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Are footballers’ wages too high?

I regularly hear about how footballers are hugely overpaid. I cannot argue that fact. They earn a huge amount of money “just for kicking a ball”. That’s true. But the key question in this subject is, how many people pay to watch them “just kick a ball”?

I’m not saying footballers “earn” their money, but how can they be slated for being in an industry that rakes that much money in, thus allowing that much money to go out in wages? The argument many people hold is highly common, yet highly annoying. It goes along the lines of “look at nurses, doctors, soldiers and firemen, how can footballers earn more than them?”

Well the answer is how many people pay for a doctor’s names on the back of their shirt? None. How many people pay to watch a GP give out prescriptions? None. How many people pay to watch a soldiers throw grenades in a war torn country? None.

My point being, as much as the doctors and soldiers hold a far more important and respectable position in society, their income comes from us taxpayers, not 60,000 people paying to watch them in a stadium on a weekly basis.

Again I don’t agree that they should be millionaires, but I am one of those people that pays to watch them and buys their shirts. If that remotely contributes to their astronomical wages then so be it.

The thing is, football is huge, in fact monstrous in our society. I cannot think of any other subject that draws in such crowds (paying crowds) so regularly. Not to the same degree as football. But look at other sports that appear to slip under the radar. Golf, cricket, tennis, snooker and even darts!

These seem to go unnoticed and don’t recieve the same criticism as football. This to me emphasises again the impact football has on our society. It brings in huge talking points that no other matter can.

If we set aside the paying fans contribution to footballers wages, look at other sources of income into the game. Absolutely huge sponsorship deals are rife within the game, because the endorsers acknowledge just how huge football is.

Equally, golf holds huge sponsorship deals and the crowds are constantly growing. As a result Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell are both multi millionaires. Yet they recieve no abuse over their wages. Football is the verbal punchbag, no other sport.

I thoroughly understand as a grafter myself, people slog their guts out from 9 till 5 for £250-£300 a week. Unfair, yes. But until the day someone pays to watch you do your job, that’s all you are ever going to get.

My favourite example is porn. A huge industry, of which the stars are envied by many! They are being paid to “canoodle” with beautiful and “adventurous” women, yet they earn a fortune. How is that fair? Again, not fair, but there are so many seedy blokes out there who pay to watch their goings on.

The be all and end all is, industries which draw in huge sums of money, results in huge wages. It’s not down to how hard you work, or how deserved you feel you are for a huge wage. It’s about the money that goes into your area of work that matters. And as stated before, not many subjects draw in such crowds.

Exceptions are, movies and pop stars. But both Tom Cruise and Rihanna are all millionaires. Again though, they take their wage packet and run without a flicker of criticism towards them. I say fair play. How can you knock it? They have chosen a career in which millions of people pay to watch or listen to them.

So as much as it is sickening and makes me green with envy, I will never slate them because it’s life. It’s modern society. And until we stop paying to get through the turnstiles and stop getting their names printed on our backs, the wages will continue.

And all I can say to them is fair play.

 

Written by Michael Collins

Follow him on Twitter @RudeDog86

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