Are footballers overpaid?

[curtis290]

Yes they are incredibly overpaid. But that's not what bothers me.

These guys earn millions to do what most dream of. The players before them earned almost nothing to do the same job and they did it for the glory of the game. Most people would be professional players if they could, even if they earned a very low salary.

So how do these players respond to this incredible amount of money? By acting like children and showing no loyalty toward their clubs or their fans. The loyal one-club men, such as Xavi, Maldini, Giggs, etc. are extremely rare nowadays, and so few players are actually professional the ones that are have the media **** all over them (Beckham). What a disgrace. You get millions to kick a ball around and you can't even act like a normal person? Work hard at your job and not criticize your boss and co-workers in public?

The fans are partially to blame though, we enable these players to act like this and worship many of the ones with bad attitudes.

 

[Niall]

Footballers are grossly overpaid when compared to 'normal' people in society. The thing is, most premiership footballers are taxed in the 50% bracket, meaning that for example, for every £1 million Wayne Rooney earns £500,000 goes straight to HMRC to pay the salaries of doctors, nurses, soldiers and other worthy people.

Let's say footballers were paid a much lower rate of pay, there are a couple of scenarios.
- The £1 million that Rooney would have earned and paid £500,000 of tax on would instead stay in the coffers of Man Utd, meaning that the £1 million would be taxed as part of Man Utd's corporation tax, so it would be taxed at 28%, meaning that 'only' £280,000 of the million will go towards paying for doctors & nurses etc.

- The money saved would result in lower ticket prices, better for the average fan but meaning that the £1 million would be kept by fans, and going a bit out there now, meaning that the £1 million would be spent by fans as part of their disposible income, so it will (by and large) be taxed at 20% (VAT ) so £200,000 would go to HMRC in tax.

Here you can see that from the point of view of HMRC (and as a result, the best result for nurses and soldiers) is that footballers are overpaid.

As dicussed above do bear in mind that most premier leage footballers will give money to charities, which is no bad thing.

Also bear in mind that highly paid premier league footballers are at the very pinnacle of their profession and most have a (relatively) short career, most playing at the top level for maybe 15 years at maximum. Compared to other people at the very top of their profession in a very high publicity role premier league footballers' pay seems not so outrageous.

Wayne Rooney earns approx. £150,000 per week, giving him a pre tax salary of £7.8 million. Julia Roberts was paid £20 million for her role in Mona Lisa Smile making Rooney's pay seem pale in comparison.

I am not saying that footballers deserve to be paid as highly as they are, but there are many other contributing factors, rather than just saying "Hurr durr why aren't soldiers paid £100,000 per week".

 

[Pigeonman13]

the idea that you pay them millions incase they get injured and there career could be cut short is a joke.
every professional club in the world has player insurance.. i played youth football for burnley, i broke my metatarsel bone 3 times in a year and they released but because it was down to injuries i was given player compensation..

 

[Joel`]

the idea that you pay them millions incase they get injured and there career could be cut short is a joke.
every professional club in the world has player insurance.. i played youth football for burnley, i broke my metatarsel bone 3 times in a year and they released but because it was down to injuries i was given player compensation..

They are not paid millions in case they get injured.

 

[casey32]

they are overpaid, but i rather it went to the players providing the entertainment than the fat cats at the top. Realistically football is a huge business nowadays and the money must go somewhere

 

[csa99]

maybe off topic but does anyone know how much Sepp Blatter earns?

 

[Joel`]

maybe off topic but does anyone know how much Sepp Blatter earns?

The majority of FIFA employee's are on £100k+ salaries I do believe.

 

[dilakh2]

i play for exeter under 18s i get payed 35 quid a week which is not a lot but as a young footballer btw im 16 i do think we are over paid but theres not much we can do about it we just get the money i cant say no can i

 

[alicwkd]

I know quite a few, all of which are school friends that were thick as 2 planks and joined as it was the only thing they were qualified to do.

So are most footballers. What you have to be intelligent to be a soldier now?

 

[joel-lfc]

This is a subject that ****** me of alot.

Its mostly girls who moan on about Football Players being over paid. But little do they relise ***** like Justin Bieber, Cheryl Cole etc, All earn near enough the same. Footballers deserve a fair cut of the money the clubs are making, Its like being a doctor, Better you are, better rank you become, more pay you get.

Yes - You may say Doctors save lives everyday, But thats down to the PM how much they get paid.

Also, Many Players, Eg Jamie Carragher, Put money back into the community by funding events and investing money into local projects.

 

[sween123]

IF you don't like what footballers are paid then you cannot support a free market, since this is how football operates-within a capitalist market economy
as such wages are competetive, god all this ****** "it isn't fair ****" you get in blighty does my nut. Opposing competetive wages in anything like entertainment (an industry that football falls into) is stupid, if you think it isn't fair i believe there is the Communist party of Britain and the Socialist party who will see to "fairer" wages, so stop whinging and go vote for them

 

[alicwkd]

1) 180k

2) 90k of that pays for schools, road, healthcare. he will contribute more in a week than your family would in a year

But that's hardly a great contribtution considering how much is still left to spend on anything he likes. Meanwhile there are people living in abject poverty.

 

[Mike.]

But that's hardly a great contribtution considering how much is still left to spend on anything he likes. Meanwhile there are people living in abject poverty.

thats the way the free market works. you cant relate it to people living in poverty

 

[Unbidden]

I really don't understand how they are overpaid it's not like the money would exist otherwise and it's not like they are being paid with taxes they are in a business which makes a lot of money because of them. And if they were not being paid so much the irony is that the general public would actually be worse off.

I understand if people think morally it isn't good but that's not how society works, morally your binmen should earn more than a business man after all without them filth would build up spreading disease and causing an explosion in pest population leading to a greater spread of disease resulting in basically a plague. But that isn't how society works it is all about rarity of ability regardless of the whether that ability has a higher purpose, the rarer your skills the more people will pay for them.

 

[Mike.]

his basic wage is 180k not 250k as has been widely reported

 

[Unbidden]

his basic wage is 180k not 250k as has been widely reported

I stand corrected

 

[Puddz]

Cba to read 5 pages so Don't know weather this is said or not, but blaming the players for what us the consumers pay is rather silly. We spend our hard earn money to watch them kick a ball around. We spend money to wear their shirts, shorts, scarfs ect. We even pay to have products that we see them supporting. The money doesn't come from nowhere, it comes from us.

 

[Joel`]

But that's hardly a great contribtution considering how much is still left to spend on anything he likes. Meanwhile there are people living in abject poverty.

It's a **** sight bigger contribution than most people in the country. So many people on this thread just assume we can take away footballer's wages and pay for more social benefits. The economy doesn't work that way. Social welfare would be far, far worst off if we didn't have mega rich at the top. Fact.

 

[curtis290]

IF you don't like what footballers are paid then you cannot support a free market, since this is how football operates-within a capitalist market economy
as such wages are competetive, god all this ****** "it isn't fair ****" you get in blighty does my nut. Opposing competetive wages in anything like entertainment (an industry that football falls into) is stupid, if you think it isn't fair i believe there is the Communist party of Britain and the Socialist party who will see to "fairer" wages, so stop whinging and go vote for them

Posts like these are so frustrating. What are we supposed to do as fans? Stop buying tickets? Stop ordering TV packages and stop watching them? Stop supporting our team? The leagues know that the fans will support their teams no matter what, so they commercialize the game and make everything ridiculously expensive so they can fill their own pockets.

Also, the question was whether or not they are overpaid, not whether or not you "support the free market." Jesus ******* Christ, stating whether or not you think a group of people in society deserve more or less wages doesn't make you some kind of communist that opposes the free market. The thread simply asks our OPINIONS on whether or not earning millions to kick a ball around is a little excessive, especially considering they earned a fraction of these salaries about 20 years ago.

Also, you don't have to be a communist to oppose competitive wages in entertainment...have you ever heard anything about American sports? The NFL, NBA, and NHL all have salary caps, which does a great deal to keep player wages from being inflated to the outrageous salaries we see in football and baseball.



Every time people have a discussion on business or wage structure in sports there's always that jackass that has to come in and say "well it's the free market, you can't oppose it or else you're some devil-worshipping communist!"

 

[Joel`]

Posts like these are so frustrating. What are we supposed to do as fans? Stop buying tickets? Stop ordering TV packages and stop watching them? Stop supporting our team? The leagues know that the fans will support their teams no matter what, so they commercialize the game and make everything ridiculously expensive so they can fill their own pockets.

Also, the question was whether or not they are overpaid, not whether or not you "support the free market." Jesus ******* Christ, stating whether or not you think a group of people in society deserve more or less wages doesn't make you some kind of communist that opposes the free market. The thread simply asks our OPINIONS on whether or not earning millions to kick a ball around is a little excessive, especially considering they earned a fraction of these salaries about 20 years ago.

Also, you don't have to be a communist to oppose competitive wages in entertainment...have you ever heard anything about American sports? The NFL, NBA, and NHL all have salary caps, which does a great deal to keep player wages from being inflated to the outrageous salaries we see in football and baseball.



Every time people have a discussion on business or wage structure in sports there's always that jackass that has to come in and say "well it's the free market, you can't oppose it or else you're some devil-worshipping communist!"

And, in my opinion, from an economic viewpoint, they are not overpaid, they earn what the market pays them. From a social point, yes they are overpaid, but I'm also not going to ignore the fact that having an elite of rich at the top of an economy helps everyone become better off than if we paid people what they deserve based on profession alone.