Thursday 9 August 2012

Professional footballers are a bunch of useless bankers

After the pathetic display from our nations footballing elite during the Euro 2012 competition and to a lesser extent, the olympics it struck me that this sub-class of humanity has a great deal in common with the banking buffoons that have attracted so much negative press recently. Both attract disproportionately high salaries compared to their usefulness and productivity, both are paid irrespective  of success and performance, both flaunt their affluent lifestyle and show no shame at their moral turpitude and both should be shot for this bearing in mind we have representatives of our armed forces risking their lives on a daily basis for a fraction of the price. Also, the Olympics have highlighted this, the level of commitment displayed by the professionals compared to their 'amateur' (OK these days a very loose term) counterparts is so evidently orders of magnitude apart that the 'professional' footballing industry needs a severe regulatory kick up the arse.

I was listening to the radio yesterday, bloody heel I'm beginning to sound like 'thought for the day' on radio bore. Billy Connolly said something once along these lines (updated for effect):

I was watching my son play his Xbox the other day when he suddenly asked, 'did Jesus play the Xbox daddy?', and I answered, 'In a funny way he did.'

Anyway, I WAS listening to the radio yesterday when the subject of the overpaid footballing sub-class arose and as usual an opinionated 'football' writer was wheeled out for an opinion or three. The question concerned 'wage cap pin, a good thing or a bad thing?' The writer was dead against it, he used the argument that if the English FA caps wages then the best players will play abroad. I did, and still do fail to see his point. When football clubs spend in excess of 80% of their income on salaries then something has to give. Economics, like physics, cannot be denied. A football club is a business and must be run as such. If a club, such as my local team Portsmouth, over spends to the extent that they cannot support themselves then, I am sorry to say, just as any business would, it's time to go bust. The football approach and the ridiculous false economy it perpetuates clearly cannot last. So what if the club has existed since 1898, change or die, simple.

With all of this said, I have had enough of football now and will not be able to generate any more than a passing interest. Sport has shown of late that it does have a place in society as a study of any civilised culture will attest, but to create a elite sub-class who set themselves apart from the spectating masses is a step too far.

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