An interesting read regarding players wages and some outrageous facts.

[A47Owl]

Isn't TV and particularly Sky responsible for the ridiculous situation. 

You also need to look at the question that if someone offers you a ridiculous amount of money for something, are you going to say, "nah that's too much you can have it for half that". 

 

[TommyCraig]

Personally I see the way forward as salary caps for each tier of football across Europe with countries proposing cap amounts and then all agreeing to it. Of course players can earn through other means, sponsorship etc.. No doubt this would be abused, free cars and all that but would be better than it is now. 

If they get offered triple to play in Saudi then it's bye bye and good riddance. If teams don't want to sign up then don't let them into the competitions. 

I don't know the ins and outs of German football but by all accounts it's run better and more sustainably than most others. Maybe their mode is the way to go. I don't expect change but I do pray for it. 

[matthefish2002]

9 minutes ago, @owlstalk said:

When Hirsty and Waddle played, their wages were more than enough to live on, as did nearly every player before them.

Yet when players from that era or before are interviewed they're asked "I bet you wish you were playing now with that amount of money sloshing round in football eh?"

That to me doesn't suggest that todays eyewatering wages (paid for by the working man) aren't too high

Everyone knows they're too high

Especially the ordinary working man who pays a considerable percentage of his wages to just get in to watch a game of football

 

The was a article in the Star recently about how we signed Chris Waddle and it said we matched his wages at Olympique de Marseille which were £200,000 per season (About £450,000 is 2021 terms).
A real superstar player like Chris Waddle now would be on about £200,000 per week, probably 30 times above the rate of inflation from his 1992 wages.

Players like Waddle and Hirst as well even though were on much less wages than todays top players were still financially secure for life.
Go back to players who won the World Cup in 1966 and people like Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters sold insurance for 20 years after retiring from football to make a living. Martin Peters even got made redundant.

[@owlstalk]

1 minute ago, matthefish2002 said:

 

The was a article in the Star recently about how we signed Chris Waddle and it said we matched his wages at Olympique de Marseille which were £200,000 per season (About £450,000 is 2021 terms).
A real superstar player like Chris Waddle now would be on about £200,000 per week, probably 30 times above the rate of inflation from his 1992 wages.

Players like Waddle and Hirst as well even though were on much less wages than todays top players were still financially secure for life.
Go back to players who won the World Cup in 1966 and people like Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters sold insurance for 20 years after retiring from football to make a living. Martin Peters even got made redundant.

 

This is all true

 

So I would point to Hirst and Waddle era and suggest that would be the maximum players should earn and that ticket prices should be reduced to reflect that

 

Since their time all that’s happened is ticket prices have risen to be able to pay the same players we were watching way more money

 

Why? The football and supporting the club has been the exact same. There’s zero difference 

 

If it was referred football would just carry on with matches, promotions, relegations, heroes and villains playing etc 

[@owlstalk]

11 minutes ago, TommyCraig said:

Personally I see the way forward as salary caps for each tier of football across Europe with countries proposing cap amounts and then all agreeing to it. Of course players can earn through other means, sponsorship etc.. No doubt this would be abused, free cars and all that but would be better than it is now. 

If they get offered triple to play in Saudi then it's bye bye and good riddance. If teams don't want to sign up then don't let them into the competitions. 

I don't know the ins and outs of German football but by all accounts it's run better and more sustainably than most others. Maybe their mode is the way to go. I don't expect change but I do pray for it. 

 

Id be fine with sponsorships if it meant ordinary working people could have more access to more games through (much) lower ticket prices 

 

I think if some chairman came along, made tickets a fiver to get in and sorted sponsorships out for players to earn millions so be it that’s fine 

[@owlstalk]

13 minutes ago, A47Owl said:

Isn't TV and particularly Sky responsible for the ridiculous situation. 

You also need to look at the question that if someone offers you a ridiculous amount of money for something, are you going to say, "nah that's too much you can have it for half that". 

 

 

Sky TV have hyped football meaning players demand more and clubs pay it 

 

Of course everyone would take the cash but doesn’t mean things have to be this way for football fans 

 

 

[soldierboyblue]

39 minutes ago, Ian said:

So you want to create a monopoly re players agents?

 

The PFA have that team now and yet many players decide not to use them. Why do you think that is?

The PFA are one of the biggest self licking lollipops since the NUM. I give you Gordon Taylor

[soldierboyblue]

9 minutes ago, @owlstalk said:

 

Sky TV have hyped football meaning players demand more and clubs pay it 

 

Of course everyone would take the cash but doesn’t mean things have to be this way for football fans 

 

 

What has happened is that players have realised that without them the clubs wouldn't be attracting the sort of money that they currently get, which I agree with. There is always the other argument that why should the money just go to the club and not be filtered down to the employees

[@owlstalk]

11 minutes ago, soldierboyblue said:

The PFA are one of the biggest self licking lollipops since the NUM. I give you Gordon Taylor

 

He isn’t any part of the PFA

[soldierboyblue]

Just now, @owlstalk said:

 

He isn’t any part of the PFA

He was for about 40 years Neil and this is all his doing

[@owlstalk]

 

Just now, soldierboyblue said:

He was for about 40 years Neil and this is all his doing

 

 

How so?

 

 

 

[sheffield_dave]

It always seems to be an "either or" conversation when it crops up. 

 

Footballers are paid for the skills of their profession (although after watching Wednesday for 30 years, I beg to differ) so I don't think anybody can deny that they are paid well for that. But there is a middle ground between being paid "well" and earning half a million quid a week. "Footballers earn their money" and "footballers earn far too much" shouldn't be a contradiction, but so often it feels like they are in these conversations.

 

That said, I'm not sure what the answer is. Other sports still pay huge sums. Patrick Mahomes has a 10 year NFL contract worth half a billion dollars, and that's before sponsorship and endorsements, and that's within a salary capped league. I know the NBA and MLB are similar if not even higher. Then you look at the top golfers, or how many annual million dollars was on the track in Abu Dhabi at the weekend.. 

 

I just think as a society we have elevated the importance of sport in our lives to this level and the cats out of the bag, really. Covid has shown that as much as anything. 

[soldierboyblue]

1 minute ago, @owlstalk said:

 

 

 

How so?

 

 

 

He was the architect of most of the power to the players and not the clubs. He was the highest paid union official in the world, he ran the PFA like a closed shop and was allowed to. Football is where it is due to a lot of the things he has done

[Supersiggi2]

Genies out of the bottle now though. 

 

Let's say Uefa, Fifa etc agree a personal wage cap of £1m per year per player. £20k a week so very modest by premiership standards. 

 

Somewhere (Russia, China, Saudi etc) would simply say eff that. We'll set up our own Super League, unlimited earnings come and play here.  And all the top players would. 

 

I appreciate some would welcome that. 

[soldierboyblue]

https://talksport.com/football/692117/gordon-taylor-pfa-pay-cut-coronavirus/

 

And we wonder why the players are wanting their piece of the pie when the bloke who represents them won't take a hit on his small salary

[@owlstalk]

1 minute ago, Supersiggi2 said:

Genies out of the bottle now though. 

 

Let's say Uefa, Fifa etc agree a personal wage cap of £1m per year per player. £20k a week so very modest by premiership standards. 

 

Somewhere (Russia, China, Saudi etc) would simply say eff that. We'll set up our own Super League, unlimited earnings come and play here.  And all the top players would. 

 

I appreciate some would welcome that. 

 

 

But all that would happen is new heroes and superstars would emerge here 

 

Always does 

 

Always will do 

[soldierboyblue]

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/jan/09/gordon-taylor-controversies-pfa

 

He was a proper forward thinker our Gordon 

[@owlstalk]

1 minute ago, soldierboyblue said:

https://talksport.com/football/692117/gordon-taylor-pfa-pay-cut-coronavirus/

 

And we wonder why the players are wanting their piece of the pie when the bloke who represents them won't take a hit on his small salary

 

He left the PFA in 2021 

[@owlstalk]

Just now, soldierboyblue said:

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/jan/09/gordon-taylor-controversies-pfa

 

He was a proper forward thinker our Gordon 

 

He isn’t at the PFA

[soldierboyblue]

Just now, @owlstalk said:

 

He isn’t at the PFA

Not anymore but he was for 40 years and it took a player 'coup' to oust him. He's simply undefendable.