by MadBob

Created on: February 19, 2007   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

I was going to ask whether we were talking about 'soccer' or American football, but as the difference in salaries is negligible these days, I'm not going to make the distinction.

If we look at the world at large, there are many people who are paid more than even they could possibly justify. According to an urban legend, the three CEOs of Microsoft (not including Bill Gates) have a combined annual income equal to the LIFETIME earnings of 10,000 average Americans. Bill Gates himself is rich enough to buy every person in the world a Happy Meal. Is he paid too much?

It could be said that footballers are paid more than they're worth. They are, like Gates, specialists in a field, if you'll pardon the pun. There aren't too many people who can compare with the best - take Thierry Henry, Barry Sanders, Ronaldinho and Jerry Rice for example. They can make claims for greatness, and with justification. Should they therefore be paid more than every other footballer? I think so.

However, it is the scale of the pay that is the problem. Henry's annual pay could finance a hospital, a school, a fire station, or something of more profound use than sporting entertainment. There is an argument that sport has much deeper social import than is given credit, but that is a discussion for another day. In real terms, twelve nurses are better than one exceptional sports person.

In their defense, an exceptional sports person is at a life disadvantage. Someone like Zinedine Zidane could live his entire life on the back of his exploits for club and country. Indeed, John Charles, by some way Wales' most famous footballer, had the freedom of Turin thanks to his goalscoring record for Juventus. But most journeyman footballers, the Mark Rypens and Ray Parlours of this world, having trained religiously since the age of eight, forsaking study and vocational specialty (outside the sporting arena), what happens when they reach the end of their useful lifespan? Is it wrong to get a lifetime's pay in only 20 years of work, work which puts your very body, the very instrument of your earning potential at risk every time you train, play or venture out into public? Very few footballers in the UK get those sought after TV punditry contracts. Not all footballers are intelligent enough to become managers or coaches. And there are only so many bars that Tenerife can handle before reaching saturation point.

When money is diverted from public sector improvements, then it's a crime. However, sport generates capital like very little else can. I'll sit on the fence a little while longer if it's okay with everyone. Even if it's not...

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