Many of you, after watching television programmes such as Footballers’ Wives and Footballers’ Cribs, are in awe of the luxurious lifestyles that they live. From their humongous mansions, designer clothes and lavish cars, we all long to be as wealthy as them. We can’t deny that many of us admire these so called ‘legends’ for their wealth, but, isn’t it time that we removed our rose – tinted spectacles and looked upon the situation that is affecting society today?
Usually, at a football match we expect the fans to be acting as hooligans, however, a teenage footballer, Wayne Rooney, swore about a hundred times to a referee during ONE football match. Many children, especially boys, idolise players such as Rooney, but when the players display such behaviour, what example do they set on the impressionable younger generations? And, more importantly, why should the football clubs carry on encouraging these players’ behaviours by rewarding them with such large salaries?
Professional players such as Beckham, Rooney, Ferdinand and many others, earn over fifty thousand pounds a WEEK! With fifty thousand pounds, you could support two African villages for a year, preserve a rainforest the size of a thousand football pitches or provide a cancer unit with a hundred weeks worth of clinical supplies.
How are they deserving of such large amounts when all they do is prance around on a football field during a match and act like hooligans off the pitch? There are so many examples of appalling behaviour from players during a match; one such example is from El Hadji Diouf who plays for Bolton. Diouf was once accused of spitting at other players and fans during a match. Another example is from John Terry and Frank Lampard. Terry and Lampard were just two of the four players who drunkenly mocked American tourists at Heathrow Airport just days after September 11th. Last, but not least, Lee Bowyer who plays for Newcastle, was banned for six months after he fought with his own team – mate and then stamped on the head of one of his opponents during a match.
By displaying such outrageous behaviour, why should footballers be deserving of their large salaries? You could argue that their careers are short – lived, but then they should be sensible enough to save what they do earn, instead of splashing out and not having any left when their careers are over. Do the players have far too much wealth and not enough sense to go with it?
Realistically, footballers’ pay cheques are ridiculous. Most people would jump at the chance to play for their favourite team for free, being offered millions to play football is preposterous, after all footballers’ careers are merely hobbies that they get paid an immense amount for. What they earn in a week is what someone like a doctor would study years at medical school to hope to earn in a year. On the whole, footballers, unlike teachers, doctors, nurses and many other professions do not contribute much to our society.
By Chandni Govindia 10DH
