But moving on. The lunacy of the economics of football can be quite interesting for a dispassionate Observer. I read today that the young Wayne Rooney has had a terribly hard time negotiating his new contract and has had to go on holiday to Dubai to recover. Poor lad.
I've seen his new weekly pay quoted between £150,000 and £200,000. I do hope Wayne knows which. I mean, at the lower rate you've only got a bit over £21,000 odd a day coming in, and if you were counting on £28,500 plus, you could easily buy a couple of extra pork pies and find yourself short. Or, as Wayne and Coleen are allegedly doing in Dubai, going a bit over-budget by spending £25 on a portion of chicken nuggets and chips or £300 for a Chinese meal.
I'm not having a go at Wayne & Coleen here. I might quietly regret that with that much money they can't find anything more imaginative to do than go to one of the most expensive hotels in the world to do no more than lounge in warm water and eat Chinese. You know what? I can do that at home for a shedload less than £300 - unless I go really overboard on the warm water - and I don't have to pay two grand a night for accommodation on top. I grant you I don't get as much sunshine or waiter service, even when Mrs QO is at her most helpful. But hey, it's their money, not provided by the taxpayer, so good luck to them.
What bemuses me is that he's deemed to be worth that kind of money by his employers. I looked up his career stats. Now as I said earlier, I'm no football fan, so perhaps I'm missing something. But as far as I can see, his overall career stats suggest that he scores one goal in every three matches he plays in. As far as his League performances go, it's a tad better at one goal every two and a half games or so. Does that strike rate warrant a contract worth £10 million (ish) a year? For context, as I read their accounts, Man U carry debt of half a billion pounds. Does that all add up? Comments from anyone wiser in the world of football would be very welcome.
I don't understand this either. Manchester United appear to have loads of debt whereas Liverpool (arguably much less successful of late than the Red Devils) have none.
ReplyDeleteWhat galls me about highly-paid and obscenely greedy footballers like Rooney, is that their extortionate salaries are ultimately paid for by ordinary people (many of whom will soon be struggling to pay the rent) who go to the games, pay for the Sky subscription or buy the replica shirts, mugs, key rings, etc.
Why none of the people who fund Rooney's lavish lifestyle seem to object to it, is beyond me. I guess winning a few games of football is more important to them than any notion of fairness or social justice.
Crazy world...
I'd be spitting blood if I were a ManU fan, but as you say, it's a crazy world. It's true that nobody forces those people through the turnstiles or into the merchandise shop, so it's the free market at work - but it's right at the 'totally barking' end of the free market bell-curve, I think.
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