In July of 2000 Luis Figo shocked the world with what was then a world record €60 million transfer (a transfer is when a player moves teams), the equivalent of almost $82 million. Back then, as one of the greatest in the history of soccer, the record transfer fee was understand. Just this summer, Gareth Bale moved to the same team as Figo had just 13 years before, Real Madrid, for a world-record €100 million, more than $135 million. Tottenham lost their star player, and Real overpaid by tens of millions: this is what the culture of soccer has become. While some argue that big clubs need the revenue they get from spending big, UEFA, the federation in charge or european soccer, needs to restrict free-spending by clubs because small clubs are left powerless to retain their key players, which leads to a lack of revenue that smaller clubs need more, and the money spent and received has a direct effect on one’s success.
What teams spend and receive is a big factor into one’s success. This creates the notion that all clubs should be overspending to get better, and unfortunately this idea has spread. Last season AS Monaco was in Ligue 2, but after being promoted to the top-flight of french soccer they spent exactly €150 million ($206.5 million) on just 4 players. This season so far they are in 2nd place with just 3 losses (Transfermarkt). When examples like Monaco show up it urges other teams to start overspending. When small clubs can’t pay in large sums, they’re left without the capabilities to retain or buy new, better, acquisitions. Another prime example of this is Manchester United. After spending €32.4 million this offseason they’re in 9th place. Last season they won the Premier League title after spending €76.5 million -- more th...
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... their league. Rich teams take too many players that they don’t even need. It’s the equivalent of when large incorporations buy-out the local “mom ‘n pop” store. Soccer’s culture is being disrupted and slowly ruined by overspending from top clubs. Fans need to take the power back and disperse it evenly to all sides, and by doing that we can bring back soccer’s culture, and restore the game to what it once was.
Works Cited
Coerts, Stefan. "Why Belgium Are World Cup Dark Horses but Haven't Made Champions League Knockouts since 2001." Goal.com. Goal, 10 Dec. 2013. Web. 10 Dec. 2013.
Kuper, Simon, and Stefan Szymanski. Soccernomics. New York: Nation, 2009. Print.
Transfermarkt.com. Transfermarkt, n.d. Web. 1 Dec. 2013.
Voakes, Kris. "Financial Fair Play Is Making the Rich Richer and Keeping the Poor in Business." Goal.com. Goal, 15 Aug. 2013. Web. 5 Dec. 2013.
Cause A. Over the past few years inflation of player contracts has made it hard for the smaller market teams to play competitively w...
For the last 30 years, the New York Yankees have been a dominant force in Major League Baseball. Other teams do not make as much money as the New York Yankees therefore they have less capital to spend on big name players. In 1994, the Major Leagues put the luxury tax into place. The idea was to tax a club’s payroll if the total payroll exceeded a certain limit. However, the Yankees seem to exceed this limit every year. The Yankees are a notable team not only for their impressive history on the field, but also for their financial situation. The Yankees owner spends more on player salaries than any other franchise in baseball. “As of 2004, the team payroll is more than $182 million, which is $51 million more than the second-highest team, the Boston Red Sox, and more than the six lowest-payroll teams combined” (Wikipedia Encyclopedia”). The millions of people who are associated with baseball in this country, many of whom had only a vague idea of what was happening, are now asking themselves whether or not the game is being played fairly. Even though teams like the New York Yankees are able to assemble top-notch teams by ignoring the spending limit, a salary cap is necessary to maintain the equal competitive nature of major leag...
When looking into the history of our culture, there are many subtopics that fall under the word, “history.” Topics such as arts and literature, food, and media fall into place. Among these topics reside sports. Since the beginning of time, sports have persisted as an activity intertwined with the daily life of people. Whether it is a pick-up game of football in the backyard, or catching an evening game at the local stadium, sports have become the national pastime. According to Marcus Jansen of the Sign Post, more specifically, baseball is America’s national pastime, competing with other sports (Jansen 1). Providing the entertainment that Americans pay top dollar for, live the role models, superstars, and celebrities that put on a jersey as their job. As said in an article by Lucas Reilly, Americans spend close to $25.4 billion dollars on professional sports (Reilly 4). The people that many children want to be when they grow up are not the firefighters or astronauts told about in bed time stories. These dream jobs or fantasies have become swinging a bat or tossing a football in front of millions of screaming fans. When asked why so many dream of having such job, the majority will respond with a salary related answer. In today’s day and age, the average athlete is paid more than our own president. The cold hard facts show that in professional sports, the circulation of money is endless. Certain teams in professional baseball and football are worth over millions of dollars. Consequently, the teams who are worth more are able to spend more. The issue that arises with this philosophy is virtually how much more? League managers, team owners and other sports officials have sought out a solution to the surfacing problem. Is it fair to let...
“Take me out to the ballgame” is a song well known among baseball fans. Unfortunately, when it comes to money Major League Baseball is unfair. Rich teams can afford any player they desire, while poor teams have to invest in their rookies and young stars. Studies show that most stars go where the big money is. Money plays a large behind-the-scenes part in regards to the sport of baseball. So rich organizations have the upper hand. Certain star players command such high salaries that teams must alter their payroll distribution in order to sign them. The MLB needs a payroll cap because the money differential between MLB teams makes affording and keeping players an unfair system.
The precursor to this cost was a decade of skyrocketing salaries and the trend to build huge public ally financed megaplexis to house these professional athletes. The current response to this ostentatious decade is to put forth bills to prevent and/or set limits on public financed projects (Shafroth, 1996). The history of stadiums shows that it was always the norm of publicly building stadiums, however, with the cost of these projects astronomical the public is more skeptical (Rosentraub, 1991). The reason why state and local governments continue to want to finance these stadiums has been much debated. The main debate is one of economic impact. The following two excerpts illustrate this debate:
Sports transformed into a business where profit was the main concern. “As the pecuniary returns of the game increased, the value of the individual player was enhanced: the strength or weakness of one position made a difference in thousands in receipts, and this set the astute managerial mind at work” (Ward 315). This pertains to baseball, football, basketball and any other sport today. The more money a person could make off the game, the more significant the players became. The players were the ones making the money for the owners or the gamblers, and so many of these people no longer saw the person in the player, only the prowess in the player. The players soon began to be thought of as property and were often coerced into giving their permission to be traded to another club. “[T]he buying club bought not only the player’s services for the unexpired term of the contract, but the right to reserve or sell him again” ( Ward 315). Clubs claimed that this right to the player’s prowess was necessary to conserve the game and so many clubs abused this idea and ignored getting the player’s
too much power and think they can do whatever they think can improve the team?
Soccer fans are now questioning the recent failures Fc Barcelona has had and are wondering if the club is starting to get weak and go down. Except many don’t know that they have come a long way ever since the club was founded.
Karon, Tony. "What Soccer Means to the World." TIME.com. TIME, 21 July 2004. Web. 04 Dec. 2013.
"The Cost of Success: English Premier League." Intelligent Economist. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Nov. 2013. .
Hundreds of millions of people around the world play or watch soccer. There are more than one hundred and fifty professional leagues in the world for soccer. While America has one major soccer league in the country Europe has a handful. Soccer is becoming more popular in America, but is far from having the popularity similar to overseas. Soccer has progressed in America from the North American Soccer League to Major League Soccer. The fact is, soccer overseas has had more time to grow and develop. In time, the MLS can become a powerhouse for soccer in the world alongside the premier leagues.Eventually, the MLS will compete with the pace, shots, and skills observed on and off the ball.
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 makes the world go 'round." Sports could not exist without the presence of money. You have high paid athletes asking for multi-million dollar contacts, while at the same time you have doctors not even making close to that amount. There are corporations buying out sports teams, buying stadiums, and buying everything that has to do with sports. Someone may ask why they do this. Sports are one of the most profitable industries in the world. Everyone wants to get their hand on a piece of the action. Those individuals and industries that spend hundreds of millions of dollars on these sports teams are hoping to make a profit, but it may be an indirect profit. It could be a profit for the sports club, or it could be a promotion for another organization (i.e. Rupert Murdoch, FOX). The economics involved with sports has drastically changed over the last ten years. In the United States, we spend about 13% of all money on sports and entertainment. Sports has obviously done its job; entertained and drained money out of our pockets.
Money made the world change, both in socially and economically. From sports to politics, money has impacted our lives in any way. The question for my research is: how money changes soccer from the 90s to the present? I will divide my essay in three parts: sport, political and social. I think that money helped the sport to grow, but at the same time the corruption grew. I am sure that I can do an in-depth analysis about it. The only thing I see on television is soccer, no matter what country or what team is playing I enjoy it. I am not a person who reads much, but most of the books that I have read are about soccer’s history. My family is passionate to soccer, so I'm used to hear stories of how was the soccer before compared to now. In fact, I think that I have the knowledge to write an essay regarding on the comparison of soccer’s history and how money change the sport.
Some people argue that players are not being overwork because their pay is so high. Current Liverpool F.C striker Daniel Sturridge earns £105,769 (British pounds) as a weekly income whilst his yearly salary is £5,500,000. (Liverpool F.C players salaries 2015 , 2015) Having a high paying salary doesn’t change the fact that Football has this player out from spending time seeing his family and taking part in his social life. Yes a high paying salary is good but not being able to spend time with family and friends due to the excessive amount of training and playing time can become very stressful for the player. These are the sacrifices that come into receiving these high paying salaries. Although this does affect the player’s life, it is however, a job and like any other person they have to commit themselves to what they want and be set for the future to provide for themselves and their family. As it’s a contracted job, not seeing their family isn’t necessarily part of the contract but its