Business in Soccer: Where is the Line Drawn?

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Soccer is a religion to many in the world. It is interpreted in many different ways, became a lifestyle and family to millions of people. If soccer is a religion, money has become it's undisputed god in the 21st century. Money lives and thrives throughout the sport of soccer in many ways. Whether people like it or not it is on jerseys and stadiums, in the player's mind, and the owners grasp. Some of the biggest clubs in the world are products of brilliant branding of the club's name. This is achieved through lucrative owners and presidents, but when does money become too much of a distraction and a problem for the sport? There is a very fine line between using and abusing money in the sport today. Money has always been a part of soccer's history. Players would move for bigger and better wages all the time throughout history. Especially during the height of soccer in the United States and the NASL. As time progressed more clubs began to buy out players contracts from their teams in a way of transferring big names to the team. Soccernomics, by Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski, describes how purchasing players for mass amounts of money became the norm in the soccer world today. Kuper and Szymanksi studied the influence of transfer market changes from 1978 to 1997 finding that, “transfers explained only 16 percent of their total variation in league position. By contrast, their spending on salaries explained a massive 92 percent variation” (48). This is due to the fact that when players are paid higher salaries they settle in with the team better knowing that the team is putting trust in them; instead of constantly buying new players and messing with team chemistry. Teams spend absurd amounts of money on players that statistically wi... ... middle of paper ... ...n fans know it is still about the game, there wouldn't be money to be made. Many may even have faith that even hen owners invest in clubs as a business,they too are still captivated by the pitch week in and week out. Works Cited Desbordes, Michel. "Measuring Fair Play And Planning Long Term." International Journal Of Sports Marketing & Sponsorship 15.2 (2014): 77. SPORTDiscus with Full Text. Web. 17 Feb. 2014. Kuper, Simon, and Stefan Szymanski. "Gentlemen Prefer Blonds." Soccernomics. New York: Nation, 2009. 47-48. Print. Ian, Ladyman. "Big-Spending City In Line With Financial Fair Play." Daily Mail 30 Jan. 2014: 63. Regional Business News. Web. 17 Feb. 2014. Ruiz, Marco. "English." AS.com. AS Sports Club, 8 Oct. 2013. Web. 21 Feb. 2014. Wilson, Jonathan. "The Glory Game." New Statesman 142.5156 (2013): 25-26. Literary Reference Center. Web. 15 Feb. 2014.

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