Home » Post » What role is money playing in football?

At the risk of turning this into a controversial debate, I would like to reconsider our view of money in football historically.

There appears to be a norm which has seen most supporters romanticize about football throughout the years when in fact the owners of clubs have mainly been rich businessmen.

It is hard to think of too many clubs who were funded completely by an actual community during the early generation of the game.

Indeed, the truth has always been that relatively speaking, the various owners of clubs were considerably more well off than the average dockyard worker.

Also, football is certainly at a higher state of quality, now that players are better remunerated and able to make a living from the profession than previously possible.

The conditions of various players have also improved as a result of the money in football over the last few decades whereas in the earlier generation, it was likely that those stars were cast aside like cattle.

The numbers from today’s game tend to blind people into thinking in moral terms about how there is supposedly too much money in football.

That often makes people view the sport as some sort of evil empire to be opposed in a ‘good vs evil’ world where money is deemed as the root of most troubles from players.

However, with all that said, the beautiful game has actually improved dramatically in so many aspects in comparison to how things were over 50 years ago.

The situation is still not perfect, and indeed, the issue of inflated player wages and transfer fees needs addressing sooner rather than later.

But when discussing the effects of major financial power in the game, we must refrain from bashing something which has contributed so heavily to the success of football.