Footballers = overpaid muppets?

[Davey_Pitch]

Decided to start a new thread on this rather than clog up the other one.

Originally Posted by Feek

"Hey you overpayed tw**s, go out there and play a game. Try and play it better than the other overpayed tw**s please. Score some goals if you can!"

Originally Posted by Nutcase

And what players there are, as fantastically overpaid

Originally Posted by Will

They're still overpaid muppets

Obviously the opinion from some people (most?) is that footballers are overpaid. I've had thoughts on this for some time but never really mentioned it till now. The main thought I have is - footballers are not overpaid, at least not more than a lot of other people who never get slated for the money they earn.

Football is an industry like any other. You have people at the top end, and people at the bottom end. The lower league footballers probably don't earn much more than me (an IT Technician), yet the top footballers can earn millions. This is comparable to so many other businesses and industries, where lowly workers struggle on minimum wage, while the directors at huge international firms get paid millions of pounds each year.

Why is it that only footballers seem to get slated about the money they earn? I never hear people say actors are overpaid, or musicians. Denzel Washington got paid roughly £20m for his last film, yet probably only did about 3-6 months work on it. No footballer in the world earns that kind of money. How about the top musicians? They can earn millions for a top selling album, and millions more from a tour, yet all they do is sing or play an instrument.

I know people are going to argue that all they get paid to do is to run around a field kicking a ball, and though I feel that's a very narrow view (the amount of training required to stay fit is unbelievable), the same comments never seem to get thrown anywhere else. Tiger Woods earns more a year than pretty much every footballer, but all he does is hit a little ball around, he doesn't even run after it. Hell, Lewis Hamilton gets paid millions for sitting on his arse in a car.

Yes footballers at the top level do get paid huge amounts of money, more in a week than I make in 5 years. I do wish I was paid as much as they do. However, why is it only footballers who get slated for the money they earn? Why does no-one else get called "overpaid muppets"?

Over to you.

[Desmo]

Originally Posted by Kitten

I will post, but will have to from home as I'm posting this on my mobile. THe work filter blocked this because of the word 't**t'

Edited the post so you should be clear now

As for are they overpaid? Yes, I think so. I think there are plenty of people that are overpaid...but they get paid what people are prepared to pay them for the work they do. The players are a commodity in a business just like anyone else.

[Davey_Pitch]

Edited for you Kitten

[Davey_Pitch]

Originally Posted by Desmo

As for are they overpaid? Yes, I think so. I think there are plenty of people that are overpaid...but they get paid what people are prepared to pay them for the work they do. The players are a commodity in a business just like anyone else.

Exactly. It's all supply and demand, I remember it well from when I did Business Studies at school. It's not the fault of the players if the market means they're paid more than others. I actually don't blame them for taking the money, I know I would in their position.

[Rich_L]

No I don't think they're overpaid, they are paid what they're worth in the football world.

However, I think that with that level of pay comes exceptionally high expectations, of ability, determination and suchlike. As such don't go moaning about the pressure of performing, that comes with the territory!

[Admiral Huddy]

Generally no, they are not. However, the problem lays with players that are demending much more than their worth and thereby outpricing themselves. An average english player is of no interest to top flight overseas clubs because they are too expensive compared to others that maybe half the cost and work twice as harder. In this case, why would any english player want to leave for half the rate. This seems to be the general english aptitude at the moment, not just in football. It's cheaper to get workers from abroad who work twice as hard as the lazy english.

When you look at the premier league, you start wondering why there isn't the English presence. Arsenal, for example started the other week with one English player. If this isn't proof that something is wrong than nothing will be.

English footballers need to become attractive purchases to both domestic and overseas clubs. Otherwise english players won't get a look in.

On another note, I was shocked in the summer when we found out that Martin Jol didn't have any general fitness program to his training program. It was no wonder we conceeded so many goals in the last 10 minutes of a game. They weren't fit enough. Being paid they way they do, they'd be on my trainining ground all day every bloody day.

[leowyatt]

I think their wages all comes down to what people are prepared to pay them. If the team has the supporters who'll see them week in week out and they as a player do well I see no reason they should not receive the wages they do.

As Davey said just thinking they get paid for the 90 minutes a week they play is flat out wrong. So much goes on in the background, they are on strict diets, they train every day and there is the pressure too. I don't know who of us here could deal with the pressure of 40,000+ fans all hating you because you aren't performing well.

If people think they are overpaid then the FA should introduce a salary cap like the one which will exist in Super League next season.

[Davey_Pitch]

Originally Posted by Kitchen Meister

As Davey said just thinking they get paid for the 90 minutes a week they play is flat out wrong. So much goes on in the background, they are on strict diets, they train every day and there is the pressure too. I don't know who of us here could deal with the pressure of 40,000+ fans all hating you because you aren't performing well.

Not just that, but it disrupts your life too. We here think nothing of going out and doing whatever we want, but as a famous footballer you can get mobbed everywhere you go, so it often restricts your lifestyle a lot. It may not be a huge thing, but it wouldn't be nice to want to go out for a meal but have to reconsider because you don't want 500 fans hassling you while you try and eat.

[Matblack]

You all make valid points however I think that they don't do themselves any favours in the public eye, they make people resent them when they get themselves in the public eye for the wrong reasons. Football seems to be a sport where it doesn't matter if you bring you character into question where as Woods, Hamilton and various others have to behave for their sponsors or risk bringing their team into disrepute. This doesn't seem to be the case for footballers, they tool about and no one seems to pull them up for it, although the press making heroes out of them ultimately gives them further to fall.

Because I don't enjoy football I resent how well paid they are in comparison to less commercial sports stars who put in just as much effort if not more to their training Paula Radcliffe cleared just under £.5m in her most successful year to date, some of our top athletes earn virtually nothing from UK athletics and only get paid anything else if they actually win an event. I know the TV and advertising money isn't there for so called 'minority' sports but somehow I would rather see the money spread around a bit rather than all concentrated in one sport.

The bottom line is I can forgive footballers for being highly paid and if they aren't highly paid I can forgive them for being muppets but if your highly paid and a muppet your are going to fall into my 'overpaid muppet' classification.

MB

[Feek]

When football stops being presented as a sport, then perhaps I can understand what you're saying, Davey.

It's a business now and an incredibly successful one. Kids are brainwashed at a young age that they must like football. YMF was bullied at his school before one because he had enough of a mind of his own to decide that he wasn't interested in football and when asked what team he supported, he couldn't name one. Now I'm not suggesting that everyone who is a football fan is doing it just because they've been indoctrinated into a little club but it seems that if you're not interested, you're cast as a social outcast, gay, whatever.

I've seen it myself, chatting to the barber he happened to ask what team I supported - When I said I wasn't interested in football he gave me a really filthy look.

But I'm drifting off the subject.

If football were marketed openly as a business then I'd say that they're not overpaid but as sportsmen, yes, they're ridiculously overpaid.