a professional footballer, but there is definitely a price to pay, when, for example, you can’t go out to eat in a restaurant with your girlfriend without having people chasing you.”

 

Bendtner yesterday refused to talk about his love split and said: “I have never commented on rumours in the magazines regarding my private life. And I certainly don’t intend to do that now, either.”

 

I certainly wouldn't be arguing if my salary got whacked up 20 fold overnight and wouldn't feel like a mercenary if I accepted 3 times what I am on to go and work somewhere else. It's only when there is an allegiance involved where things become clouded, for example I genuinely feel in Carroll's shoes I'd have stuck where I was, but for Bendtner, he appears to be a professional footballer doing it as a job, so fair play I suppose.

 

 

Aye, because regular joes don't work hard and don't pay prices to keep their jobs. w*****.

[NG32]

I raised this to my arsenal supporting friend today and in fairness, the actual context was he was asked by a journalist if he was worth the money he was on and the full quotes were as follows:

 

I would lie, though, if I said I didnt enjoy the money I earn in football. I think we spend an incredible amount of time, energy and focus on our football career, because when we are not training or playing matches we still have to live for football.

 

It is always fair to ask whether the players are worth the incredible amounts of money we earn and ask whether we earn too much.

 

I believe we must be worth our salaries because that is how the mechanisms of the society works. As long as I work as hard as I can, I believe I am worth what is coming my way.

There is a price to pay as well for us players and, personally, I think I pay a big price with my body, my time and with never being able to have privacy when I am out and around other people.

 

Understand me correctly, I do not complain about that. Its a natural part of being a professional footballer, but there is definitely a price to pay, when, for example, you cant go out to eat in a restaurant with your girlfriend without having people chasing you.

 

Bendtner yesterday refused to talk about his love split and said: I have never commented on rumours in the magazines regarding my private life. And I certainly dont intend to do that now, either.

 

I certainly wouldn't be arguing if my salary got whacked up 20 fold overnight and wouldn't feel like a mercenary if I accepted 3 times what I am on to go and work somewhere else. It's only when there is an allegiance involved where things become clouded, for example I genuinely feel in Carroll's shoes I'd have stuck where I was, but for Bendtner, he appears to be a professional footballer doing it as a job, so fair play I suppose.

 

 

Aye, because regular joes don't work hard and don't pay prices to keep their jobs. w*****.

 

They have such a tough life !

[AyeDubbleYoo]

It's not the players' fault that the going salaries are crazy. I can never understand how football clubs let it get so far out of hand.

 

When you have a situation where so many clubs are running at a loss, you have to question how they decided they could pay these crazy wages.

[Stu]

I raised this to my arsenal supporting friend today and in fairness, the actual context was he was asked by a journalist if he was worth the money he was on and the full quotes were as follows:

 

“I would lie, though, if I said I didn’t enjoy the money I earn in football. I think we spend an incredible amount of time, energy and focus on our football career, because when we are not training or playing matches we still have to live for football.

 

“It is always fair to ask whether the players are worth the incredible amounts of money we earn and ask whether we earn too much.

 

“I believe we must be worth our salaries because that is how the mechanisms of the society works. As long as I work as hard as I can, I believe I am worth what is coming my way.

“There is a price to pay as well for us players and, personally, I think I pay a big price with my body, my time and with never being able to have privacy when I am out and around other people.

 

“Understand me correctly, I do not complain about that. It’s a natural part of being a professional footballer, but there is definitely a price to pay, when, for example, you can’t go out to eat in a restaurant with your girlfriend without having people chasing you.”

 

Bendtner yesterday refused to talk about his love split and said: “I have never commented on rumours in the magazines regarding my private life. And I certainly don’t intend to do that now, either.”

 

I certainly wouldn't be arguing if my salary got whacked up 20 fold overnight and wouldn't feel like a mercenary if I accepted 3 times what I am on to go and work somewhere else. It's only when there is an allegiance involved where things become clouded, for example I genuinely feel in Carroll's shoes I'd have stuck where I was, but for Bendtner, he appears to be a professional footballer doing it as a job, so fair play I suppose.

 

 

Aye, because regular joes don't work hard and don't pay prices to keep their jobs. w*****.

 

you face the same privacy issues and public attention doing a regular 9-5 job?

[Guest Tdeans]

mackems.gif a wage cap of 150K, aye, that'll stop footballers earning too much money, oh whats that? what if more money comes into the game and us footballers are left out of pocket? better allow a 30K increase after 5 years. That'll show them!

 

 

 

 

 

footballers get paid vastly more money than they should, but thats capitalism for you.

 

i think the best solution would be to set a wage cap to say, 30K (no lower than 25, no higher than 35) a week and then allow, say up to 15K per appearence/goals/assists on top. Thus the maximum a player earns is no more than say 80-90K if he player all the games in the week or maybe 110 if he performs really really well.

of course every fa would have to sign up, and there could be a lot of clubs trying to go though loopholes at the start, and leagues such as the russian, american and maybe chinese leagues could use the wagecap as a way of enticing players to their nations and improving their leagues.

 

Er I don't wanna say nothing but we don't live in America. We don't have a captilist society we have a mixed economy so really there's no need to pay footballers so much so yay.

[Guest guinness_fiend]

mackems.gif a wage cap of 150K, aye, that'll stop footballers earning too much money, oh whats that? what if more money comes into the game and us footballers are left out of pocket? better allow a 30K increase after 5 years. That'll show them!

 

 

 

 

 

footballers get paid vastly more money than they should, but thats capitalism for you.

 

i think the best solution would be to set a wage cap to say, 30K (no lower than 25, no higher than 35) a week and then allow, say up to 15K per appearence/goals/assists on top. Thus the maximum a player earns is no more than say 80-90K if he player all the games in the week or maybe 110 if he performs really really well.

of course every fa would have to sign up, and there could be a lot of clubs trying to go though loopholes at the start, and leagues such as the russian, american and maybe chinese leagues could use the wagecap as a way of enticing players to their nations and improving their leagues.

 

Er I don't wanna say nothing but we don't live in America. We don't have a captilist society we have a mixed economy so really there's no need to pay footballers so much so yay.

 

Where on earth do you live, feudal Japan?  It's projected that Torres' fee will be paid off over the next couple of years (if that) by shirt sales alone.  Didn't Real Madrid manage to shift one million shirts (at sixty euros a pop) within a year or so of him signing? 

[80]

mackems.gif a wage cap of 150K, aye, that'll stop footballers earning too much money, oh whats that? what if more money comes into the game and us footballers are left out of pocket? better allow a 30K increase after 5 years. That'll show them!

 

 

 

 

 

footballers get paid vastly more money than they should, but thats capitalism for you.

 

i think the best solution would be to set a wage cap to say, 30K (no lower than 25, no higher than 35) a week and then allow, say up to 15K per appearence/goals/assists on top. Thus the maximum a player earns is no more than say 80-90K if he player all the games in the week or maybe 110 if he performs really really well.

of course every fa would have to sign up, and there could be a lot of clubs trying to go though loopholes at the start, and leagues such as the russian, american and maybe chinese leagues could use the wagecap as a way of enticing players to their nations and improving their leagues.

 

Er I don't wanna say nothing but we don't live in America. We don't have a captilist society we have a mixed economy so really there's no need to pay footballers so much so yay.

 

You'd rather pay more money to Mike Ashley? That's all that will happen if you cap pay for players, because he'll still charge as much as he can for tickets.

 

The supply of money into the game needs to be cut, that's the only thing that counts. I'd rather see players cleaning their arses with illuminated manuscripts than have supporters keep paying just as much only to chairmen instead. Totally wrong.

[midds]

Supporters have the choice of pumping money into the game or walking away. They choose to do so because they like the product and seeing the players perform. The players attract the cash and it's fair they are rewarded for it. That's life.