Has football been tarnished by too much money?

‘Is there too much money in sport?’ John Williams, A sociologist from the University Of Leicester, took part in a conference at the French Institute in London where he was joined by Patrick Gautrat, Oliver Ferrand and Keir Radnedge.

The conference asked: “At a time when the billionaires of Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Russia are treating themselves to some of Europe’s biggest clubs, should football still be viewed as a fully fledged Olympic sport? Is it even a sport at all, or just another business? And has the beautiful game been tainted by this influx of money?” The discussion also addressed the subject of sport betting. Should the advent of online betting be seen as a genuine threat to fair play and the spirit of sport?

There are a number of key indicators on the scale of the problem, said Williams. Some of these problems include: Football clubs seeming to no longer be protected from economic realism because of their identities as important ‘community’ assets, and the financial gap between the Premier League and the Football League has induced middle-range clubs into excessive, short term risk taking – sometimes to near disastrous effect. Also, according to PFA figures, in 1992 average basic weekly earnings of players in the English top flight was £1,482, compared to £320 a week in the lowest professional tier. By 2009/10 average basic top football wages in England had increased to £22,353 where as the lower-end wages had only just more than doubled, to a very moderate £747.

At the top end of the sport in England today, local millionaires and family supporters are gradually being replaced by global multi-millionaires and billionaires in the boardrooms. These include heads of state, global capitalist or faceless corporate investors who hope for a return – psychic or material – on their investments in English football.

UEFA’s proposed new licensing regime aimed at producing ‘financial fair play’ by limiting the spending and debt of top European clubs, offers perhaps the most viable prospect of a much needed trans-national form of future ethical football governance, one aimed against financial exploitation and recklessness. But Williams questions this saying: “can UEFA really afford to eject its star television names from its elite competitions for alleged financial excesses?”