Recent press speculation on Premier league transfers and wages being offered has turned a lot of people's heads in recent weeks, including mine.
Transfer fees
Overseas clubs have added buyout clauses, benefiting themselves. Torino striker Andrea Belotti has a €84m buyout clause if a club outside of Italy make an offer, which makes it impossible for a lot of teams to even inquire about the player, let alone make an offer. Such business acumen makes only a handful of clubs able to compete, the likes of Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal, PSG, Bayern, Barcelona and Real Madrid. However that's still 8 teams that regularly rotate up to 15 players in their starting 11, which means well over 100 quality players are required, thus creating an elite transfer market just for the richest clubs. Those 8 teams are also in the top 10 richest clubs, according to Deliotte, depending on turnover and profits. Thus creating a virtuous cycle of success breeds success mentality. Great if you're a football club owner, as most are self made millionaires or billionaires. The people in the game, whether players, coaching staff, managers or pundits are all set to benefit from well-paid careers.
Even the Championship has seen some serious transfer money being spent. Usually the Championship doesn't catch the eye, but Wolves broke their transfer record, snapping up Ruben Neves for a reported £15m.
So nowadays a decent player in the Premier league used to cost between £20-25m, this year you're looking at £35-45m, and probably more, depending on age, and nationality. Swansea want £40m+ for Sigurdsson, even though he cost £25m from Spurs and is well into his late 20's now. Judging by his performances last year however, you can understand why Swansea would demand such a fee. Then there's Liverpool who turned down an offer for fringe player left back Alberto Moreno, citing they want at least £15m. I wouldn't even give £10m, especially considering James Milner played at left back most of the season.
Obscene wages
If transfer fees are mad what about wages? Alexis Sanchez is demanding a reported £400,000 weekly wage from Arsenal, which is £125,000 up from Arsenal's offer of £275,000 per week. With a year left on his contract, and approaching 29,it could be time for Arsenal to show him the exit door. The average wage outside of London is £22,000, and that includes overtime. With austerity in the UK, living standards falling, and government policies, you can't make this #### up. Somewhere on the seats occupied by the fans, resentment will appear as fans get the feeling they're just customers. It might not happen straight away, but it's going to happen. And who could blame them? Clubs have long chased global sponsorship, with the money from endorsements, image rights, and sponsorship truly breathtaking, and players have also been cashing in on their image rights, and it's getting more obscene. But the people in football would argue that if you were in the profession, you wouldn't say "no" either. Really, Cristiano Ronaldo earned over £70m last year before tax, yet Spanish prosecutors have accused him of defrauding the authorities of £12.9m in unpaid taxes between 2011 and 2014.
What does the future hold?
If the USA is an example of the sports industry, some people will be priced out of a season ticket soon. Celebrity couples like Jay Z and Beyonce, regularly turn up to watch NBA games. At least West Ham had the decency to subsidise their away games by laying on free coach travel for fans. But too many clubs treat fans like customers, and it's only going to get worse over time.
How the game is perceived today is all business, and nothing else. Where the game is heading is anyone's guess, but £1bn turnover for a football club is surely only 5-6 years away.
Guest written by Kully Bahia
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