sunderland

[Hanshithispantz]

It is still sentimentality at the end of the day. There is a lot of nobs in football and the money to work ratio is obscene, but where else is the money supposed to go?

 

Also many of our athletes come from massively privileged backgrounds so I don't see how the capitalism argument works when many footballers come from relative poverty? We also have the medal leaders China putting children through ridiculous strain in an effort to clean out the event.

 

Probably more than any other sport football is an opportunity for people from any walk of life to make something of themselves and there's strong evidence of that in probably every squad in the world.

[Guest firetotheworks]

You can say what you want about footballers, but whether some are terrible people or not, the best are always the ones that use the same methods as the olympic athletes.

 

It's depressing when you think of someone like Ranger getting paid a kings wage, but then you have someone like John Terry, Ryan Giggs, Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard who've all been in the news for the wrong reasons, but have achieved a great deal through hard work.

[Dave]

The money wouldn't go anywhere if it wasn't being paid to the players, it would stay in the fans' pockets or spent elsewhere.

 

That bit about a lot of the Olympic team being from privileged backgrounds isn't quite right either I don't think. Especially the medal winners anyway.

[Dave]

The whole thread is a good read btw, probably the best I've seen on there without them tearing into one another.

 

[Dave]

I think their current status feeds into it a lot mind, you'd have got a similar feeling on here when we went down and Brummie's rants of a similar nature are concurrent with his side struggling. Our current squad is the most likable in bloody yonks, and they can play too.

[Shays Given Tim Flowers]

The money wouldn't go anywhere if it wasn't being paid to the players, it would stay in the fans' pockets or spent elsewhere.

 

That bit about a lot of the Olympic team being from privileged backgrounds isn't quite right either I don't think. Especially the medal winners anyway.

 

I think they are referring to an article that the Beeb ran the other day about the over-representation of Public school students in the Olympics. Think it was only applicable to some sports though.

[bhoywhonder]

Just noticed this from yesterdays paper....pre-season pull out guide, each page has a team's synopsis:

 

Ruling out a swarm of new arrivals on Teesside, Sunderland Chairman Ellis Short says he is focussing on quality, not quantity.

 

Teesside

 

Quality  :yao:

[Adam]

A good RTG thread without the words mag cernt amazing! There is a point, football is being ruined by money, and most footballers have been shown up big time by the Olympians. A wage cap would be a good start, maybe it would drive players away to other leagues, but football at the moment isnt sustainable at all (also would EU law allow a wage cap?)

 

I honestly don't really like watching football that much anymore, I watch toon games as its ingrained in me and I'm always bothered by how we get on but take the euros for example I wasn't fussed about watching it in the slightest, yet just a few years ago I'd of watched every second.

 

You see people at the olympics competing every other day in some team sports, and in some cases doing 2/3 races a day in others, yet footballers complain about playing two matches in a week! I still find it ridiculous that you get people who are part time athletes who work "real" jobs then do their sport outside of that who are fitter and stronger than most footballers who are paid insane sums of money to be fit and strong.

 

This probably isnt the best place for this post and we could probably do with a thread on this itself (if there isnt already one!)

[Nobody]

I fucking hate the cliché that football is "ruined by money".

[Adam]

I fucking hate the cliché that football is "ruined by money".

 

But it is! Players are paid insane money, tickets are so fucking overpriced, sky paid a stupid ammount for TV rights money which should be invested in to young people playing the game and facilities not on paying some wankers more money in a week than people earn in a year.

[eliassenfredrik]

If so, football has been ruined for a long time. I agree some of the wages are outrageous, but there's no stopping it. PSG are certainly no worse than the likes of Man City and Chelsea.

[Nobody]

Disagree.

It's easier than ever to watch football now, I can legally watch every minute of the Premier League season if I want to. The football on show is the best it has ever been, thanks to the money involved. How does the fact that Ben Arfa earn £40 000 a week make it less enjoyable to watch him play?

[Tiresias]

Football is still great to watch but do wish any club in the league had a shot at winning it, it's telling how hyped everyone gets when wigan or someone beat man u in a game and everyone was very surprised we made 5th that gone are the days of genuine competition throughout the league. Premier league is at least saved by decent tv money distributed more evenly than elsewhere. Disproportionate spending power of certain clubs hasn't ruined football but it's not healthy either, and the bubble football is still on will burst one day

[Adam]

Its more that they act like little kids moaning at the ref cheating and diving, compared to the olympics where the cheats were disqualified, no moaning at the referee person who comes second congratulates the winner. I'm sure if footballers were on say £500,000 a year or even a million (still shit loads but better than now) they would play the same as they do then the clubs could invest the money back in to their local communities rather than wasting it on players. Its also the attitudes footballers seem to have compared to the olympians who go out try their best and footballers who always seem to have an excuse or blame something/someone else (usually the referee).

 

Hopefully if wages were cut they'd be more down to earth and act less like spoilt brats, both on and off the pitch.

[Tooj]

Unfortunately I can't see wages decreasing any time soon due to the new Sky deal that comes into play next season.

[Adam]

Tbh if they didnt act like little kids and had respect for each other and the referee then the stupid wages wouldn't be as much of an issue.

[Nobody]

I fail to see the connection between earning shitloads and moaning at the referee.

 

EDIT: The players moan and dive just as much in the Swedish league where they earn £3000 a month.

[Hanshithispantz]

Stop exaggerating stuff to suit an agenda man Adam.

 

Cheating isn't allowed in football ffs, just diving and feigning injury isn't as serious as match fixing (something we've seen teams seriously punished for). You can also hardly dive to gain an advantage in a athletic event

 

I've also seen opponents argue in the team events, i've seen people argue with the referee, I've seen people throw their rackets in frustration and even someone initially refuse to accept their medal.

[Hanshithispantz]

I do agree that the financial situation in football needs sorting out like if possible, but that goes without saying.

[Guest reefatoon]

Why are we talking about Football in the Sunderland thread?  The two topics are worlds apart!

[Adam]

I'm not twisting anything, premier league players are the looked upon by so many, and they should act as role models just like the vast majority at the olympics. There have been some who have acted stupid at the olympics but they are the minority.

 

Maybe they would still cheat etc if they earned less, but it wouldn't harm for them to earn less, which isn't going to happen any time soon though. I've got side tracked with my point but the attitude (or at least the perception that is conveyed) of footballers stinks, they've been shown up by part time athletes who have one shot in most cases to fulfil their dreams, yet footballers complain about the pressure!

 

Cheating isnt allowed in football you're right, but it happens nothing is being done to help the officials to stamp it out, with officials being abused and scrutinised afterwards. I could go on to talk about technology but thats another debate entirely, which isnt to do with the terrible attitude of footballers, which I believe would be helped if they didn't earn as much, but maybe it wouldn't and playing football just makes you a prick!

 

Also this should be moved from this thread!

[Nobody]

Should probably be careful with praising the olympians too much before the doping tests are in like.

[BeloEmre]

Big day for the mackems.

 

http://www.readytogo.net/smb/showthread.php?t=720192

[Disco]

The one with about half of them stating Richardson's goal against us is the best ever thing they've seen at the SoS is better. Couple of mentions for Shearer's injury too. [/classicmackem]

[Dinho lad]

Did Sahin really say that?