AWASH WITH MONEY

With the world of English football in the doldrums over dubious transfer deals and conflicts of interests at the highest levels, the marriages of Steven Gerrard, Gary Neville and Michael Carrick hasn’t really helped matters. With a combined spending budget of £3 million, and one wedding cake costing over £22000, these star studded affairs are a reflection of how premiership football is awash with money, but sadly not for the betterment of the sport. With game tickets costing £50 plus for many venues and a hot dog selling at £5 in Wembley’s new stadium, perhaps the “beautiful game” is finally loosing it’s working class status. Is this such a bad thing? Of course not, no sport played in a modern society should be restricted to background or class. However, the influx of money is turning participants at the top level, particularly in football, into media stars first and sports men and women second. Who can ever forget Paula Radcliffe failing at the last Olympics where she received no appearance fee, yet two weeks later running and winning the New York marathon where she received over £10000 for just turning up? Why has Britain never again produced middle distance runners of the calibre of Coe, Cram and Ovett? In the past runners had to earn the accolade in order to receive the sponsorship and appearance money. Today with lottery grants etc, they are paid before they even venture onto the track. The same argument applies to cricket and rugby, where centralisied contracts with separate payments have created teams of mediocre sportsmen without the drive and convinction of their illustrious predecessors.

Money in sport breed’s apathy and for this reason alone England will never win a football, cricket or rugby World Cup within my lifetime. The talent is undoubtedly there, but unfortunately, so is the foil of money!