He's a footballers for **** sake...

[Terry Everall]

Football = total waste of time

[Blatman]

Splitting hairs here but that's was this corner of the forum is for, 'market value' and 'worth' are not the same thing.

I should have said "we all want to get paid what we're worth. What we actually get paid is what the market will support"

Lets see how much further we can split this particular hair  

[John K]

22 minutes ago, Blatman said:

Lets see how much further we can split this particular hair  

Nah, I'm more that happy with that.

May I suggest you now turn your attention to unifying North and South Korea, your reasoning / negotiating skills are more then up to it 

[Man On The Clapham Omnibus]

I don't want to be paid what I'm worth! I want far more than that! 

[DonPeffers]

18 hours ago, John K said:

I do agree that 'market value' is what the market will bear - however sport and entertainment IMHO are artificially inflated in terms of market value and are supported by preposterous levels of debt

It's only preposterous levels of debt that support most Governments, Banks and large Corporations.

[jeff oakley]

Football is a tribal sport where fans demand the best and after the likes on Abramovich started throwing money to buy success then the others have to follow suit.

I remember when Dennis Law became the worlds highest paid player at one million pounds and that caused allsorts of questions to be asked, but the gap between the very top and the bottom was still not grotesque. It is now.

Blatman is correct, the market dictates a value of everything, to my mind the market is wrong in this case but that is the way of things.

Fans will still shell out for tickets which are insane again to me. I have a driver who moans about how he struggles yet has a season ticket at Arsenal which is £1400 and does not include none premier league matches. People like him demand the best players.

 

[DonPeffers]

Last night I watched the men's 100 metres final at the World Athletics Championships to see twice banned for drugs Justin Gatlin win the gold medal at 35 years of age.

Realising that Justin Gatlin is an anagram of  'jailing stunt'  I wondered if only by making drugs in sport a criminal offence worldwide with lengthy jail terms (defrauding for large financial gain the sport, sponsors, media, public, fellow competitors etc) could we ever hope to have 'clean' sport.

If the financial rewards were much lower then perhaps there would be some hope.

The public need to start voting with their wallets IMO.

 

[jeff oakley]

I agree Don. I have always thought it wrong that some athletes make a genuine error with a product get treated the same as an out and out cheat. Criminalising the use of drugs in sport would be a good idea as would life time bans for those without a reasonable excuse for the error. 

But when you look at other areas, Davina McCall was a heavy drug user gets sorted and then becomes very rich indeed. Dirty Den off EastEnders murdered a cabbie in Germany and gets fame and fortune for a while. Now we see the American felon who was offered a job as a model due to his good looks and is now ****** Chloe Green the billionaires daughter and feted around the world by the fashionistas. It sends out the wrong message that cheating is fine, being a criminal is fine so long as your face fits

[Blatman]

The drugs used in sport are usually illegal and obtained illegally/fraudulently. But the quantities are small and I think the legal authorities concentrate on finding and dealing with drug sellers who are doing the most harm. Spending thousands prosecuting a "coach" for buying/supplying/administering a relativelysmall amount of steroids is not really an action for the greater good. The money is better spent elsewhere.

[DonPeffers]

See http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/lance-armstrong-us-government-battle-over-experts-in-looming-fraud-case/  regarding the upcoming 06 November 2017 trial of Lance Armstrong in $100 million lawsuit.

[pistonbroke]

On 8/6/2017 at 10:07, jeff oakley said:

Football is a tribal sport where fans demand the best and after the likes on Abramovich started throwing money to buy success then the others have to follow suit.

I remember when Dennis Law became the worlds highest paid player at one million pounds and that caused allsorts of questions to be asked, but the gap between the very top and the bottom was still not grotesque. It is now.

Blatman is correct, the market dictates a value of everything, to my mind the market is wrong in this case but that is the way of things.

Fans will still shell out for tickets which are insane again to me. I have a driver who moans about how he struggles yet has a season ticket at Arsenal which is £1400 and does not include none premier league matches. People like him demand the best players.

 

Seem to remember Trevor Francis was the first million pound ball kicker , could be wrong though as it was a long time ago 

[jeff oakley]

9 hours ago, pistonbroke said:

Seem to remember Trevor Francis was the first million pound ball kicker , could be wrong though as it was a long time ago 

You are correct. Dennis law was bought by Man U for a record £115000 in 1962, which was seen b many as obscene then. It was Trevor Francis who was the first million pound player in the UK

[Kevin (Mr T)]

On 04/08/2017 at 21:56, pistonbroke said:

If the Footy man is worth paying so much for,  then whoever pays the wages must be sure his investment will earn  more for the club in advertising revenue , shirts sales sponsership , public appearances etc etc etc . 

Football  used to be a sport for the working man

 

This, to me, sums up the real issue with football.

In my late teens and 20s, I would be in the Shed at Stamford Bridge every other Saturday at 3.00pm, having paid my 5 quid at the turnstiles.

Now, I would never consider paying current ticket prices, especially given that there is no guarantee that you will see a good game.

However, I still like to watch selected matches, so pay my Sky Sports subscription and it is from their coffers that a huge chunk of the money funding the tranfers and wages comes.

Prima donnas, yes, cheats, yes, disrespectful to refs and linos, yes. But I still love the sport and, as with any elite level sportsman, their is no doubting the huge talent that some of them possess. 

Does this make them worth the money? Well, as a supporter, I guess I would rather see Roman pay it than another owner and thus the bidding begins.

[DonPeffers]

More sport problems with the announcement that BMC's Samuel Sanchez (age 39) has been withdrawn from the cycling Tour of Spain (La Vuelta) following a failed dope test showing growth hormone.

If there was less money in the sport would there be enough money to pay the chemists?

La Vuelta starts today 19 Aug and if interested can be viewed on Eurosport 1, with highlights daily on Freeview ITV4 starting tonight at 10pm.

[Captain Colonial]

Simple solution as follows:

One league setup where every division has a spending cap (fill in the values yourself) per team per season.  Team that gets the best overall team for the limited funds wins.  The teams farthest under the salary cap get first choice when the transfer windows open.

Special "Drug League" for all players either caught doping (and banned for life from the "clean" league) or who choose to dope.  Salaries lower than clean league, but who wouldn't pay to watch football played by 22 men on speed?  Even better, the refs pass out the drugs before game time, but make it "unlucky dip" where one player on each team gets a downer - rotten luck if it's the goalie or your best striker.

Yeah yeah yeah, I know it will never happen but I can dream...