How much do you think players should earn?

[Commander]

Yep! Also think a tenner is enough to pay for a seat,but you can't have one without the other,plenty of people working full time for under 15k a year doing pretty amazing jobs for others.

Name somebody who earns under £15k a year working full time who has the talent and skill of a professional footballer.

How do you think the club would get on in a £100 million stadium if they only charged £10 a seat?

 

[Gritt23]

All logic says it should be a percentage of turnover. Whether the numbers that are worked out are palatable or not, the reality is the players are the key short-term assets to a football club, and have to be the major expense.

Personally, I think 75% of turnover would seem a sensible ceiling.

I can't help but think THESE may very well be the golden days of income in football, and if it is, then most of the League is bolloxed if the tv money suddenly shrinks dramatically.

What I always find strange is why we still talk about "weekly" money? Don't the rest of us talk about an annual wage? Why do we talk about footballers as if they are walking out of the factory on a Friday afternoon, collecting a wage packet at a little window?

 

[Commander]

Why should footballers salaries be capped and not any other industry? If a club is breaking even, or even making a profit, then it's hard to argue that the players are being overpaid. FFP will bring wages down I'm sure, but to a fair market value, not to an arbitrary amount that we decide is fair in relation to the average joe.

I wasn't suggesting they should be capped, I was just musing on what a fair rate would be.

But there is something wrong with the system when there is enough money in the game to pay a fairly average Premier League footballer 80 grand a week, but Uncle Spielberg has to get on his bike and cycle from Selhurst to the Amex so some kids in Southwick can afford a kit for their football team.

1% of John Terry's salary is 78 grand a year. If that went to grass roots football somehow, say his boyhood kids team or whatever, then surely the facilities in kid's football in this country would improve, which would eventually lead to the very top level improving as well. I can't imagine footballers could complain too much of there was a rule that 1% of their wages went back into the game at grass roots level.

 

[father_and_son]

Why should footballers salaries be capped and not any other industry? If a club is breaking even, or even making a profit, then it's hard to argue that the players are being overpaid. FFP will bring wages down I'm sure, but to a fair market value, not to an arbitrary amount that we decide is fair in relation to the average joe.

This.

Especially when you compare to the "average joe". However you think about footballers, their "peer group" for salaries are other sports people and/or entertainers. The Hollywood actors who command multi-million pound paychecks do so because they bring significant income to the studio (ie Pay by Results). Look at Golf/Tennis and other solo sports, the players get prize money (alongside their sponsorship contracts) ie Pay by Results.

I wouldn't begrudge players' salaries being "what they can get" because this is the free market philosophy which drives the Western world, but I do think that the superstars should have a greater proportion becoming "Results Dependent".

It would be unwieldingly complex but I think all players should get:
a) The same basic wage - some degree of scale for youth/development vs first team vs currently injured, etc.
b) A percentage cut of the club income - bigger clubs get higher incomes and can therefore pay more - This has to be capped so that a club can not pay more than the club can afford (ie FFP)
c) Bonuses based on performance - Goals Scored, Clean Sheets, Assists, Completed Passes, etc MINUS penalties for bad performance (all from a pot also derived from a percentage of the club income).
d) External sponsorship deals as their status can command which would be completely unregulated.

Footballers therefore all earn a good wage.
Footballers playing well earn more.
Clubs have some discretion to pay their key players bigger bonuses for playing well.
Footballers with bigger clubs earn more.
Footballers with high media profiles earn LOADS.

Footballers who perform badly or are ill-disciplined are significantly financially disadvantaged (but still retain a "living wage").

Transfer budgets to be capped to only what a club can afford with the cash they have left after bills (the ultimate goal of FFP).

A club playing well (and paying performance bonuses) is therefore slightly handicapped in the transfer market, whilst poor performing clubs will have more spare cash to improve - Somewhere between a pure free market and the American Football Draft.

Clubs are financially unable to return a loss (except for significant capital expenditures such as stadia/training facilities/etc which would normally be spread over multiple years and generate physical assets).

The income from TV needs to be spread much more evenly to ensure across the divisions to ensure this is possible.

 

[El Sid]

Lm 120k pa
ac 100k pa
gg 60k pa
jr 40k pa

And ticket prices down to half a crown.

 

[Postman Pat]

There should be a standard basic salary for each level of football

Prem: 20k P/W
Champ: 10k P/W
League 1: 5k P/W
League 2: 1k P/W

All other salaries should be made up based on bonuses for playing, scoring, keeping a clean-sheet, winning something, being capped etc... these values should be 'un-limited'. Therefore it is not in a player's interest to sit out a career in the stiffs at a club as they will be limiting their earning power.

 

[34064 Fighter Command]

it should be a free market and they should earn whatever anyone is willing to pay. whilst the sums at the current time seem obscene, they will start to fall as football clubs realise it is unsustainable in the long term.

look at what golfers earn or formula 1 drivers - is football any more obscene? i think not.

Re-read that statement and replace 'footballer' with 'banker', and then remind yourself why Fred Goodwin had his Knighthood revoked and his pension slashed.

 

[Betfair Bozo]

Slightly off topic but it would be interesting to see how players and their agents operated if the players were not guaranteed their salaries in the event of an administration etc. I suppose FFP might impact this selection of the "right club" to an extent in future.

 

[34064 Fighter Command]

Name somebody who earns under £15k a year working full time who has the talent and skill of a professional footballer.

How do you think the club would get on in a £100 million stadium if they only charged £10 a seat?

The England women's football team are set to receive a £4,000 pay increase following successful negotiations with the Football Association.

Players are said to be satisfied with the deal, with their central contracts rising from £16,000 to £20,000 a year.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Being a football agent really is money for old rope. When we signed Darren Currie on a free it was reported we paid his agent £60k.

 

[Triggaaar]

it should be a free market and they should earn whatever anyone is willing to pay

This. Unless you're going to stop musicians, movie stars, tennis players, golfers, etc etc earning what they do.

 

[NS Herald]

Of course wages/salaries are way too high and it's only going to get worse with more and more foreign million and billionaires coming into the game paying artificially high wages to win win win.............which of course they can't all do.

You've got to start with the tv money which is obscene - why - because 'we' are being ripped off with sky-high Sky prices - it's a friggin bandwagon and the Premier League is leading the way and of course they will milk it for all they can get.

Then you've got to try to get some sodding morality back into the sport - so Mr. fairly average Prem player has skills that are 'worth' £50k/week which translates to £2.5 million a year BASIC - while Mr. Superstar Man City/Chelski players can earn over £10 MILLION a year BASIC to kick a bloody football and then the 'real' workers in society earn an absolute fraction of that while working MUCH harder - it's a no brainer but sadly nothing will change because the FA is greedy, the Premiership is greedy, players managers and agents are greedy and the clubs down below also want to be greedy which includes lower league clubs who are struggling to stay afloat but have to try to compete to reach the promised land.

It's all bonkers and we are watching a bunch of multi millionaires play a game (or sit on the side lines for most/all of a season) who shouldn't be earning stupid money but going back to your original question:

Top LM type of player - £100,000/month
Average Prem player - £ 40,000/month
Champ player - £ 20,000/month
L1 - £ 10,000/month
L2 - £ 5,000/month

I don't think many youngsters looking to start a 'career' in football would complain too much at those sort of levels compared to other professions - then clubs can invest more into other areas, reduce tickets prices etc. - we pay less to watch Sky and everyone should still be happy. Of course this has to be a global approach to work which sadly ain't gonna happen but hey ho

 

[countryman]

Footballers deserve to earn a lot of money because they generate a lot of money. There are shirts being sold all round the world with Messi written on them. He generates a lot of money for Barcelona so he deserves it.

Around 26000 people paid to see players such as Gordon Greer on a regular basis last season. How many other professions can generate that much money for 90 minutes work.

 

[Deleted member 18477]

Why should footballers salaries be capped and not any other industry? If a club is breaking even, or even making a profit, then it's hard to argue that the players are being overpaid. FFP will bring wages down I'm sure, but to a fair market value, not to an arbitrary amount that we decide is fair in relation to the average joe.

this!

 

[e77]

Problem is if the players don't get the money coming into the game at the highest level, who does get it?

 

[mreprice]

All logic says it should be a percentage of turnover. Whether the numbers that are worked out are palatable or not, the reality is the players are the key short-term assets to a football club, and have to be the major expense.

Personally, I think 75% of turnover would seem a sensible ceiling.

I can't help but think THESE may very well be the golden days of income in football, and if it is, then most of the League is bolloxed if the tv money suddenly shrinks dramatically.

What I always find strange is why we still talk about "weekly" money? Don't the rest of us talk about an annual wage? Why do we talk about footballers as if they are walking out of the factory on a Friday afternoon, collecting a wage packet at a little window?

This is correct. Many sporting codes have salary caps or agreements, and they are all a percentage of revenue.

75% is too high though. The going rate is usually 50% to 60%.

 

[NS Herald]

Footballers deserve to earn a lot of money because they generate a lot of money. There are shirts being sold all round the world with Messi written on them. He generates a lot of money for Barcelona so he deserves it.

Around 26000 people paid to see players such as Gordon Greer on a regular basis last season. How many other professions can generate that much money for 90 minutes work.

Yes they do generate a lot of money but don't you think 40 or 50 quid for a replica shirt is a rip off? Yes lots of people pay that money but whether or not it's a sensible decision is another matter. The whole thing is a complete financial bonanza for the clubs who IMHO commercially exploit a lot of people who seem happy to go along with it.

As for 26k watching the likes of Greer every week - well I and 30+k other people went to the Goldstone to watch second & third division football but those players weren't super wealthy - probably underpaid but that doesn't justify todays scenario - it needs a sensible balance and at the moment it is massively favoured towards the clubs, players, managers and agents.

Oh and I don't see people paying £50 million quid transfers for Roger Federer, Rory McIlroy or Sebastien Vettel to play for someone else - what I do see there are individuals who really do have exceptional talent as evidenced by the fact there are so few of them - not the dozens of multi millionaire Premiership footballers and hundreds of 'ordinary' footballers who ply their trade from the Chamionship downwards earning excessive incomes.

Football isn't a sport so much now as a business and the telling fact is that despite the HUGE increase in player incomes over the last x years we (England) are no better in world terms than we were 50 years ago and based on how the Germans are now doing it doesn't look as though there will be much international success for a long time to come.

 

[drew]

They should earn what the market can afford, the same with everyone who posts on here. The caveat would be that clubs have to live within their own budgets, which they haven't hence the current perceptions. All those that moan about salaries tend to do so because of envy but as someone else pointed out, we should be comparing them with movie stars and other performers. Should Adelle's earnings be capped so, for example, she gets £1 from every album sale upto a maximum of £1m. Why? If she sells 10m albums why shouldn't she get £10m? FFP is coming in respect of the Champions League so that may reign in some of the excesses but it needs to be policed by Uefa so that no loopholes are exploited (although I believe the Bosman Lawyer is sticking his awe in again).

 

[jackalbion]

Why can't everyone just be amateurs and then there would be a level playing field and money would not be an issue at all

 

[Hamilton]

I have no issue with the genuine superstars earning high amounts. My issue is with the very high number of very very average professionals which earn life changing amounts over just a couple of years. And not only this but also the life changing amounts totally unproven players earn at a very young age. I remember Joey Barton was on around 8k a week as a youth player.

Oh, and I do not agree with the short career argument either. It pre-supposes that footballers are totally unemployable once they hang up their boots. Have they not heard of career changes which a lot of the general public have to undertake?

Lionel Messi: whatever he wants
Andy Carroll is a very technically poor footballer: I'd send him back to footballing school on a YTS.
Gordon Greer: I'd say he should receive an above average wage as he has arguably performed at an above average level. National average is 26k so give him 35k.
Jake Robinson: does he still play football?

I agree with this. Although I'd up the amounts slightly...

Leo Messi - up to £5m
Andy Carroll/Kevin Nolan type players - up to £1m
Gordon Greer - up to £500k
Jake Robinson - up to £80k