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Transfer Fees/High Wages - Do YOU Care?



whitelion

New member
Dec 16, 2003
12,828
Southwick
I did hear somewhere that you can't get away with relegation clauses because players won't sign those contracts

I can't believe that''s true.


https://lawblacks.wordpress.com/201...es-do-clubs-have-a-contingency-plan-in-place/

It is that time of the season again when the Premiership trap door is looming for a number of clubs who find themselves in the bottom half of the table. QPR and Reading’s fate has already been sealed with both teams now gearing themselves for life in the Championship next season. Sunderland FC and Newcastle FC are two teams at the start of the season that few would have predicted to be in a battle for survival. From the individual club’s point of view it would seem that one team has pondered the “What If’s” and one team has not.

Where the Tyne-Wear derby teams really vary is that Sunderland learnt from the heartache of relegation in 2003 where 70 members of staff lost their jobs. Standard protocol for the ‘Black Cats’ is that the players have clauses inserted into their contracts that if they were to fall into the Championship, players would see their salaries fall by as much as 40 per cent. Conversely, the ‘Toon Army’ have seemingly forgotten their relegation from the Premier League in 2009. They did not insert relegation clauses into all of the five French imports who arrived at St. James’ Park in the 2013 January transfer window. Mathieu Debuchy, Yoan Gouffran, Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa, Massadio Haïdara and Moussa Sissoko cost the club a whopping £31m in transfer and agents’ fees .
 




BigGully

Well-known member
Sep 8, 2006
7,139
We are not dipping into our own capital or savings, it is being handed to us by Sky and the decisions to strive for some level of success is in the hope we retain a position where we are handed more money from Sky and so on.
 


Jolly Red Giant

Well-known member
Jul 11, 2015
2,615
Football is becoming an elitist sport. Sky are wrecking football as a community based game played by everyone to a sport based on money.

20 years ago a full-time player in the National Conference were paid from £250 a week up - a player playing in what is now the Premier League got about £5000 a week. Today players in the Conference are still earning as little as £250 a week while PL players can earn up to £350,000 a week. It is utterly obscene.

It is the same for the fans - the elimination of standing areas - the increase in ticket prices etc are all pricing working class people out of being able to go to games etc. Think about it - you buy a jersey for £50 and then walk around advertising an online gambling company or a payday loan shark. Who would have thought that people would act as an advertising billboard and pay for the privilege.

Along with that most clubs are now owned by billionaire oligarchs who have no connection to the club except the prospect of using it to make money - and as time goes on the money is being concentrated among fewer clubs and in fewer and fewer hands. It is only a matter of time before the PL adopts the same deal as Spain where Real Madrid and Barcelona get an increased slice of the money over and above every other club.
 


erkan

Well-known member
Dec 9, 2004
896
Eastbourne
Football is becoming an elitist sport. Sky are wrecking football as a community based game played by everyone to a sport based on money.

20 years ago a full-time player in the National Conference were paid from £250 a week up - a player playing in what is now the Premier League got about £5000 a week. Today players in the Conference are still earning as little as £250 a week while PL players can earn up to £350,000 a week. It is utterly obscene.

It is the same for the fans - the elimination of standing areas - the increase in ticket prices etc are all pricing working class people out of being able to go to games etc. Think about it - you buy a jersey for £50 and then walk around advertising an online gambling company or a payday loan shark. Who would have thought that people would act as an advertising billboard and pay for the privilege.

Along with that most clubs are now owned by billionaire oligarchs who have no connection to the club except the prospect of using it to make money - and as time goes on the money is being concentrated among fewer clubs and in fewer and fewer hands. It is only a matter of time before the PL adopts the same deal as Spain where Real Madrid and Barcelona get an increased slice of the money over and above every other club.
Well said. It reflects our generally bankrupt society. A few years of a proper Labour government could sort it out but that is very wishful thinking.
 






rocker959

Well-known member
Jan 22, 2011
2,802
Plovdiv Bulgaria
Football is becoming an elitist sport. Sky are wrecking football as a community based game played by everyone to a sport based on money.

20 years ago a full-time player in the National Conference were paid from £250 a week up - a player playing in what is now the Premier League got about £5000 a week. Today players in the Conference are still earning as little as £250 a week while PL players can earn up to £350,000 a week. It is utterly obscene.

It is the same for the fans - the elimination of standing areas - the increase in ticket prices etc are all pricing working class people out of being able to go to games etc. Think about it - you buy a jersey for £50 and then walk around advertising an online gambling company or a payday loan shark. Who would have thought that people would act as an advertising billboard and pay for the privilege.

Along with that most clubs are now owned by billionaire oligarchs who have no connection to the club except the prospect of using it to make money - and as time goes on the money is being concentrated among fewer clubs and in fewer and fewer hands. It is only a matter of time before the PL adopts the same deal as Spain where Real Madrid and Barcelona get an increased slice of the money over and above every other club.

Agreed . Ah the word greed is part of that word too .
 




trueblue

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
10,417
Hove
Along with that most clubs are now owned by billionaire oligarchs who have no connection to the club except the prospect of using it to make money - and as time goes on the money is being concentrated among fewer clubs and in fewer and fewer hands. It is only a matter of time before the PL adopts the same deal as Spain where Real Madrid and Barcelona get an increased slice of the money over and above every other club.

Haven't ever seen any evidence for this. The people that run the Premier League aren't stupid commercially - far from it - and know very well that the appeal of the Premier League is provided by the relatively low differential between the money that goes to the top clubs from TV rights and those towards the bottom. It creates the competitiveness that makes it marketable and so popular worldwide.

As for the original question over caring about high transfer fees/wages. They're annoying and it's a concern when it comes to the effect on younger players and also the exorbitant amounts being creamed off by agents. However, it's the top players who have attracted the money into the game in the first place and so there's no reason why those stars shouldn't benefit. If the press (and football fans) had the same habit of always quoting the 'weekly' wage of other top earners in the entertainment industry, the figures would seem just as ridiculous - but nobody seems to bat an eyelid about film and pop stars (or even novelists) raking in millions per year.

I'm pretty sure Tony Bloom will do as much as he can to ensure that we don't go down the route of Portsmouth, Leeds etc and get into a terrible financial situation long term. But we will have players earning an awful lot of money. Good luck to them. As long as they're doing their best to earn what is simply the going rate within their privately-funded industry, no problem with that at all.
 




Whoislloydy

Well-known member
May 2, 2016
2,445
Vancouver, British Columbia
Problem is there's next to no risk now.

Sunderland received £99million and that was just from Sky this season. They also now have parachute payments.

The amount of money in the PL is insane now.
 


Nixonator

Well-known member
Feb 8, 2016
6,733
Shoreham Beach
Haven't ever seen any evidence for this. The people that run the Premier League aren't stupid commercially - far from it - and know very well that the appeal of the Premier League is provided by the relatively low differential between the money that goes to the top clubs from TV rights and those towards the bottom. It creates the competitiveness that makes it marketable and so popular worldwide.

Six clubs have been lobbying for an increased share. I'm sure you can take a guess which clubs they are.
 


Seagulltonian

C'mon the Albion!
Oct 2, 2003
2,773
Still Somewhere in Sussex!
I care that we don't sign any "money mercenaries" that seem to join a club to earn the big money, and not pull their weight over the season.
I care that we seem to have a wage structure in place that has been pretty prudent and frugal over the last few years, so that we don't have players earning way more than other players in the team, and so the team spirit is fantastic, and we don't have "Superstars". We have a team that plays for each other.
I care that we are now in a position to get the books balanced a bit more, and we don't end up in the financial shit ever again, and having fantastic stadium/training ground that are now ours.
Yes we will have to spend undoubtedly, and as long as we can afford it, there shouldn't be any problem.
My only big worry is, will the Board Management try to charge us for things that bring us closer to our club, and treat us as "Cash Cows" and not "Fans"!

Anyway, 2017/18 is ramping up to be something special in the Albion's History Journals! Looking forward to find out who our next signing will be! :albion2:
 




trueblue

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
10,417
Hove
Six clubs have been lobbying for an increased share. I'm sure you can take a guess which clubs they are.

Depressingly true. But the leading clubs have been lobbying like that for years and years and it hasn't got them everything they want, so far. The amount of money the Premier League attracts (and provides) in its current form is, I suppose, one reason that they stay relatively quiet nowadays about a 'breakaway'.
 


Lower West Stander

Well-known member
Mar 25, 2012
4,753
Back in Sussex
I care.

The ludicrous wages paid to players divorce them from reality in way we never saw when I was growing up in the 80s.

And I hate that.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 


drew

Drew
Oct 3, 2006
23,063
Burgess Hill
Firstly, referring to the OP, the amount of money is not the problem provided it is managed and within our overall budget. Going further back than the OP, our first stint in the top flight was almost certainly what led to our predicament in the 90s. 10 year contracts and high transfer fees when we didn't have the money in the first place.

As for those slating Sky and what they have done, how many are subscribers? It's down to market forces. Sky fund football because punters fund sky.
 




Herr Tubthumper

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 11, 2003
59,566
The Fatherland
I think I'll always struggle to agree with high wages when I see very very average footballers driving flash cars and minimum wages jobs being shed at clubs. Will Hoskins driving a Porsche always grated with me. Please note I genuinely don't have an issue with wealth per se.
 


BigGully

Well-known member
Sep 8, 2006
7,139
I think I'll always struggle to agree with high wages when I see very very average footballers driving flash cars and minimum wages jobs being shed at clubs. Will Hoskins driving a Porsche always grated with me. Please note I genuinely don't have an issue with wealth per se.

Agree, in a weird way the £300,000 per week players probably offer some value for money, they are likely to be internationally iconic, obviously uber talented etc, however competent Championship players reciving £20 000 + per week for being part of a group of players finishing in the top half seems slightly wrong to me.
 


dejavuatbtn

Well-known member
Aug 4, 2010
7,202
Henfield
Yes, I am bothered by it because it doesn't seem to be abeiting. Football finances are like a cancer that grows and spreads at a experiential rate. The number of betting firms throwing money at football just mean that more people are sucked into an addiction. TV charges keep creeping up. In general, the cost of going to a live game has increased to a level where the average fan cannot afford it. The players are more distant from the fans than ever physically, emotionally and economically. They kiss the shirt and count their money. It's a really unhealthy state of affairs that doesn't look like stopping. Quite why and how we have all been brainwashed into going along with it is beyond me. We are told that the Premier League is the best thing EVER - but they are just games of football and as long as you have a team to hang your hat on, that's all you really need. The Premier league have taken away most of our football package and are charging more for it.
I don't have a problem with players earning a decent income - "they only have a short career and all that" - but there are players earning more in a couple of weeks than some earn in a lifetime. That isn't appropriate. Most of their careers don't end with their playing days - the gravy train keeps chugging along these days.
 


Moshe Gariani

Well-known member
Mar 10, 2005
12,089
Quite why and how we have all been brainwashed into going along with it is beyond me. We are told that the Premier League is the best thing EVER...
You have essentially answered your own question.

As someone I quite like once wrote... "the public wants what the public gets"
 








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