IT'S BEEN a summer of transfer insanity. First Real Madrid went on a spending extravaganza when they bought Kaka for £56 million, Cristiano Ronaldo for £80 million and Karim Benzema for £30 million. Then Manchester City launched their acquisition drive, paying out huge money as ridiculously over-inflated fees. City paid £18 million for Roque Santa Cruz, £25 million for Carlos Tevez and another £25 million for Emmanuel Adebayor and the last but not the least, the reported £40 million bid for John Terry.
The amount of money involved in these types of deals is difficult to grasp. People just can’t imagine that kind of cash. However, the money involved in the transfer saga this year was put into some kind of perspective by a Manchester United fan interviewed on television at Old Trafford. The fan was unaware of the news that United had accepted the £80 million bid from Real Madrid for Cristiano Ronaldo, but when the reporter broke the news to the fan and asked him for his feedback, the fan replied, “That’s a good deal really. I suppose we could go and buy Newcastle United now.”
That comment said it all about transfer fees. How outrageous, a player, who so ever he is, cannot be valued more than the entire club. But this has happened during this year as FIFA and European Player of the year, Cristiano Ronaldo is valued at a little less than the entire Newcastle United football club.
Even though, everyone accepts that there always will be a big clubs and small clubs and rich clubs and poor clubs. That is the way the world of Soccer does its business. The problem now is that rich have become too rich and the poor have become too poor and if the lovers of the game want soccer to survive in the same way that the fans have loved it for many years, the equilibrium between the two has to be brought back.
Moreover, the top teams are the ones that television companies are ready to pay all their money to in order to get the broadcast rights and the reason behind this is that the top teams are the ones, which catch the fancy of the biggest crowds and sell the majority of replica shirts and catch the attention of the big investors because they are a much more rational investment than a little club. There is little doubt that it’s great for the game that more and more football clubs are ploughing considerable sums of money into the sport. But how long until the fun, fervour and pleasure of football merely turns into a commercial competition of who can buy the most trophies?
Will we soon be seeing the first player to earn one million pounds per week or maybe there will soon be the world’s first five hundred million pound player. It sounds absurd, but unfortunately, the days of a promising sixteen year old making his first team debut and going on to become a star for that club are long gone for the majority of clubs.
For the last decade, the game has lived right on the edge of becoming completely dictated by money.
With clubs such as Real Madrid and Manchester City seemingly able to buy whoever they want regardless of whether or not the player stated is under contract. And it seems that the word “loyalty” is hurriedly exiting the football lexicon. It will be fascinating to see if Cristiano Ronaldo’s incredible price tag takes the fine-looking game into a new age of inconceivable transfer fees.
However, one can always argue that if Real Madrid and Manchester United both value Cristiano Ronaldo at a certain price, why would that price be deemed disproportionate? If Manchester United and Real Madrid both believe they will improve their respective clubs, how is big money killing football?
Moreover, when it comes down to football, one needs to understand that the sport is a business and the transfer market is a free market. The teams set the ideals for the players, and that is something that the rest of the clubs must contract with. If there was too much interference from FIFA or UEFA, then the game would suffer because there would be less room for progress. Hence, if there are too many restrictions, then a club cannot grow to its highest value.