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| | Sunday 13 July, 2008 | | Blog: Slaves to Stars | Sepp Blatter said Cristiano Ronaldo’s contract with Manchester United was a form of “slavery,” so Susy Campanale proposes a new type of deal
|  |  | | We all knew Sepp Blatter talked rubbish, but the FIFA President really has taken the cake this time by joining in with Real Madrid’s assertion that Manchester United holding Cristiano Ronaldo to his contract is tantamount to “slavery.” That is not an easy word to bandy about, yet the super-rich spoilt brats seem happy to stand side by side with the true slaves of this world and expect your sympathy. It’s really not going to happen.
The fact FIFA have come out on Ronaldo’s side suggests what we have known for quite a while now is finally coming true – contracts are utterly worthless pieces of paper. If a player can sign on the dotted line for tens of thousands of pounds a week and retain the right to quit at a moment’s notice, then why bother making such agreements at all? At least in Spain they have the buy-out clause so if they can find a club idiotic enough to spend £90m on their starlet, they can add insult to cash. But what are other sides to do?
I suggest we take the new style of cheap airline as an example of where to go next in the football transfer market. If a contract counts only so far as the player wants it to, let him take the small print and hidden extra charges that go with it. Let’s say every time a player is injured – even just a muscular twinge that means he’s not feeling fit enough to play the Coppa Italia – then he has to pay for the physio, x-rays, tests, surgery and of course the time wasted by the fact he’s unable to step on to the field.
If he plays badly, does that constitute a breach of contract? It could do, so dock wages every time he misses an open goal or performs a particularly sluggish tackle. Above all else, instead of awarding bonuses for reaching the Champions League qualification, fine the stars if they fail to achieve that objective. It’s the modern game, so we need a new type of contract.
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A simple solution has stared football in the face since the beginning of 'silly money transfers' back in the early 90's. WAGE CAPS. And I don't mean wage caps installed by the clubs, either. FIFA should systematically amend the payment structure throughout the sport. Top leagues in all countries pay the highest. For instance, Serie A, English Prem, La Liga, Bundesliga etc pay maximum 50,000 Euros per week. Second Division clubs from those countries pay maximum of 25,000 Euros per week, and so on and so forth.
Bonus money is then achieved through performance stats. Strikers, Midfielders, Defenders and Goalkeepers get bonuses for goals scored, assists and clean sheets etc. That's it. No fancy houses. No flash cars, no advertising cons and pathetic image rights deals. This means no unnecessary demands from players, who will know what they are entitled to from day one of the scheme. It is up to the club to sell themselves for that signature. The only payment these players should crave is success. The more successful at their task, the more they earn. Smaller clubs will consequently be able to compete and please, please, please can we ban agents from football altogether? They serve no purpose in the sport and are nothing but detrimental to it.
Football has suddenly become an outlet for the greedy. It's clearly evident the entertainment factor has suffered because of it. The game can still be saved, but the constant emphasis on sponsorship, advertising and corporate malarkey has made all personnel throughout the game put 'football' as second in the pecking order.
Carlo, Manchester
While I agree with you on the "slavery" front, the idea of making a footballer pay for his physio and then, even worse, his missed opportunities on goal and other such randomly occurring incidents is completely ridiculous. You quite clearly do not PLAY football and do not understand the actual physical happenings in a game. Players should have the right to have bad games, just like 'journalists' should have the right to publish off-form columns/blogs. I say this because I'm usually 100% in agreement with you but I can't get my head round this one. Everybody has a bad day.
I can't decide which is more ludicrous: the fines for being injured or the fines for putting in a poor performance. Probably the injury one, as 9/10 times these injuries are not self-inflicted. A player should be fined because he landed on his foot the wrong way, or got tackled? Wait, sorry, does that then, in your books, constitute a poor performance? Hmmmm. I'm disappointed. You're usually spot on as well.
Lorenzo
I think all this money is getting out of hand now and it will get worse before it gets better. The days of truly loyal players are coming to an end and soon players will be moving from club to club a lot more frequently. Jose Altafini pointed out a fine example of a player who left his favourite club, one which he was an icon at, for the money - Fernando Torres of Atletico Madrid (now at Liverpool). Adebayor is doing the same at Arsenal with his agent egging him on. He's found his place at Arsenal, where he scored 30 goals last season. Why would he want to move away from where he has finally settled? For the money, of course. Who knows, maybe soon there won't be any need for contracts. They won't mean anything at all. A player will be able to sign a 10-year contract and leave after a single season.
I find it offensive when they say footballers are treated like slaves. There are people out there who are working 40+ hours a week and are struggling with bills but they aren't getting paid anywhere near the amount footballers get for running around a pitch playing football once (maybe twice) a week and keeping themselves fit. How sad is that….
Farhad
I just read your blog and could not agree more. The game has become far too greedy, especially in England, the self proclaimed greatest League in the world. I always admired reading about a host of Milan players taking a pay cut to help ease the club's financial strains, the most famous being the injured Fernando Rendondo saying he did not deserve to be paid unless he was playing, as Milan were helping him recover from his knee injury. Loyalty is rare now and this is why players such as Kaka, Pirlo and Gattuso are rare. They are wanted, but are happy to stay at Milan but then I always thought that Shevchenko was like that and we all know how that ended - he went to Chelsea where his new teammates ignored him and ruined his career. I hope I don't see other Milan players follow suit.
The buy out clause in Spain is a wise part of a contract, but elsewhere there have to be penalties if players do not honor contracts they have signed. Emmanuel Adebayor is a classic case of greed. He is playing several clubs against each other while also saying if Arsenal give him a 400% pay rise he will stay. If you ask me there has to be a international wage structure introduced where even if a player thinks he is a living God (which Ronaldo seems certain of) he can only be paid a certain salary that is set by law.
Brendan
Here's another idea, Susy - make them go self-employed! They'd get no holiday or sick pay, fund all their own travelling and health treatment, rent the training accommodation (I'm sure you can think up a few more!). They'd then be free to do as they liked, but they wouldn't get an over-inflated salary if they weren't playing regularly. They might also be required to do something for the club during all those long hours when they aren't training or playing: the clubs could develop community projects which create good links and publicity and which is considered part of the footballer's role. I can't be the only football fan who is fed up with unsavoury newspaper coverage about drunken brawls and stupid behaviour during the season, when, as highly paid professionals, they should know better.
Lynette
You have hit the nail right on the head with this blog. What is the point of contracts now if a player can clear the terms? It might as well renew on a yearly basis. Why don’t the football clubs pay a basic wage now and give them a productivity bonus at the end of the season instead of ridiculous wages per week? I think Sepp Blatter is a waste of space, arrogant and should step down from his job and give it to someone who really cares about football, not just the money and the limelight
Gino
What utter rubbish you talk. Any club placing clauses in the players’ contracts will not get their man and most supporters may moan about these over-paid spoilt brats, but want the top players at their club and would not tolerate not signing the best their club can afford. As for the spoilt players they are in demand and can receive top dollar. Besides, in what other walk of life are you tied to a company with a contract for time? We have free movement, why are footballers any different to any other form of work? Let’s face it, how many people would remain loyal to the company they work for if a competitor came along and offered more?
Without having read all Mr. Blatter said, I am assuming that he is only stating that they are treated like slaves in the fact that they are owned, bought and sold and not the fact that they have to work like slaves, as no idiot would compare the two in any other manner.
Whilst not wanting to back the way the spoilt over-paid stars act, they realise that whilst one bunch of supporters will detest them for what they do, a second set will idolise them and the cycle will continue.
Nick The Suffolk Eye-Talian
Suggesting that the player has to pay the medical expenses is nonsense. Everyone has to have health insurance and that includes players. But your other point is spot on. A player who performs badly in a crucial game or does a very stupid tackle that could lead to a red card should be automatically fined by the club according to the contract agreement. Where there are rewards there should be punishment as well.
A lot of players sign big contracts that they can get away from (according to this Ronaldo case) whenever they want, but if they signed a big contract then they played really badly, the club cannot do anything to get rid of them or reduce their wages. The players are already over-protected and the clubs suffer a lot, especially when these players are called for the national team and they have the tendency to get injured (Vieira etc).
Nerazzurri fan
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