Transfer Fees are obscene

[Andy S]

Transfer fees and players wages are obscene When a clubs supporters cannot afford to pay their Mortgage or Rent. They can hardly afford to eat much less have a holiday. So when is the bubble going to burst?.
There has to be another way to control inflation than raising interest rates. It causes young families the biggest hardship, when they have the least amount of disposable income.

[Deeping_white]

What do transfer fees and footballers wages have to do with mortages, rent or inflation? Football is just an extreme example of any industry where market forces dictate wages - direct your frustration at the British government, not a bunch of sports people who are private citizens and can't actually do anything about inflation

[Craven Mad]

Im with you on this Andy, but sadly it's a systemic problem rooted in unfettered capitalism. The truth is that, financially speaking, a footballer is simply more valuable than a teacher/nurse, and the markets aren't there to protect fairness.

At this point, I'd advocate for international agreements on wage caps and more progressive tax burdens, but it'd only work if other countries align.

[HamsterWheel]

All because some dratted club started it by paying a player £100 a week.....

[filham]

Fully agree with you Andy S.
Afraid we have to get political but football has become a prime example of uncontrolled capitalism where the poor workers always come off worse.
We really need controls on transfer fees and players wages but the big wealthy clubs know they are so much better off without any controls.

[Andy S]

I have no objection to how much players are being paid. It's the supporter that are being stung. It cannot keep going forever. So when will the bubble burst? Sky are phoning me every 5 minutes doing a hard sell. We have high inflation so anyone who says it has nothing to do with football is deluded. Why has women's football taken off on the tv? It's because it is comparatively cheaper. Tv will always look for a cheaper option

[RaySmith]

Fully agree with you Andy S.
Afraid we have to get political but football has become a prime example of uncontrolled capitalism where the poor workers always come off worse.
We really need controls on transfer fees and players wages but the big wealthy clubs know they are so much better off without any controls.

Good post Filham - in Germany a certain percentage of clubs has to be owned by fans, with other controls on rampant market forces, but in this country, where we have no such controls over the unfettered  free market, we are definitely in the control of global market forces, with  powerful foreign, oil rich, nations - undemocratic with no mass vote or elections, with terrible civil rights such as exploitation of poor foreign workers, restrictions on women's freedom, homosexuality against the law - even being punished with the death penalty -
 having a hugely detrimental effect on our game, it being impossible to compete with the clubs owned by these nations with their unlimited wealth, and apparently no checks at all on them buying into our game, though they are also buying controlling interests in other sports, eg golf.

So, you can't blame the clubs here for vast transfer fees, and wages, passed on to the fans in ticket prices - they have to pay these sums if they want to compete at all at the top level, with traditional clubs going to the wall, often because the land their  ground is on is wanted by property developers, again with no legal protection.

Though the argument given to this is that our game is a huge earner for the country, with it being a global success through tv coverage by largely foreign owned companies like Sky, which pays huge feels to the  league and Prem  clubs, and which the clubs largely depend on - if you go out of the Prem this TV money is vastly reduced.
The Prem is a huge global earner.

[Lighthouse]

Be for we go too far down this road. I will just point out the obscene wages of CEOs and Directors and Politicians who have more than one job and being paid huge sums for a few hours work. While workers and the general population struggle.

Football, tennis and many sports have an elite. That is how sport works. So teams at the very top compete for the best players and offer the highest wages. If fans didn't go along with it then stadiums would be empty. But they aren't. Yes elite sport is obscene where wages and transfers and prize money are concerned. But if we go down the road of part supporter owned clubs. We will end up with a less popular and successful league.

[Andy S]

Be for we go too far down this road. I will just point out the obscene wages of CEOs and Directors and Politicians who have more than one job and being paid huge sums for a few hours work. While workers and the general population struggle.

Football, tennis and many sports have an elite. That is how sport works. So teams at the very top compete for the best players and offer the highest wages. If fans didn't go along with it then stadiums would be empty. But they aren't. Yes elite sport is obscene where wages and transfers and prize money are concerned. But if we go down the road of part supporter owned clubs. We will end up with a less popular and successful league.

so what about football at lower levels? Football should be investing in teams in the lower leagues, in pitches coaches and stands so spectators and players get looked after better. It's crazy that we have an Asset like football yet we do not invest in it at lower levels

[Whitesideup]

Add entertainers in general. The amount top entertainers earn from appearances paid for by exorbitant ticket prices (well beyond the pocket of many of us) is just another manifestation of the same thing. And apparently there is an increasing tendency for top artists to be paid huge sums to play at private parties hosted by the super-wealthy. Doesn't that sound a bit like Saudi football? 

[filham]

A leading question is do any of us older fans enjoy watching Fulham more nowadays with these sky high transfer fees, players wages and ticket prices any more than we did say 40/50 years ago when prices were sensible.

I think the general answer will be no.
Looking back what a bargain all of us had watching all those games in which Haynes played at the Cottage.

[alfie]

I have no objection to how much players are being paid. It's the supporter that are being stung. It cannot keep going forever. So when will the bubble burst? Sky are phoning me every 5 minutes doing a hard sell. We have high inflation so anyone who says it has nothing to do with football is deluded. Why has women's football taken off on the tv? It's because it is comparatively cheaper. Tv will always look for a cheaper option

You say you have no objections to how much they are paid, but the money has to come from somewhere and some of it comes from supporters, albeit not a great amount but a percentage, that is why ticket/merchandise etc, will continue to increase.

[Lighthouse]

Be for we go too far down this road. I will just point out the obscene wages of CEOs and Directors and Politicians who have more than one job and being paid huge sums for a few hours work. While workers and the general population struggle.

Football, tennis and many sports have an elite. That is how sport works. So teams at the very top compete for the best players and offer the highest wages. If fans didn't go along with it then stadiums would be empty. But they aren't. Yes elite sport is obscene where wages and transfers and prize money are concerned. But if we go down the road of part supporter owned clubs. We will end up with a less popular and successful league.

so what about football at lower levels? Football should be investing in teams in the lower leagues, in pitches coaches and stands so spectators and players get looked after better. It's crazy that we have an Asset like football yet we do not invest in it at lower levels

I wouldn't argue with that at all. But I am not sure it will ever happen. Mind you tennis has invested huge amounts of money into British tennis thanks to the profits from Wimbledon. Yet we don't have one decent female player that doesn't require a wild card to play at their home tournament. On the Mens side it is hardly any better. However it would be great if in football the wealth could be shared around a little more evenly. But the big clubs just don't want to invest anything unless the smaller clubs become nursery clubs for them.

[Eton White]

What do transfer fees and footballers wages have to do with mortages, rent or inflation?

I guess you could argue that rising wages (whether footballers' or anyone else's) are one of the things that fuel inflation. If you can afford to buy things at increasingly high prices, inflation will continue.

It's only when the market slows down (ie people start struggling to buy things), that prices are forced downwards and inflation eases. Hence why interest rate rises "work". They make it increasingly difficult for people to afford to buy things.

[Deeping_white]

What do transfer fees and footballers wages have to do with mortages, rent or inflation?

I guess you could argue that rising wages (whether footballers' or anyone else's) are one of the things that fuel inflation. If you can afford to buy things at increasingly high prices, inflation will continue.

It's only when the market slows down (ie people start struggling to buy things), that prices are forced downwards and inflation eases. Hence why interest rate rises "work". They make it increasingly difficult for people to afford to buy things.

Whether that's true or not on the wages driving inflation (and there is evidence to suggest it doesn't), assuming each of the 92 clubs in the EFL had 30 players contracted to their club, you're talking about 2700 individuals and that's not going to cause inflation for a whole country when they'll make up less than 0.00004% of the population. This inflation has been pretty much driven purely by gas and energy causing the price of food to go up, again not something that footballers are going to influence whatsoever. There's people who are in jobs to deal with these things who should get some attention for it long before footballers get moaned about

[hovewhite]

At Fulham reflected in S.T prices as well.