Football Has Lost Its Soul — And Money Is to Blame
How obscene transfer fees and wages have replaced genuine passion for the game — and what that says about our priorities as a society
6/21/20263 min read
For a long time now, I’ve been disgusted at the obscenely expensive price tags and wages for football (soccer) players in top-flight leagues.
Given the myriad of problems plaguing society especially people’s dire socioeconomic burdens, such insane amounts of money should instead be directed towards these pressing issues.
At the heart of this problem lies the ultra-capitalist system we live in.
Football clubs and leagues eagerly capitalize on opportunities to reap maximum profits from:
The business aspect of the game.
The players, especially those who are highly ranked.
A BIG reason why the prices and wages of these players are so high is inflation. This in turn is caused by the:
Wealthy clubs and their owners who are pursuing such players and can afford to fork out large sums of money.
High demand for high-quality players.
Media companies that are paying these football leagues and clubs huge sums for broadcasting rights of the matches.
Merchandise sales.
The growing viewership in Asian countries.
These factors influence clubs to jack up their players’ transfer fees (especially those highly sought-after) to reap even greater profits.
Previously, I’ve been an ardent football fan. Now, however, I’m more of a casual fan and I watch far fewer matches compared to before.
That being said, I still enjoy the game in general.
And I’m not against players in the higher, more professional leagues getting paid a fair amount of wages; they do deserve to be paid more.
But most certainly NOT at the disgusting levels we’re witnessing. This is simply too much and completely unnecessary. NO ONE truly deserves to earn such insane amounts.
Looking at the top 100 most expensive football transfers (of players between clubs) between 2001-2023, the prices range from about 55 million to over 220 million Euros!
For weekly wages of the highest-paid footballers globally in 2024, they range from 400,000 pounds to 3.4 million pounds!
If these football leagues and clubs are able to generate such high profits through sales, then ideally they should:
Act responsibly
Direct a portion towards pro-people causes and programs.
Instead, they’re continuously capitalizing on opportunities to reap maximum profits from their highly-ranked players. There’s ZERO sense of responsibility and giving back to the community.
And so, this positive-feedback mechanism keeps on going, all the while generating increasingly obscene price and wage levels for these football stars.
Apart from the hugely disappointing fact that such huge financial resources could be spent on society’s needs, this engineering to reap maximum profits is negatively affecting the overall game of football itself.
Insanely high transfer fees, wages, and profits have become overly-dominant in the football world, particularly in top-flight leagues. This takes away from enjoying the actual beauty of the game.
The attention of football fans and the casual audience is drawn towards:
Insanely high price tags and wages of these players
The buzz and controversy involving the transfer of high-profile players between clubs.
As a result, less focus and energy is directed towards truly enjoying, being passionate about and appreciating the actual game of football itself.
Major football leagues and clubs worldwide should stop simply jacking up transfer fees and wages of players in their pursuit of greater profits. I mean, how much is enough??
The insane amounts of cash being thrown about in the football world should instead be responsibly spent on WAY more pressing problems in society.
End the dominance of lucrative deals and insane profits in football! It’s high time we return to the truly deeper things in these type of sports, which is being genuinely passionate and enjoying the actual game itself.
Do you guys agree with my points? What do you think about the dominance of huge deals and insane amounts of cash in the world of sports? Let me know in the comments and thanks for reading!
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