Debate: How Money Has Always 'Ruined' Football
Jan 18, 2009 | 03:49 PM
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Debate: How Money Has Always 'Ruined' Football
Naïve purists of the sport seem to mutter the zeitgeist phrase "money is ruining football" with increasing regularity like it’s a modern phenomenon. Money has always tainted the game - even before football went professional - yet the fees involved in any Kaka deal have, admittedly, taken that concept to a stratospheric level.
On July 20 1885 the English Football Association announced the decision that it was "in the interests of Association Football to legalise the employment of professional football players, but only under certain restrictions," for years before this date though players (in particular in the north of the country) were still receiving a wage, as well as other bonuses that included fish, or beer.
In the years preceding the professionalisation of the sport, the FA ruled that no player should be receiving payment apart for money paid to account for out of pocket expenses. At the time, the "imported" player was deemed the root of one of the problems. (Sound familiar?)
This meant clubs could not transfer players who had been born farther than a six mile radius of the ground. Similar debates are now being argued, 115 years later, over players born in Brasilia, coming to ply their trade 5,500 miles away in Manchester with money – that being paid to the club, those brokering the deal, and of course the wages of the player – at the heart of discussion.
Continuously Breaking The Record
Transfer fees have always been a contentious and controversial topic. In 1905 Middlesbrough became the first club to splash out a four-figure sum when they paid £1,000 for Alf Common. It was his fourth transfer, and second successive British record transfer fee, and his impact as a well-rounded inside-forward helped transform the Teesider’s fortunes.
'Boro were floundering at the foot of the football league table, yet the acquisition of Common, with the firepower that he brought with him, saw them shoot up toward the middle of the league. In his first full season he bragged a goal ratio that bettered 1:2.
J.C Clegg, a member of the FA at the time, opposed any such move, and believed that the "buying and selling of players is unsportsmanlike and most objectionable in itself, and ought not to be entertained by those who desire to see the game played under proper conditions." The Common transfer did indeed provoke reaction, and the FA enforced a temporary ruling to start from January 1 1908 that prohibited any transfer from going through if the fee involved exceeded £350.
Clegg’s sentiments still ring true today - 104 years later - with former Italian head coach Arrigo Sacchi’s recently appeal to Uefa president Michel Platini to act over club’s spending outside their means. Sacchi wants clubs to only "invest what you receive," as the football money-men are "drugging and polluting the market." If it was not for the Abu Dhabi-based business group's investment at Manchester City, is there any way the Eastlands club could even afford Kaka's wages, let alone his nine figure transfer fee?
What about wages then? Kaka is in line to become the World's first £500,000 per week player should he decide to become a Citizen, surely this is unique in football history, and club's have never paid more for a player than what society deems they are worth? Wrong.
£4 A Week Can't Earn Your Keep
Although not on the same scale as the current market rate (a contradiction of sorts considering the global economic plight), a maximum wage was brought in as far back as 1901, when players could expect to receive a modest £4 a week. In 1922 this grew to £8 per week, then in 1947 to £12 a week. This proved one of the factors in retaining players to clubs, seeing as every footballer was on a level field, but when the maximum allowance was abolished in the early '60s, it did not take long for Fulham's Jonny Haynes to be the first British player to earn £100 a week.
There were ways around the financial constraints placed on clubs. Alex James - one of Arsenal's key performers during their first wave of success in the 1930s - was supposed to only be on an enforced £8 a week. Yet the Gunners supplemented his football earnings by awarding him a role as a "sports demonstrator" at London's Selfridge store. This saw him pocket an extra £250 a year.
Then there is the case of Tom Finney who was considered one of the globe's greatest players during the 1950s and again was a footballer who operated under the regime of a maximum wage allowance. Yet, in 1952, Italian side Palermo would offer Finney's club Preston North End £10,000 in transfer fees, on top of the £130 a month wage for Finney, £100 per game bonuses, a Mediterranean villa, together with a luxury car but... staying true to the English ethos of plying your trade within these shores that is still prevalent today, Finney remained committed to Deepdale.
The British record transfer fee was broken five times during the post Second World War era in the late 1940s; a period where rationing was widespread in the United Kingdom and you had to have vouchers to trade for things like chocolate. Just months before the crash of the stock markets in 1987, Ian Rush was transferred from Liverpool to Juventus for a then-record fee of £3.2million and now, in the midst of the credit crunch, the record transfer of Zinedine Zidane from Juventus to Real Madrid for £46 million could be dwarfed by Manchester City's £107 million acquisition of former FIFA World Player of the Year; Kaka.
Is this anything new? Not really. It's just another chapter in the long history of how money has always infiltrated the global game, and the UK record books.
1905
Alf Common Sunderland Middlesbrough £1,000
1922
Syd Puddefoot West Ham United Falkirk £5,000
1928
David Jack Bolton Wanderers Arsenal £10,890
1949
Eddie Quigley Sheffield Wednesday Preston North End £26,500
1961
Denis Law Manchester City Torino £100,000
1977
Kevin Keegan Liverpool Hamburg £500,000
1979
Trevor Francis Birminham City Nottingham Forest £1.18 million
1996
Alan Shearer Blackburn Rovers Newcastle United £15 million
2008
Robinho Real Madrid Manchester City £32.5 million
2009
Kaka? AC Milan Manchester City £107 million +?
What are your thoughts on this subject? Would a maximum wage work in the modern game? Can the governing bodies put a limit on transfer fees, and is this even a viable solution?
Alan Dawson, Goal.com
On July 20 1885 the English Football Association announced the decision that it was "in the interests of Association Football to legalise the employment of professional football players, but only under certain restrictions," for years before this date though players (in particular in the north of the country) were still receiving a wage, as well as other bonuses that included fish, or beer.
In the years preceding the professionalisation of the sport, the FA ruled that no player should be receiving payment apart for money paid to account for out of pocket expenses. At the time, the "imported" player was deemed the root of one of the problems. (Sound familiar?)
This meant clubs could not transfer players who had been born farther than a six mile radius of the ground. Similar debates are now being argued, 115 years later, over players born in Brasilia, coming to ply their trade 5,500 miles away in Manchester with money – that being paid to the club, those brokering the deal, and of course the wages of the player – at the heart of discussion.
Continuously Breaking The Record
Transfer fees have always been a contentious and controversial topic. In 1905 Middlesbrough became the first club to splash out a four-figure sum when they paid £1,000 for Alf Common. It was his fourth transfer, and second successive British record transfer fee, and his impact as a well-rounded inside-forward helped transform the Teesider’s fortunes.
'Boro were floundering at the foot of the football league table, yet the acquisition of Common, with the firepower that he brought with him, saw them shoot up toward the middle of the league. In his first full season he bragged a goal ratio that bettered 1:2.
J.C Clegg, a member of the FA at the time, opposed any such move, and believed that the "buying and selling of players is unsportsmanlike and most objectionable in itself, and ought not to be entertained by those who desire to see the game played under proper conditions." The Common transfer did indeed provoke reaction, and the FA enforced a temporary ruling to start from January 1 1908 that prohibited any transfer from going through if the fee involved exceeded £350.
Clegg’s sentiments still ring true today - 104 years later - with former Italian head coach Arrigo Sacchi’s recently appeal to Uefa president Michel Platini to act over club’s spending outside their means. Sacchi wants clubs to only "invest what you receive," as the football money-men are "drugging and polluting the market." If it was not for the Abu Dhabi-based business group's investment at Manchester City, is there any way the Eastlands club could even afford Kaka's wages, let alone his nine figure transfer fee?
What about wages then? Kaka is in line to become the World's first £500,000 per week player should he decide to become a Citizen, surely this is unique in football history, and club's have never paid more for a player than what society deems they are worth? Wrong.
£4 A Week Can't Earn Your Keep
Although not on the same scale as the current market rate (a contradiction of sorts considering the global economic plight), a maximum wage was brought in as far back as 1901, when players could expect to receive a modest £4 a week. In 1922 this grew to £8 per week, then in 1947 to £12 a week. This proved one of the factors in retaining players to clubs, seeing as every footballer was on a level field, but when the maximum allowance was abolished in the early '60s, it did not take long for Fulham's Jonny Haynes to be the first British player to earn £100 a week.
There were ways around the financial constraints placed on clubs. Alex James - one of Arsenal's key performers during their first wave of success in the 1930s - was supposed to only be on an enforced £8 a week. Yet the Gunners supplemented his football earnings by awarding him a role as a "sports demonstrator" at London's Selfridge store. This saw him pocket an extra £250 a year.
Then there is the case of Tom Finney who was considered one of the globe's greatest players during the 1950s and again was a footballer who operated under the regime of a maximum wage allowance. Yet, in 1952, Italian side Palermo would offer Finney's club Preston North End £10,000 in transfer fees, on top of the £130 a month wage for Finney, £100 per game bonuses, a Mediterranean villa, together with a luxury car but... staying true to the English ethos of plying your trade within these shores that is still prevalent today, Finney remained committed to Deepdale.
The British record transfer fee was broken five times during the post Second World War era in the late 1940s; a period where rationing was widespread in the United Kingdom and you had to have vouchers to trade for things like chocolate. Just months before the crash of the stock markets in 1987, Ian Rush was transferred from Liverpool to Juventus for a then-record fee of £3.2million and now, in the midst of the credit crunch, the record transfer of Zinedine Zidane from Juventus to Real Madrid for £46 million could be dwarfed by Manchester City's £107 million acquisition of former FIFA World Player of the Year; Kaka.
Is this anything new? Not really. It's just another chapter in the long history of how money has always infiltrated the global game, and the UK record books.
1905
Alf Common Sunderland Middlesbrough £1,000
1922
Syd Puddefoot West Ham United Falkirk £5,000
1928
David Jack Bolton Wanderers Arsenal £10,890
1949
Eddie Quigley Sheffield Wednesday Preston North End £26,500
1961
Denis Law Manchester City Torino £100,000
1977
Kevin Keegan Liverpool Hamburg £500,000
1979
Trevor Francis Birminham City Nottingham Forest £1.18 million
1996
Alan Shearer Blackburn Rovers Newcastle United £15 million
2008
Robinho Real Madrid Manchester City £32.5 million
2009
Kaka? AC Milan Manchester City £107 million +?
What are your thoughts on this subject? Would a maximum wage work in the modern game? Can the governing bodies put a limit on transfer fees, and is this even a viable solution?
Alan Dawson, Goal.com
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