[Football] Gareth Bale calls on governing bodies to protect player welfare

[Neville's Breakfast]

You've changed your tune already.
This is hardly a simple comment on more football equals more wages.



To me it says far more than you thought you were letting on.


The list of billionaire owners is extensive and if you think that doesn't include The Albion you need to get back in your DeLorean and scroll forward 10 years.

Not only is the list extensive the list of potential billionaire buyers is considerably longer, as proven by Chelsea.


How many players from Tranmere are playing glorified friendlies?
How many of the Tranmere squad are expected back for preseason in a couple of weeks?
How many will be playing in the W/C?


Owners and customers drive players wages.
Not the players or the fans.

I haven’t changed what I am saying at all. If I need to spell it out I can. I called for players to have their wages reduced in order that the pressure of playing extra football matches be reduced. If players like Gareth Bale are happy with their wages going up and more football being organised to pay for it then they need to stop complaining and I won’t make any further comment. How else would you raise the money to pay for it ? Presumably you are not calling for more dirty money in the game ? So where is legitimate money going to come from apart from more football matches ?
The answers to your questions about Tranmere are all none and therefore they don’t get paid astronomical sums of money. You have recognized the causality just by asking the questions.
Players and fans are a part of the whole structure. I’m afraid you can’t separate out the stakeholders.

 

[Stat Brother]

I haven’t changed what I am saying at all. If I need to spell it out I can. I called for players to have their wages reduced in order that the pressure of playing extra football matches be reduced. If players like Gareth Bale are happy with their wages going up and more football being organised to pay for it then they need to stop complaining and I won’t make any further comment. How else would you raise the money to pay for it ? Presumably you are not calling for more dirty money in the game ? So where is legitimate money going to come from apart from more football matches ?

Paying players less doesn't equate to fewer matches, does it?


I have no idea why you are running away from why you wrote this thread.

KdB made the same comments a few days ago and you didn't feel obliged to comment.
I believe you didn't as you feel Kev has earned the right to say it.

But as it's Gareth Bale you feel he's fair game to construct this spurious argument around, because he's famously insisted Real Madrid honour their contract.

You will now say I'm talking bollox and "there's no point discussing this further", despite all the evidence to the contrary.

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

I'm not aware there's any part of finance or trading that won't have a knock on affect on the public

I traded with large oil companies and mining groups by taking their risk from them. They were able to fix their selling or buying prices and thus able to budget around known revenues. I assumed the price risk. The knock on effect to the public was positive as my customers reduced their risk.

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

Paying players less doesn't equate to fewer matches, does it?


I have no idea why you are running away from why you wrote this thread.

KdB made the same comments a few days ago and you didn't feel obliged to comment.
I believe you didn't as you feel Kev has earned the right to say it.

But as it's Gareth Bale you feel he's fair game to construct this spurious argument around, because he's famously insisted Real Madrid honour their contract.

You will now say I'm talking bollox and "there's no point discussing this further", despite all the evidence to the contrary.

Goodness, you are in a bad mood this morning. All of your assumptions are wrong. Despite what you believe I didn’t see similar comments from another player about this topic. I started this thread about Gareth Bale purely because of what he said and what is (to me) an obvious point about more pay for more work. Then all your grumpiness started.

 

[Stat Brother]

Goodness, you are in a bad mood this morning. All of your assumptions are wrong. Despite what you believe I didn’t see similar comments from another player about this topic. I started this thread about Gareth Bale purely because of what he said and what is (to me) an obvious point about more pay for more work. Then all your grumpiness started.

So to you it's obvious if all top flight players earned a maximum of £150,000 a week there would be less football.

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

So to you it's obvious if all top flight players earned a maximum of £150,000 a week there would be less football.

No, that is not a consequence of what I am saying. The amount of football currently played us driven by the amount of money needed to pay players. This is shown by the percentage of club costs taken by this item. Every time player wages rise, more football needs to be played to pay for it. Capping it at 150k a week would simply freeze everything where we are now. I would think the cap would have to be a lot lower if the demands on players are to be reduced. I do keep asking you where the money is going to come from to fund player pay rises if it’s not from more football matches.

 

[Swansman]

Slow Saturday in England huh?

 

[WATFORD zero]

Many reports have suggested Bloom is a billionaire.

I would suggest that if he isn't a billionaire (or multi billionaire) then throwing £250M at what is his hobby would be a little irresponsible and TB doesn't strike me as the sort of bloke would would be financially irresponsible

 

[Stat Brother]

No, that is not a consequence of what I am saying. The amount of football currently played us driven by the amount of money needed to pay players. This is shown by the percentage of club costs taken by this item. Every time player wages rise, more football needs to be played to pay for it. Capping it at 150k a week would simply freeze everything where we are now. I would think the cap would have to be a lot lower if the demands on players are to be reduced. I do keep asking you where the money is going to come from to fund player pay rises if it’s not from more football matches.

There aren't more fixtures.
The top players are playing more games because they aren't losing.

Pre and end of season club/country friendlies have been in the calendar for decades.
The calender is screwed at the moment because of FIFA's world cup greed plus UEFA seeing FIFA's greed and matching it while being scared of a Super League.


Absolutely none of which has anything to do with individual player wages, whether they are 'earning' them or not.

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

There aren't more fixtures.
The top players are playing more games because they aren't losing.

Pre and end of season club/country friendlies have been in the calendar for decades.
The calender is screwed at the moment because of FIFA's world cup greed plus UEFA seeing FIFA's greed and matching it while being scared of a Super League.


Absolutely none of which has anything to do with individual player wages, whether they are 'earning' them or not.

There are more European matches and competitions and more clubs involved in them. The Nations League is an attempt to make friendlies more competitive and thereby increase interest and revenue and consequently physical demands on players. It is all linked. I have never once mentioned whether or not players are ‘earning’ their wages. You seem to be arguing about something completely different to my point which remains ever since my OP about the economics of the game.

 

[herecomesaregular]

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...mpions-league-money-football-saturation-point

This article is 5 years old but it does seem that supporters/customers still have huge appetite to watch all the live football presented. We haven't reached saturation point yet, unfortunately.

For example, I thought I wasn't interested in the Nations League but tbf I have watched all the England games. Having said that I don't think there is a need to play our A-list players just play all the B team, give the others a proper rest. Southgate is not learning anything new by playing Kane every game. Likewise I'm happy to pay less to watch Albion cup teams full of reserve players (the crux being paying a much reduced entrance fee).

I don't believe that top players earning top money have to play all the games. The problem is not their salaries but that the public eagerness to watch all these games hasn't diminished. Football could do with becoming a bit less fashionable and demand for it to lessen, somehow (then again I remember fondly when you could rock up and get tickets for most live events easily, from football to Glastonbury).

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Paying players less doesn't equate to fewer matches, does it?


I have no idea why you are running away from why you wrote this thread.

KdB made the same comments a few days ago and you didn't feel obliged to comment.
I believe you didn't as you feel Kev has earned the right to say it.

But as it's Gareth Bale you feel he's fair game to construct this spurious argument around, because he's famously insisted Real Madrid honour their contract.

You will now say I'm talking bollox and "there's no point discussing this further", despite all the evidence to the contrary.

Bale is actually a great example of players being pushed beyond what their bodies can do, his body is done because of it.

 

[portlock seagull]

Gareth Bale…

 

[dejavuatbtn]

With soaring inflation across the world perhaps people’s priorities may change and drive down the demand for Sky which in turn would impact on its ability to fund the ridiculous amount of money paid to sports. If that in turn drives down the number of competitions and games, then I personally would welcome it. If that reduces the quality of the game in the U.K. I don’t care. I just want a team to support and don’t give a monkey’s what division the are in, so long as it’s affordable.

 

[herecomesaregular]

With soaring inflation across the world perhaps people’s priorities may change and drive down the demand for Sky which in turn would impact on its ability to fund the ridiculous amount of money paid to sports. If that in turn drives down the number of competitions and games, then I personally would welcome it. If that reduces the quality of the game in the U.K. I don’t care. I just want a team to support and don’t give a monkey’s what division the are in, so long as it’s affordable.

This

 

[wellquickwoody]

Cut the EPL to 16 teams, get rid of the Caribou Cup ?

May as well call it The Scottish Premier League as an interim measure.

 

[drew]

I am struggling to understand the difference. High pay in finance comes from the money generated by finance. I used to be a part of it. The revenues I generated did not come from the population as a whole. They came from decisions I made. I think what you are talking about are the cash cows of foreign exchange transactions and lending. The former is certainly free money but the latter does not come without risk. With regards to football I am not really making a comment about the rights and wrongs of player pay. Instead I am saying that if wages and fees are going to continue to be such a significant proportion of club costs then they shouldn’t be surprised if they have to play football matches to pay for it.

Did the money you make just magically appear. When someone gains there will be someone that loses out.

 

[wellquickwoody]

Slow Saturday in England huh?

Even more so in Sweden, but that’s just normal huh?

 

[Motogull]

There was a more scientific article recently on the beeb that got me thinking.

A max number of games would be interesting towards the end of a season as more squad players get used. Players might feel more loyal knowing they would get game time and chances to impress.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Indeed.

England were slagged off for the Hungary game. When a top team plays the punters scream for highest level football every time, or it's 'Southgate is useless'.

Quality cannot be maintained if players play so often:

""Someone mentioned to me over lunch the other day that Kevin de Bruyne could play 79 [games] next season after just a three-week break," he said.

"It's too much, things obviously need to change, every player will tell you there are way too many games.

"It's impossible to play at a high level for that amount of games.""

Thought that while watching the two England games on telly this week. OK, they get paid millions, but they are not machines. And they gave those meaningless games their best shot. Because they're professionals. But they're not machines. They need some proper downtime to spend with their families before the whole circus starts up again in a matter of weeks