It took a minute or two for the penny to drop yesterday when I read the third article in the Financial Times series on football in crisis which looked at player wages and there started to be a series of quotations from a ‘Mr Campbell’. Then I realised that this was none other than Sol Campbell, currently at Newcastle United.
It took a minute or two for the penny to drop yesterday when I read the third article in the Financial Times series on football in crisis which looked at player wages and there started to be a series of quotations from a ‘Mr Campbell’. Then I realised that this was none other than Sol Campbell, currently at Newcastle United.
Not surprisingly Mr Campbell defended high player wages on the grounds that football is an entertainment business and as in the film industry some players can name their price. [Some fans might argue that they would accept this if the standard of entertainment was consistently high]. He has a grumble about the 50 per cent tax rate, although it seems that some players are able to avoid some of that – as you always can if you are wealthy and can hire good accountants and lawyers.
He does make a good point when he argues that we have to get rid of the old sterotype that ‘most footballers are not the brightest, sharpest tool in the toolbox’. A lot of the complaints you get about player wages in some newspapers seem to be driven by the fact that someone from a poor and/or ethnic minority background is enabled to earn big money in a career in football.
Wages in the Championship have risen 400 per cent in the past 20 years. In 2005-6 cumulative wages in the second tier were £117m. Last season it was £223m. Even in League One wages rose from £39m to £54m over the same period.
Many advocate a US-style wages cap, but there are lots of evasion and enforcement problems. Market forces may well halt the rise in wages, combined with the effect of the Uefa financial fair play rules.
Not all players are on big money anyway. Mary Gibbons, vice-chairman at Stockport County, refers to ‘silly money’ demanded by players but it seems that top whack at the League 2 club around £50k a year. That’s almost double the median wage, but one has to remember that a typical football career lasts about fifteen years for most players (a bit longer for keepers and some defenders) provided that they do not pick up a serious injury.