Why aren't we more angry about players' wages?

Brwned

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Almost everyone thinks it's obscene and bizarre, but few seem angry about it.

The greed of these players, and the people they hire to advocate on their behalf, has a direct impact on the game and our experience of it. If everyone in the elite leagues took a 10% pay cut, the amount of money available to reinvest in grassroots development, stabilising ticket prices, improving the fan experience with new technology etc. would be huge. If it was reinvested it would undoubtedly improve all aspects of the game.

Obviously a 10% pay cut isn't something that's going to happen, and direct reinvestment of revenue back into the game isn't quite so straightforward. But even if salaries were to be frozen now, and there was a shared agreement that this money would be reinvested in the game, the impact would be huge. Yet when this is discussed the focus is on stopping costs from spiralling out of control, rather than actively contributing to the development of the game in a positive way.

However no-one seems to care. We just shrug our shoulders at individuals demanding obscene amounts of money that, directly and indirectly, we fund. And it is primarily for them to spend money on things that they don't need. In most cases it is greed, pure and simple. Yet they take no responsibility for it. The clubs are criticised for raising ticket prices and the agents are criticised for facilitating the greed, but players have a significant contribution to both.

Why aren't we angry about it?
 

el3mel

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As long as they do their job on the pitch and benefit the club achieving success, why should any fans care about it ?
 

Adisa

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Why aren't we angry about actors, F1 drivers etc wages?
Why is the obsession just with footballers?
 

Borden

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Are you watching closely?
It’s a capitalist sport, like almost everything else in the world. Clubs will do what they can to maximize profits, and players will do what they can to get their piece of the pie.
 

prateik

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Why? Are you angry an actor makes 50m for a movie? Or someone like Taylor swift who made nearly 200m in a year?

Anything with a global (or even a large national) audience has a lot of money... and a large chunk of it should go to the people who are responsible for creating it.
 

OldSchoolManc

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People are angry, but there’s a sense of helplessness about it.
The only people that could do something about it, are the world football governing bodies.
Problem is, if they introduce a sensible pay cap, you’ll get the oil and state funded teams giving players shady add ons under the table.
 

Gomes

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Why should anyone be angry? Most of the money should go to the players, it's them who we go to watch.
 
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Gopher Brown

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Once upon a time there was a clear link between the money put into the club by supporters and the players’ wages - if you bought a ticket to see a match, that would go towards the players wages. That would have been the time to get annoyed about it. Now, we don’t really know where the money comes from for wages, so why get annoyed about it? Would you rather the Glazers had an extra few million?
 

RaptorSlo

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Why would we be angry?

Given the money in the industry, players deserve the wages they get.
 

MadDogg

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Well the club's get paid a ton, so why shouldn't the players be the ones who get a good chunk of that
This.

The clubs make a ridiculous amount, from numerous different sources. If the players took a 10% pay cut, do you really think that money would go to 'grassroots'? Of course not. It would go either to the owners/shareholders, or would just make transfer costs that much higher. Ultimately it is the players who do all the work, it is the players who the fans pay to watch, so I would much prefer the players to be making that money rather than going to the Glazers.

Of course, that's if it is a 'fair' amount. The situation at Barca with Messi in particular is definitely unhealthy.
 

Brwned

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Why aren't we angry about actors, F1 drivers etc wages?
Why is the obsession just with footballers?
Because this is a football forum where we talk about football. I don't have an interest in F1 so don't care. I care about football and ultimately the quality of the sport is important to me.

Money that is invested in grassroots, infrastructure etc. improve the quality of the sport and the sporting experience, so more of that is better as far as I'm concerned. Better grassroots gives better opportunities for development for my kids and should improve what's on the pitch for future generations. Better infrastructure facilitates that. New technology to augment that, whether it's in the venue or through media, improves the experience right now.

It's not about them getting some huge number and me thinking it is unjust. I couldn't give a feck about that. I care about football. And them getting paid that much doesn't improve their performances, isn't something they require for their livelihood and happiness, and it does prevent the money generated from being put to what is quite evidently better use.
 

Red_toad

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Why would we be angry?

Given the money in the industry, players deserve the wages they get.

No one person deserves a multi million salary. Feck the guy who run my country doesn't earn in a year what a top footballer earns in a week. Greed is very much alive and kicking within society, hopefully one day we'll evolve about such behaviours. It's a very damaging trait, that is leading us down a very worrying future.
 

bubbles_

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It’s goes in the list of things that people can’t feel angry about because they’re powerless to change it in any way. People would be angry if they thought their anger would make any difference.
 

pablo__p

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One side agrees to pay for something the other party will do in exchange. What's to be angry about?
 

Bjerring

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I think most fans my self included, has come to terms with it just being reality. I can't help but think, since the wealth of the clubs, that it is natural that the employees is better compensated, though it should also be the case with the people in and around the club.

But in the end of the day, the only concern should be whether ones club wins or looses on the weekend. Not be if a player is on 100k a week or not.
 

SirAF

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When football generate so much money it is only fair that the most important attractions in the game are paid the biggest chunk.
 

HTG

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They happen to be some lucky feckers who have a talent that’s worth a lot, because people pay a lot to watch them perform. If someone has a talent or ability that makes his employer so much money, it’s just fair that he gets a share of it.
Also, what else would the clubs do with their money?
 

Minimalist

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You can have a better discussion about the money in football. The wages are a side issue but make sense once you buy into the silly money within the sport.

Sure the wages aren't even the half of it when it comes to the better players in the game - their sponsorships outside the club usually make up 50% of their earnings.
 

GHam

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???

Why would I be angry? No money out my pocket so I couldn't care less

It's a massive global form of entertainment, of course wages are going to be high.
 

Ducklegs

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Do you get angry about what Tom Cruise gets paid?
 

AndyJ1985

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Wages are relative to the worth of an employee to the company. United make over half a billion pounds a year, and that's largely because of the players who put on a United shirt and kick a ball about. Therefore a lot of the wealth goes to them. It's no different to a lead actor earning £20m for a movie, or Lewis Hamilton earning tens of millions a year for racing a car.

The only issue I have with a footballers wages are when it's a lazy bellend who isn't deserving of them. Actors and F1 drivers have to earn their money because they have nowhere to hide and no one to lean on. Football players can hide behind their team mates, have a terrible attitude, and at times not even bother showing up to training, but still earn a fortune.

If a player works hard and gives his all and proves to be a valuable asset to the team, I couldn't give a shite what he's paid.
 

Arruda

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Meh. Distribution of wealth, oligopolies, etc, are problems with a far wider scope than football.

I am not angry with it in the way it pertains to football specifically. I dislike it globally.
 

clarkydaz

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more angry about fans having to pay more each year to fund it, and the amount agents make is even more obscene
 

Gopher Brown

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No one person deserves a multi million salary. Feck the guy who run my country doesn't earn in a year what a top footballer earns in a week. Greed is very much alive and kicking within society, hopefully one day we'll evolve about such behaviours. It's a very damaging trait, that is leading us down a very worrying future.
How do you decide who deserves what?
 

GHam

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Also why would you be angry actors and singers get so much money?

They put A LOT of work in and face a lot of competition. If it makes you angry you go ahead and put the same work in
 

Massive Spanner

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The top 0.01% in any popular sport of profession will always get paid obscene amounts of money, especially if it's global. It's just the way it is, so I don't see the point in being angry about it.

If you're angry about footballers wages you may as well be angry about just about every other high earner out there.
 

MadDogg

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No one person deserves a multi million salary. Feck the guy who run my country doesn't earn in a year what a top footballer earns in a week. Greed is very much alive and kicking within society, hopefully one day we'll evolve about such behaviours. It's a very damaging trait, that is leading us down a very worrying future.
If they are the ones making their club extra money, why shouldn't they be? Who deserves it more than them?
 

LoCalXT

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If it was easy, everyone will be doing it.
 
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Mindhunter

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Salaries and asset prices are determined by market forces and in a free market any attempt to bring in limits will result in the market getting skewed. They are a direct function of the money being poured into the game by owners, advertisers and sponsors. If that revenues goes up, so will salaries and transfer prices.

Maybe not immediately, but eventually the PL will lose out on top talent and gradually the level of football will go down if there are limits put in. In my opinion, the only responsibility a regulatory authority should take on themselves is to ensure that no club is spending beyond their power.

Like it or not, club football is a commercial professional sport. Not amateaur country football.
 

TsuWave

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players make a lot of money because they generate a lot of money.

i'd rather the money is in their pockets, you know, considering they are the ones people tune in to watch, they are also the ones performing and at times risking serious bodily harm, than the money in some american, russian or arab middle aged owner's bank account
 

SirAF

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If they are the ones making their club extra money, why shouldn't they be? Who deserves it more than them?
Exactly, if you are a key component in generating that amount of money then you obviously derserve a multi million salary. It just boils down to good old fashioned jelousy.
 

Snafu17

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There's an obscene amount of money in football. I'd rather see that money ending up in the pockets of footballers, you know the people actually doing the playing football bit, rather than someone elses.

If we're wondering why is there so much money in football in the first place... well that's just the fault of the fans innit?
 

The holy trinity 68

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If you are angry about the wages, why would you want the money put back into grass roots level? The large amounts of money in football will still be circulating in the game.

If the obscene amounts of money should go anywhere, it should be to help fight poverty, starvation and famine in the world.
 

James Peril

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Supply and demand, as it happens elsewhere in the world. If the players take a 10% decrease, the owners put the cash in their pockets. Football is business, everything that generates interest due to a following is a business. The owners and players owe nothing to the fans, they come to the games at free will and always will - to a certain degree. That is one thing we have to remember, we pay to get entertained by these guys - and they get paid for having to live a life in fame whilst doing it, as well as getting hammered by people who don’t
know them when they do badly.
 

Gareth williams

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Almost everyone thinks it's obscene and bizarre, but few seem angry about it.

The greed of these players, and the people they hire to advocate on their behalf, has a direct impact on the game and our experience of it. If everyone in the elite leagues took a 10% pay cut, the amount of money available to reinvest in grassroots development, stabilising ticket prices, improving the fan experience with new technology etc. would be huge. If it was reinvested it would undoubtedly improve all aspects of the game.

Obviously a 10% pay cut isn't something that's going to happen, and direct reinvestment of revenue back into the game isn't quite so straightforward. But even if salaries were to be frozen now, and there was a shared agreement that this money would be reinvested in the game, the impact would be huge. Yet when this is discussed the focus is on stopping costs from spiralling out of control, rather than actively contributing to the development of the game in a positive way.

However no-one seems to care. We just shrug our shoulders at individuals demanding obscene amounts of money that, directly and indirectly, we fund. And it is primarily for them to spend money on things that they don't need. In most cases it is greed, pure and simple. Yet they take no responsibility for it. The clubs are criticised for raising ticket prices and the agents are criticised for facilitating the greed, but players have a significant contribution to both.

Why aren't we angry about it?

If Apple paid their employees less we could get iPhones for 200 quid
 

RaptorSlo

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No one person deserves a multi million salary. Feck the guy who run my country doesn't earn in a year what a top footballer earns in a week. Greed is very much alive and kicking within society, hopefully one day we'll evolve about such behaviours. It's a very damaging trait, that is leading us down a very worrying future.
If you consider players as employees and how much money they make for their employers, then they absolutely do.