Is money ruining football?

[papaguy51 912]

I've been on RM for a few years now and I must admit, this season's transfer window has - so far - been absolutely ridiculous.

I've seen it as a good thing that Madrid have spent so much in order to provide much needed competition domestically and in Europe, but some of the other deals have been incredible.

£80m for one player is still amazing. The fact that £50m is required to become Real president in the first place ruled out most of Perez' competition, including Juan Onieva, Eugenio Martinez Bravo and Eduardo Garcia.

Even the more popular posse of former players, led by Manolo Sanchis couldn't compete with Perez, himself one of Europe's ten richest men.

Man City's deal for Tevez, their proposed deal for Adebayor and even Rennes' €11m move for Ismael Bangoura have also raised eyebrows.

Now I remember most of what the members I respect highly say, and so far this year I've seen a couple of things that have made me think. As early as Kaka's proposed transfer to Madrid was rumoured, Danny wrote off 99.9% of footballers as untrustworthy Judases, while Muff has recently commented that money is 'killing his enjoyment'.

Can we argue with them? I actually don't think we can.

I honestly have no problem with Madrid's spending power as it's out of our league anyway - it's the diddy teams like Burnley, Bolton and Birminghams of this world that annoy me.

The fact that Rangers (and Celtic, begrudgingly) cannot compete with these clubs is tragic. I have no idea where this is going to end and I worry that the bubble will need to burst in Britain first, which could have a terrible knock-on effect for Rangers.

I want my beautiful game back

[lewisb72 50]

Deffinatly.

[Gaz52 11,837]

It's time for Fifa to save the game, the money is ridiculous it's sucking the beauty right out of it

6+5 rule wouldnt be so bad

[Muff 245]

Yes, and it's getting to a stage where I can't be arsed with it anymore.

The amount of times I have thought about walking away from the game altogether is scary., especially in the last year.

We now have League Two sides spending more money than Rangers. We have players being offered £300k a week, and we have transfer fee's over £75m.

What the fuck is going on in football?

[papaguy51 912]

Yes, and it's getting to a stage where I can't be arsed with it anymore.

The amount of times I have thought about walking away from the game altogether is scary., especially in the last year.

We now have League Two sides spending more money than Rangers. We have players being offered £300k a week, and we have transfer fee's over £75m.

What the fuck is going on in football?

The fact that it's happening during a worldwide recession is even more galling.

[Thermopylae 15,288]

I'm bound to say if you're a City fan then you would say no way ... so it basically comes down to what the market will stand

[ScottBF2 3,540]

What happened to football being the working man's sport

[TexasGers 96]

This is how markets work, the bubble will burst at some point, but who knows when that will happen?

And I don't have a problem with huge wages/transfer fees, that's what the market dictates. Real Madrid looked at the signing of Ronaldo as an investment; he cost 80 million in transfer fees, but Real will make that back and more in merchandise, etc.

[Danny 9]

It's a very valid subject, but it's also worth noting that it's only about 5 clubs who have the cash to do this:

Man City, Chelsea, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Inter, and arguably Man Utd.

Benitez has complained about the crazy spending and he's spot on, but unfortunately as soon as Man City bid 100M in January for Kaka, the floodgates opened and now the elite feel they're morally allowed to spend whatever they like to secure the players they want.

Remember my thread in January, was it, discussing the value of the Spanish national side in light of City's bid for Kaka? I've been proven sadly correct - I don't even think I included Alonso while I was saying guys like Xavi, Ramos, Casillas, and Iniesta are worth maybe up to 100M - with Alonso as a bit part player now being valued at 50M and Fabregas in exactly the same boat, middle eastern wealth has despicably inflated the market beyond sense.

C Ron would have cost Real Madrid about 40M tops (still way too much but not as bad) if that January bid hadn't happened for Kaka.

The benchmark for player costs has risen epidemically in the past 6 months, to level of being out of control.

[Danny 9]

This is how markets work, the bubble will burst at some point, but who knows when that will happen?

And I don't have a problem with huge wages/transfer fees, that's what the market dictates. Real Madrid looked at the signing of Ronaldo as an investment; he cost 80 million in transfer fees, but Real will make that back and more in merchandise, etc.

But at a time where money is at a premium and we have a credit crunch and world wide recession it is insulting the value of cash to throw it about in these sums.

[TexasGers 96]

This is how markets work, the bubble will burst at some point, but who knows when that will happen?

And I don't have a problem with huge wages/transfer fees, that's what the market dictates. Real Madrid looked at the signing of Ronaldo as an investment; he cost 80 million in transfer fees, but Real will make that back and more in merchandise, etc.

But at a time where money is at a premium and we have a credit crunch and world wide recession it is insulting the value of cash to throw it about in these sums.

Is it any worse than people getting billions for manipulating stock numbers and global currencies? At least fans get the enjoyment of their teams trying to put out a quality product.

[sdunsmb 43]

Personally, I actually enjoy seeing huge transfers and wages. Don't know why, just find it really exciting.

Especially the prospect of a team like Real who have spent loads not even doing well, which would be hilarious.

The only thing I find depressing about the whole situation is that Rangers are not part of this boom, and are in fact becoming less financially competitive with top clubs over time.

[papaguy51 912]

Personally, I actually enjoy seeing huge transfers and wages. Don't know why, just find it really exciting.

Especially the prospect of a team like Real who have spent loads not even doing well, which would be hilarious.

The only thing I find depressing about the whole situation is that Rangers are not part of this boom, and are in fact becoming less financially competitive with top clubs over time.

I agree, but that's not the nature of the post.

I certainly DON'T enjoy seeing Wolves and Burnley outbid us for players.

[J_RFC87 762]

I don't think it's the money, it's the attitude and greed of the top people involved in football.

Luis Felipe "Portugal couldn't afford me to sign a new contract" Scolari

Christiano "I'm worth more than £80mil" Ronaldo

Florentino "chuck as much money at the problem as possible" Pérez

Are the examples of the people who are ruining the game's name. The guys that play for pride. ambition and loyality (Don't see: Tevez, Alan Smith etc) are the guys that remind us that not all footballers are like that and would choose Hull City over Rangers.

[Guest therabbitt]

I sometimes wonder if the fact that we have a transfer window now instead of being able to spend all through the season has actually really affected the way in which clubs now tend to almost binge-buy on players.

There's been so many ramifications and things within football that have lead to the situation being what it is now. Bosman was certainly a massive turning point and it moved the goalposts so that the players were the ones in control. I really thought that the "Webster rule" would also change the way that things happen in football, further handing the incentive to the players (and their agents) - but it seems that FIFA have managed to suppress it's effects so far.

[ShaneRalfRoss 320]

of course it is. Its crazy prices of players these days. There should be limit how much u should buy a player. Its also hard for smaller teams to buy players aswell. No way in hell ronadlo is wroth that amount. Real Maraid can splash there cash on big players if they want but it does not mean they play good together.

[Jeff crap in the head 120]

Ronaldo is worth what the market dictates he's worth

[BryanRfc 1]

Deffo ruining it couldnt agree more

[WVB 2,560]

Sorry big man, no need for a long debate here at all. The answer is yes.

[whitey126 42]

would this thread be running if Rangers were spending this sort of money?

if it were the Rangers whom had just spent £80mil on c.ronaldo or £25mil on tevez, wihtout it having any real adverse affect on our finances, i dont think there would be a lot of people on this board complaining.

but instead of players like this, we are forced to accept that players from other SPL clubs/or lower championship clubs is our realistic transfer market.

i dont want to see teams like wolves and burnley outspending or outbidding us either, but at the end of the day, the reality is that were playing in a backwater leauge, which produces no major income. our income is now dependent on CL qualification and/or selling our best players year after year to balance the books.

although one thing that we will always have on these sort of small clubs are european qualification every year and more importantly the prestige that goes along with playing for the Glasgow Rangers.

[knl1990 1]

85mill

Am Sure That Can Go To Better Use

[houstie 0]

Money is only ruining football as we dont have any.

If our club was owned by a UAE zillionaire or Russian zodkaaire we would not be bothered one bit. We would be as excited as all the Madrid fans must be right now and REALly (see what I done there?) looking forward to next season.

As it is, we are skint and need to rely on £500k from sale of Adam before we can consider buying anyone.

I cant remeber too many of our fans complaining when we competed in the transfer market and spending £12m, £8m,£7m etc on big names.

We bid on every big name and money was no object and no one said then "this is ruining our football"

Football is a free market and as such, things move up and down.

[sdunsmb 43]

Personally, I actually enjoy seeing huge transfers and wages. Don't know why, just find it really exciting.

Especially the prospect of a team like Real who have spent loads not even doing well, which would be hilarious.

The only thing I find depressing about the whole situation is that Rangers are not part of this boom, and are in fact becoming less financially competitive with top clubs over time.

I agree, but that's not the nature of the post.

I certainly DON'T enjoy seeing Wolves and Burnley outbid us for players.

Naturally, I share this opinion.

[papaguy51 912]

Personally, I actually enjoy seeing huge transfers and wages. Don't know why, just find it really exciting.

Especially the prospect of a team like Real who have spent loads not even doing well, which would be hilarious.

The only thing I find depressing about the whole situation is that Rangers are not part of this boom, and are in fact becoming less financially competitive with top clubs over time.

I agree, but that's not the nature of the post.

I certainly DON'T enjoy seeing Wolves and Burnley outbid us for players.

Naturally, I share this opinion.

I'm actually looking forward to watching the current 'elite' clubs do battle next year, it'll be one of the most exciting years to date.

But down here at SPL level, we have almost no bargaining chips left

[keithgersbear 3,225]

You could argue that there is too much money in football and you could argue it is ruining football to a degree but you also have to consider the modern footballer (or modern man) and all you will see is men who play the game for the money and have not a bit of honesty in them or loyalty. Now, you could say who am I to question anyone’s loyalty when you are talking about the sort of money in the game and you could say would I turn it down? Well, no I would not turn down 50k a week but the problem with modern day footballers is most of them are complete wankers and pansys who seem to think you can’t live on 50k a week.

The fact some players even get upset when being on 50k a week and demand 80 says all you need to know. The mere fact that Ashley Cole swerved his car nearly off the road (shame he didn’t ) also says a lot about Cole as a man and also society in general.

I think a lot of players need a reality check and sooner or later football in terms of finances will go down and it won’t be as good as it is now. The money will dry up sooner or later and we will have a drought.

I think it’s possibly a society problem more than anything else. The planet is full of greedy lying scum bags, the credit crunch tells us that. You can’t trust anyone anymore. People who are saying has football sold it’s soul, it’s soul was sold LOOONG ago.