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With players wages rocketing sky-high and a great loss of income after the collapse of ITV Digital last-season, in general, British Football is experiencing something of a `Money Crisis` which has already begun to take-it's-toll on a large number of Football Legaue clubs, as well as one or two Premier League strugglers who are unable to compete with the best this month while the Transfer Window is open short-term.
But you don't need me to tell you that, and I'm sure that even the intellectually-challenged (David Beckham...?) have come to realise we could soon see a number of clubs falling into luquidation like Fiorentina did only last-year.
Everyone's aware of this growing situation, yet nothing seems to be happening to try and prevent the inevitable from our local teams in the lower divisions that in some cases mean a lot more to us than big-spenders like Man United, Liverpool and Arsenal. We've had a lot of talk, and a lot of ideas have been thrown into the hat, but neither the FA or even FIFA seem to have even thought about introducing a new system to Football in general that could save our treasured sport thousands!
Surely if they want something to introduce something that'll have a good effect then they'll have to start it now, with the future in mind? And whatever they do bring into the game -- whether it's too-late or not -- it will have to be something they know will succeed and save our struggling clubs who are hanging onto existence by a thread...
There is one idea that's been suggested quite recently, and I think it is one that could be the ideal solution - if it is set-up and introduced in the correct way.
I'm talking about the `Pay-as-you-Play` idea, which would see over-payed world-class talent like Rivaldo, David Beckham and Sol Campbell only payed there £80,000+ at the end of the week IF they has recently taken-part in their side's recent first-team fixture in a competitive match.
I'm a believer in that if you want something that badly (like money) then you should go out and work-hard to earn it, instead of just picking up cheques for doing nothing.
With the exception of the World Cup every-four-years, and the European Championships 2 years before and after that, we never see a competitive side like Man United or even Real Madrid battling-it-out for silverware between the months of late-May and early-August. Yet although they aren't even doing anything envolved with their job (not even training!) players like Juan Veron are still picking up their £60,000 pay-cheques on a weekly-basis, and splashing it all on a new car or top-notch holiday in a 5-Star hotel in Ibiza, or somewhere money can easily be 'blown'.
Even when they are working-hard in an international stage for 5 weeks-or-so, you can hardly say that today's footballers deserved to be payed during those long, Summer months, can you?!
Paying footballers thousands of pounds a week, 52 weeks-a-year, when they're not even kicking part of that time or even earning their trade is like a crime to me.
If your were a boss (maybe `David Brent` from `The Office`...) would you agree to pay Tim and Gareth, and the rest of your colleagues the full 12 months-worth of money when they were only ever in that office for 10/12 of those months?
Of course not! You should only pay your employees for what they work for!
But for one reason or another, Chairmen and football clubs around the world are losing millions (if not more in some cases!) every-single-year because they are foolishly paying today's generation of thick-minded money-grabbing footballer's for not even a full-year's-worth of service to their employers!
Just think of how much a club like Manchester United could save if they only payed Juan-Sebastian Veron for the games he played in during a year when Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, David Beckham and Roy Keane are all fit and ready to play, with Rud van Nistelrooy and several others ready to take their places in the attack...!
They'd save an absolute fortune!! Not that they're in-need of money or anything, though....
United may not need it but there are other clubs that do. They struggle enough as it is to offer their players even £50,000-per-year - let alone that amount on a weekly-basis! And when they are bound by contract to continue losing money during the Summer when they have no real income, when that money could be spent on things like ground improvements, or better catering, things just get even worse!
I think we should do away with thise whole `Contract` system that is currently in place and instead introduce a new `Pay-as-you-Play` setup to the world of football, as soon as possible!
How many of you have your own mobile phone? (I bet you all do!)
And if I was to ask you whether you prefer the `Pay-as-you-Talk` Sim Card service to the Contracted ones, and why, I bet you'd come-up with something along these lines...
`Pay-as-you-Talk` is seen as the cheaper service of the 2 as you only pay for as much credit as you intend to use, and there are no monthly bills - even you do get the phone for free in some cases when you go for a contract.
If you don't want to use your phone much, then you obviously don't wanting to paying for it while it sits still and gathers dust as the battery charges.
The same applies to Football -- or at least, I believe it should.
To reduce players wages now and pay them less for each-one of those 52 weeks in a year could cause a whole lot of problems amongst our planet's highest-payed players in today's modern game, even if it did help to put an end to the `financial crisis`.
The truth is that money has gone straight to the head of too-many of today's greatest players on-show. It's all they care about now. They'll go for as much as they can get, to buy only the best and most expensive, and they don't really seem to give a damn about doing their job, not like those teenage prospects who have just been given a first-team chance, anyway.
Would the so-called "die hard Spurs fan" Sol Campbell have still left White Hart Lane for Arsenal or all clubs had that £80,000-a-week contract not been offered to him from Arséne Wenger and David Dein?
No.
Why was David Beckham delaying in putting pen-to-paper on an extension of his contract with *the club he loves*?
Because of the money he knew he could get from his so-called "Image Rights"!
Football is falling-apart - and fast! And it's all because of all this money being wasted.
By changing the laws of Football in this way, players would now really have to work to earn their keep, by fighting for every-last-ball, and giving us FA Cup Finals and Premiership Title Races that'd really be worth-watching!
It's also quite likely that we'd no longer see as-many first-choice internationals like Ole Solskjaer sitting happy on the subs bench at Old Trafford on a weekly-basis, forcing the managers and coaches to bring-forth and train younger players as back-up players for the hard-workers who are truly earning their places in the starting XI.
But obviously, while they're working hard to make it to the top, these younger players may not be playing at the top, and only in the reserves. So they wouldn't be getting payed.... or would they? I still believe that all rising-prospects should be payed a fair amount of money, a fixed amount perhaps for any players who clearly are not destined for first-team football anytime soon. And when they do finally get their `big-break` they should see their income doubled for that week only where they march out onto Old Trafford, or Anfield, with their head-held-high, standing tall and proud to be playing for such a club. It's just the players who are 25+ just rotting in the reserves, not playing football, that I believe should not be earning the "keep" they are recieving.
Salary Caps? Contracts? Reducing the number of clubs?
How would any of that help the financial crisis of Worldwide Football today??
I believe that `Pay-as-you-Play` is the new way of the future, and I strongly reccomend any FA/FIFA spies (if they're reading this...) to strongly consider this idea and send it on to the people in-charge with their full backing and support.
Footballers are no different to any other working-class person from around the world, so why should they get payed a hell-of-a-lot more just for doing a job they enjoy?
If this kind of system was introduced a few years ago, we could've had more-than-enough funds to support the Wembley Project and get a new national stadium on its way a lot sooner! If something like this is to be introduced, then I hope it is brought in soon... Otherwise it may be too-little, too-late for many lower league clubs struggling to cope in the red zone.
Seriously though, what other solution could there be to assist this problem that'd work as well as this??
But you don't need me to tell you that, and I'm sure that even the intellectually-challenged (David Beckham...?) have come to realise we could soon see a number of clubs falling into luquidation like Fiorentina did only last-year.
Everyone's aware of this growing situation, yet nothing seems to be happening to try and prevent the inevitable from our local teams in the lower divisions that in some cases mean a lot more to us than big-spenders like Man United, Liverpool and Arsenal. We've had a lot of talk, and a lot of ideas have been thrown into the hat, but neither the FA or even FIFA seem to have even thought about introducing a new system to Football in general that could save our treasured sport thousands!
Surely if they want something to introduce something that'll have a good effect then they'll have to start it now, with the future in mind? And whatever they do bring into the game -- whether it's too-late or not -- it will have to be something they know will succeed and save our struggling clubs who are hanging onto existence by a thread...
There is one idea that's been suggested quite recently, and I think it is one that could be the ideal solution - if it is set-up and introduced in the correct way.
I'm talking about the `Pay-as-you-Play` idea, which would see over-payed world-class talent like Rivaldo, David Beckham and Sol Campbell only payed there £80,000+ at the end of the week IF they has recently taken-part in their side's recent first-team fixture in a competitive match.
I'm a believer in that if you want something that badly (like money) then you should go out and work-hard to earn it, instead of just picking up cheques for doing nothing.
With the exception of the World Cup every-four-years, and the European Championships 2 years before and after that, we never see a competitive side like Man United or even Real Madrid battling-it-out for silverware between the months of late-May and early-August. Yet although they aren't even doing anything envolved with their job (not even training!) players like Juan Veron are still picking up their £60,000 pay-cheques on a weekly-basis, and splashing it all on a new car or top-notch holiday in a 5-Star hotel in Ibiza, or somewhere money can easily be 'blown'.
Even when they are working-hard in an international stage for 5 weeks-or-so, you can hardly say that today's footballers deserved to be payed during those long, Summer months, can you?!
Paying footballers thousands of pounds a week, 52 weeks-a-year, when they're not even kicking part of that time or even earning their trade is like a crime to me.
If your were a boss (maybe `David Brent` from `The Office`...) would you agree to pay Tim and Gareth, and the rest of your colleagues the full 12 months-worth of money when they were only ever in that office for 10/12 of those months?
Of course not! You should only pay your employees for what they work for!
But for one reason or another, Chairmen and football clubs around the world are losing millions (if not more in some cases!) every-single-year because they are foolishly paying today's generation of thick-minded money-grabbing footballer's for not even a full-year's-worth of service to their employers!
Just think of how much a club like Manchester United could save if they only payed Juan-Sebastian Veron for the games he played in during a year when Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, David Beckham and Roy Keane are all fit and ready to play, with Rud van Nistelrooy and several others ready to take their places in the attack...!
They'd save an absolute fortune!! Not that they're in-need of money or anything, though....
United may not need it but there are other clubs that do. They struggle enough as it is to offer their players even £50,000-per-year - let alone that amount on a weekly-basis! And when they are bound by contract to continue losing money during the Summer when they have no real income, when that money could be spent on things like ground improvements, or better catering, things just get even worse!
I think we should do away with thise whole `Contract` system that is currently in place and instead introduce a new `Pay-as-you-Play` setup to the world of football, as soon as possible!
How many of you have your own mobile phone? (I bet you all do!)
And if I was to ask you whether you prefer the `Pay-as-you-Talk` Sim Card service to the Contracted ones, and why, I bet you'd come-up with something along these lines...
`Pay-as-you-Talk` is seen as the cheaper service of the 2 as you only pay for as much credit as you intend to use, and there are no monthly bills - even you do get the phone for free in some cases when you go for a contract.
If you don't want to use your phone much, then you obviously don't wanting to paying for it while it sits still and gathers dust as the battery charges.
The same applies to Football -- or at least, I believe it should.
To reduce players wages now and pay them less for each-one of those 52 weeks in a year could cause a whole lot of problems amongst our planet's highest-payed players in today's modern game, even if it did help to put an end to the `financial crisis`.
The truth is that money has gone straight to the head of too-many of today's greatest players on-show. It's all they care about now. They'll go for as much as they can get, to buy only the best and most expensive, and they don't really seem to give a damn about doing their job, not like those teenage prospects who have just been given a first-team chance, anyway.
Would the so-called "die hard Spurs fan" Sol Campbell have still left White Hart Lane for Arsenal or all clubs had that £80,000-a-week contract not been offered to him from Arséne Wenger and David Dein?
No.
Why was David Beckham delaying in putting pen-to-paper on an extension of his contract with *the club he loves*?
Because of the money he knew he could get from his so-called "Image Rights"!
Football is falling-apart - and fast! And it's all because of all this money being wasted.
By changing the laws of Football in this way, players would now really have to work to earn their keep, by fighting for every-last-ball, and giving us FA Cup Finals and Premiership Title Races that'd really be worth-watching!
It's also quite likely that we'd no longer see as-many first-choice internationals like Ole Solskjaer sitting happy on the subs bench at Old Trafford on a weekly-basis, forcing the managers and coaches to bring-forth and train younger players as back-up players for the hard-workers who are truly earning their places in the starting XI.
But obviously, while they're working hard to make it to the top, these younger players may not be playing at the top, and only in the reserves. So they wouldn't be getting payed.... or would they? I still believe that all rising-prospects should be payed a fair amount of money, a fixed amount perhaps for any players who clearly are not destined for first-team football anytime soon. And when they do finally get their `big-break` they should see their income doubled for that week only where they march out onto Old Trafford, or Anfield, with their head-held-high, standing tall and proud to be playing for such a club. It's just the players who are 25+ just rotting in the reserves, not playing football, that I believe should not be earning the "keep" they are recieving.
Salary Caps? Contracts? Reducing the number of clubs?
How would any of that help the financial crisis of Worldwide Football today??
I believe that `Pay-as-you-Play` is the new way of the future, and I strongly reccomend any FA/FIFA spies (if they're reading this...) to strongly consider this idea and send it on to the people in-charge with their full backing and support.
Footballers are no different to any other working-class person from around the world, so why should they get payed a hell-of-a-lot more just for doing a job they enjoy?
If this kind of system was introduced a few years ago, we could've had more-than-enough funds to support the Wembley Project and get a new national stadium on its way a lot sooner! If something like this is to be introduced, then I hope it is brought in soon... Otherwise it may be too-little, too-late for many lower league clubs struggling to cope in the red zone.
Seriously though, what other solution could there be to assist this problem that'd work as well as this??
Yes, you got a point there about the lower teams. I agree that they should not get paid a full wage for a loss. If players have worked really hard and put in a good effort, then they should get paid half of what they earn.
If they have a poor performance then they should get paid a quarter. If it is a draw then they should get paid a full wage, providing hey have worked their socks off. The Goalkeeper should get paid a full wage if he has kept a cleansheet or has had a solid performance.
If they have a poor performance then they should get paid a quarter. If it is a draw then they should get paid a full wage, providing hey have worked their socks off. The Goalkeeper should get paid a full wage if he has kept a cleansheet or has had a solid performance.
I agree with your percentage-of-payment idea there, but I'm not sure about only paying players if they win.
Sure, it would get them more motivated to work-harder and earn their places in the team, but what about a team like Birmingham or West Ham who don't win all-that-often? Big-name players with million in the bank wouldn't be too-happy at not getting payed. You know what they're like nowadays!
What about paying them more for a win, yet still paying them for a defeat, only less money; perhaps only 1/4 of their salary?
Sure, it would get them more motivated to work-harder and earn their places in the team, but what about a team like Birmingham or West Ham who don't win all-that-often? Big-name players with million in the bank wouldn't be too-happy at not getting payed. You know what they're like nowadays!
What about paying them more for a win, yet still paying them for a defeat, only less money; perhaps only 1/4 of their salary?
I also think that it is a good idea for the 'Pay-as-you-play' idea. Maybe, players should only get payed if they win a match. That way it would make the players work even harder to win, and could make the Premiership a whole lot better.
Players who do not get in the squad should not get payed a whole wage. Maybe only a quarter of the wage they get.
Players who do not get in the squad should not get payed a whole wage. Maybe only a quarter of the wage they get.
I agree with what you say, Forman, and I cannot see how on Earth a club justifies paying a player who has gone AWOL, and fails to even stay in contact with any member of the club as a whole.
But they do get fined 2-weeks-wages, or something similar, and that does kind of work in some cases... But it's still not enough, as players can be gone for much-longer during their leave, and still come back with the wrong kind-of attitude.
I really do think a `Pay-as-you-Play` deal would work very-well, with players only getting paid for all their hard-work and effort, and not just for the sake of having a contract with the club.
The way I see it, with all these goal and appearence bonuses, along with sponsorship deals, players don't need anything like even £20,000-a-week as a basic salary!
When are the Chairmen going to stand-up and say no before this thing gets totally out-of-hand??!
But they do get fined 2-weeks-wages, or something similar, and that does kind of work in some cases... But it's still not enough, as players can be gone for much-longer during their leave, and still come back with the wrong kind-of attitude.
I really do think a `Pay-as-you-Play` deal would work very-well, with players only getting paid for all their hard-work and effort, and not just for the sake of having a contract with the club.
The way I see it, with all these goal and appearence bonuses, along with sponsorship deals, players don't need anything like even £20,000-a-week as a basic salary!
When are the Chairmen going to stand-up and say no before this thing gets totally out-of-hand??!
"would you agree to pay Tim and Gareth, and the rest of your colleagues the full 12 months-worth of money when they were only ever in that office for 10/12 of those months"
I think everyone in this country is entitled to paid leave! Anyway you are right, footballers get paid far too much money. I know that they have short careers but if they weren't playing football they'd be working in a shop/factory like everyone else from a "working class" background (I know that this is a generalism and I am from a working class background etc etc-I've done OK). They can't claim football's the only thing I know how to do.
Also I'll take £20,000 a week for ten years over £20,000 a year for 45 years work. In fact I'd play football for £20,000 a year, it'd be great fun.
And they don't even pay subs.
I think everyone in this country is entitled to paid leave! Anyway you are right, footballers get paid far too much money. I know that they have short careers but if they weren't playing football they'd be working in a shop/factory like everyone else from a "working class" background (I know that this is a generalism and I am from a working class background etc etc-I've done OK). They can't claim football's the only thing I know how to do.
Also I'll take £20,000 a week for ten years over £20,000 a year for 45 years work. In fact I'd play football for £20,000 a year, it'd be great fun.
And they don't even pay subs.
I think that the players should not get payed if they are missing training, or refusing to play in games. If the have a injury, then I think that the club should only pay half of their wages.
People like Alpay (Villa player) who are refusing to play and train with the team, should not get paid at all. He also refuses to play in reserve games when asked.
People like Alpay (Villa player) who are refusing to play and train with the team, should not get paid at all. He also refuses to play in reserve games when asked.
With players wages rocketing sky-high and a great loss of income after the collapse of ITV Digital last-season, in general, British Football is experiencing something of a `Money Crisis` which has already begun to take-it's-toll on a large number of Football Legaue clubs, as well as one or two Premier League strugglers who are unable to compete with the best this month while the Transfer Window is open short-term.
But you don't need me to tell you that, and I'm sure that even the intellectually-challenged (David Beckham...?) have come to realise we could soon see a number of clubs falling into luquidation like Fiorentina did only last-year.
Everyone's aware of this growing situation, yet nothing seems to be happening to try and prevent the inevitable from our local teams in the lower divisions that in some cases mean a lot more to us than big-spenders like Man United, Liverpool and Arsenal. We've had a lot of talk, and a lot of ideas have been thrown into the hat, but neither the FA or even FIFA seem to have even thought about introducing a new system to Football in general that could save our treasured sport thousands!
Surely if they want something to introduce something that'll have a good effect then they'll have to start it now, with the future in mind? And whatever they do bring into the game -- whether it's too-late or not -- it will have to be something they know will succeed and save our struggling clubs who are hanging onto existence by a thread...
There is one idea that's been suggested quite recently, and I think it is one that could be the ideal solution - if it is set-up and introduced in the correct way.
I'm talking about the `Pay-as-you-Play` idea, which would see over-payed world-class talent like Rivaldo, David Beckham and Sol Campbell only payed there £80,000+ at the end of the week IF they has recently taken-part in their side's recent first-team fixture in a competitive match.
I'm a believer in that if you want something that badly (like money) then you should go out and work-hard to earn it, instead of just picking up cheques for doing nothing.
With the exception of the World Cup every-four-years, and the European Championships 2 years before and after that, we never see a competitive side like Man United or even Real Madrid battling-it-out for silverware between the months of late-May and early-August. Yet although they aren't even doing anything envolved with their job (not even training!) players like Juan Veron are still picking up their £60,000 pay-cheques on a weekly-basis, and splashing it all on a new car or top-notch holiday in a 5-Star hotel in Ibiza, or somewhere money can easily be 'blown'.
Even when they are working-hard in an international stage for 5 weeks-or-so, you can hardly say that today's footballers deserved to be payed during those long, Summer months, can you?!
Paying footballers thousands of pounds a week, 52 weeks-a-year, when they're not even kicking part of that time or even earning their trade is like a crime to me.
If your were a boss (maybe `David Brent` from `The Office`...) would you agree to pay Tim and Gareth, and the rest of your colleagues the full 12 months-worth of money when they were only ever in that office for 10/12 of those months?
Of course not! You should only pay your employees for what they work for!
But for one reason or another, Chairmen and football clubs around the world are losing millions (if not more in some cases!) every-single-year because they are foolishly paying today's generation of thick-minded money-grabbing footballer's for not even a full-year's-worth of service to their employers!
Just think of how much a club like Manchester United could save if they only payed Juan-Sebastian Veron for the games he played in during a year when Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, David Beckham and Roy Keane are all fit and ready to play, with Rud van Nistelrooy and several others ready to take their places in the attack...!
They'd save an absolute fortune!! Not that they're in-need of money or anything, though....
United may not need it but there are other clubs that do. They struggle enough as it is to offer their players even £50,000-per-year - let alone that amount on a weekly-basis! And when they are bound by contract to continue losing money during the Summer when they have no real income, when that money could be spent on things like ground improvements, or better catering, things just get even worse!
I think we should do away with thise whole `Contract` system that is currently in place and instead introduce a new `Pay-as-you-Play` setup to the world of football, as soon as possible!
How many of you have your own mobile phone? (I bet you all do!)
And if I was to ask you whether you prefer the `Pay-as-you-Talk` Sim Card service to the Contracted ones, and why, I bet you'd come-up with something along these lines...
`Pay-as-you-Talk` is seen as the cheaper service of the 2 as you only pay for as much credit as you intend to use, and there are no monthly bills - even you do get the phone for free in some cases when you go for a contract.
If you don't want to use your phone much, then you obviously don't wanting to paying for it while it sits still and gathers dust as the battery charges.
The same applies to Football -- or at least, I believe it should.
To reduce players wages now and pay them less for each-one of those 52 weeks in a year could cause a whole lot of problems amongst our planet's highest-payed players in today's modern game, even if it did help to put an end to the `financial crisis`.
The truth is that money has gone straight to the head of too-many of today's greatest players on-show. It's all they care about now. They'll go for as much as they can get, to buy only the best and most expensive, and they don't really seem to give a damn about doing their job, not like those teenage prospects who have just been given a first-team chance, anyway.
Would the so-called "die hard Spurs fan" Sol Campbell have still left White Hart Lane for Arsenal or all clubs had that £80,000-a-week contract not been offered to him from Arséne Wenger and David Dein?
No.
Why was David Beckham delaying in putting pen-to-paper on an extension of his contract with *the club he loves*?
Because of the money he knew he could get from his so-called "Image Rights"!
Football is falling-apart - and fast! And it's all because of all this money being wasted.
By changing the laws of Football in this way, players would now really have to work to earn their keep, by fighting for every-last-ball, and giving us FA Cup Finals and Premiership Title Races that'd really be worth-watching!
It's also quite likely that we'd no longer see as-many first-choice internationals like Ole Solskjaer sitting happy on the subs bench at Old Trafford on a weekly-basis, forcing the managers and coaches to bring-forth and train younger players as back-up players for the hard-workers who are truly earning their places in the starting XI.
But obviously, while they're working hard to make it to the top, these younger players may not be playing at the top, and only in the reserves. So they wouldn't be getting payed.... or would they? I still believe that all rising-prospects should be payed a fair amount of money, a fixed amount perhaps for any players who clearly are not destined for first-team football anytime soon. And when they do finally get their `big-break` they should see their income doubled for that week only where they march out onto Old Trafford, or Anfield, with their head-held-high, standing tall and proud to be playing for such a club. It's just the players who are 25+ just rotting in the reserves, not playing football, that I believe should not be earning the "keep" they are recieving.
Salary Caps? Contracts? Reducing the number of clubs?
How would any of that help the financial crisis of Worldwide Football today??
I believe that `Pay-as-you-Play` is the new way of the future, and I strongly reccomend any FA/FIFA spies (if they're reading this...) to strongly consider this idea and send it on to the people in-charge with their full backing and support.
Footballers are no different to any other working-class person from around the world, so why should they get payed a hell-of-a-lot more just for doing a job they enjoy?
If this kind of system was introduced a few years ago, we could've had more-than-enough funds to support the Wembley Project and get a new national stadium on its way a lot sooner! If something like this is to be introduced, then I hope it is brought in soon... Otherwise it may be too-little, too-late for many lower league clubs struggling to cope in the red zone.
Seriously though, what other solution could there be to assist this problem that'd work as well as this??
But you don't need me to tell you that, and I'm sure that even the intellectually-challenged (David Beckham...?) have come to realise we could soon see a number of clubs falling into luquidation like Fiorentina did only last-year.
Everyone's aware of this growing situation, yet nothing seems to be happening to try and prevent the inevitable from our local teams in the lower divisions that in some cases mean a lot more to us than big-spenders like Man United, Liverpool and Arsenal. We've had a lot of talk, and a lot of ideas have been thrown into the hat, but neither the FA or even FIFA seem to have even thought about introducing a new system to Football in general that could save our treasured sport thousands!
Surely if they want something to introduce something that'll have a good effect then they'll have to start it now, with the future in mind? And whatever they do bring into the game -- whether it's too-late or not -- it will have to be something they know will succeed and save our struggling clubs who are hanging onto existence by a thread...
There is one idea that's been suggested quite recently, and I think it is one that could be the ideal solution - if it is set-up and introduced in the correct way.
I'm talking about the `Pay-as-you-Play` idea, which would see over-payed world-class talent like Rivaldo, David Beckham and Sol Campbell only payed there £80,000+ at the end of the week IF they has recently taken-part in their side's recent first-team fixture in a competitive match.
I'm a believer in that if you want something that badly (like money) then you should go out and work-hard to earn it, instead of just picking up cheques for doing nothing.
With the exception of the World Cup every-four-years, and the European Championships 2 years before and after that, we never see a competitive side like Man United or even Real Madrid battling-it-out for silverware between the months of late-May and early-August. Yet although they aren't even doing anything envolved with their job (not even training!) players like Juan Veron are still picking up their £60,000 pay-cheques on a weekly-basis, and splashing it all on a new car or top-notch holiday in a 5-Star hotel in Ibiza, or somewhere money can easily be 'blown'.
Even when they are working-hard in an international stage for 5 weeks-or-so, you can hardly say that today's footballers deserved to be payed during those long, Summer months, can you?!
Paying footballers thousands of pounds a week, 52 weeks-a-year, when they're not even kicking part of that time or even earning their trade is like a crime to me.
If your were a boss (maybe `David Brent` from `The Office`...) would you agree to pay Tim and Gareth, and the rest of your colleagues the full 12 months-worth of money when they were only ever in that office for 10/12 of those months?
Of course not! You should only pay your employees for what they work for!
But for one reason or another, Chairmen and football clubs around the world are losing millions (if not more in some cases!) every-single-year because they are foolishly paying today's generation of thick-minded money-grabbing footballer's for not even a full-year's-worth of service to their employers!
Just think of how much a club like Manchester United could save if they only payed Juan-Sebastian Veron for the games he played in during a year when Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, David Beckham and Roy Keane are all fit and ready to play, with Rud van Nistelrooy and several others ready to take their places in the attack...!
They'd save an absolute fortune!! Not that they're in-need of money or anything, though....
United may not need it but there are other clubs that do. They struggle enough as it is to offer their players even £50,000-per-year - let alone that amount on a weekly-basis! And when they are bound by contract to continue losing money during the Summer when they have no real income, when that money could be spent on things like ground improvements, or better catering, things just get even worse!
I think we should do away with thise whole `Contract` system that is currently in place and instead introduce a new `Pay-as-you-Play` setup to the world of football, as soon as possible!
How many of you have your own mobile phone? (I bet you all do!)
And if I was to ask you whether you prefer the `Pay-as-you-Talk` Sim Card service to the Contracted ones, and why, I bet you'd come-up with something along these lines...
`Pay-as-you-Talk` is seen as the cheaper service of the 2 as you only pay for as much credit as you intend to use, and there are no monthly bills - even you do get the phone for free in some cases when you go for a contract.
If you don't want to use your phone much, then you obviously don't wanting to paying for it while it sits still and gathers dust as the battery charges.
The same applies to Football -- or at least, I believe it should.
To reduce players wages now and pay them less for each-one of those 52 weeks in a year could cause a whole lot of problems amongst our planet's highest-payed players in today's modern game, even if it did help to put an end to the `financial crisis`.
The truth is that money has gone straight to the head of too-many of today's greatest players on-show. It's all they care about now. They'll go for as much as they can get, to buy only the best and most expensive, and they don't really seem to give a damn about doing their job, not like those teenage prospects who have just been given a first-team chance, anyway.
Would the so-called "die hard Spurs fan" Sol Campbell have still left White Hart Lane for Arsenal or all clubs had that £80,000-a-week contract not been offered to him from Arséne Wenger and David Dein?
No.
Why was David Beckham delaying in putting pen-to-paper on an extension of his contract with *the club he loves*?
Because of the money he knew he could get from his so-called "Image Rights"!
Football is falling-apart - and fast! And it's all because of all this money being wasted.
By changing the laws of Football in this way, players would now really have to work to earn their keep, by fighting for every-last-ball, and giving us FA Cup Finals and Premiership Title Races that'd really be worth-watching!
It's also quite likely that we'd no longer see as-many first-choice internationals like Ole Solskjaer sitting happy on the subs bench at Old Trafford on a weekly-basis, forcing the managers and coaches to bring-forth and train younger players as back-up players for the hard-workers who are truly earning their places in the starting XI.
But obviously, while they're working hard to make it to the top, these younger players may not be playing at the top, and only in the reserves. So they wouldn't be getting payed.... or would they? I still believe that all rising-prospects should be payed a fair amount of money, a fixed amount perhaps for any players who clearly are not destined for first-team football anytime soon. And when they do finally get their `big-break` they should see their income doubled for that week only where they march out onto Old Trafford, or Anfield, with their head-held-high, standing tall and proud to be playing for such a club. It's just the players who are 25+ just rotting in the reserves, not playing football, that I believe should not be earning the "keep" they are recieving.
Salary Caps? Contracts? Reducing the number of clubs?
How would any of that help the financial crisis of Worldwide Football today??
I believe that `Pay-as-you-Play` is the new way of the future, and I strongly reccomend any FA/FIFA spies (if they're reading this...) to strongly consider this idea and send it on to the people in-charge with their full backing and support.
Footballers are no different to any other working-class person from around the world, so why should they get payed a hell-of-a-lot more just for doing a job they enjoy?
If this kind of system was introduced a few years ago, we could've had more-than-enough funds to support the Wembley Project and get a new national stadium on its way a lot sooner! If something like this is to be introduced, then I hope it is brought in soon... Otherwise it may be too-little, too-late for many lower league clubs struggling to cope in the red zone.
Seriously though, what other solution could there be to assist this problem that'd work as well as this??