Friday, October 29, 2010

Is too much money ruining world soccer?


Another transfer window is drawing to a close and a new season in Europe is beginning once again.
Like every year, all eyes are on the European heavyweights such as Barcelona, Real Madrid, Manchester United, Chelsea, Inter Milan and AC Milan. Who are they going to buy this season? How are they going to fit so many superstars in one team?
For me, there is too much money being thoughtlessly thrown around every transfer window by the same clubs.

 Real Madrid is the worst culprit. Just last season they spent 200 million Euros (I’m going to use Euros because that’s the currency they use on most credible websites) on new signings.
Cristiano Ronaldo (92 million), Kaka (65 million), Xabi Alonso (35 million) and these are just three of a long list. Where does all this money come from? And how are the smaller clubs supposed to compete with this kind of spending? The answer is.... They’re not! The smaller clubs will never compete because they just can’t afford to.
To put the wasteful spending into context, Real Madrid did little to no research on the 65 million euro purchase of Kaka because if they did their homework they would have known that he had been carrying a chronic injury and that his last season at AC Milan was not as productive as his previous six. But just because his name is Kaka and he is a former World Player of the Year and the new president promised to bring him to the club, Real Madrid thought they would spend the obscene amount of 65 million Euros to acquire his services.
Fast forward a year and now Kaka is reported to be on his way out of the Bernabeu as his injuries hampered a disappointing season for the hopeful Real Madrid and he is now forced to make way for the new batch of signings coming into the club.

And this is a club without a billionaire owner.

Chelsea and Manchester City are two of the main culprits that are flexing their money muscles and showing off to the rest of the world because they have billionaire owners and do not have the monetary constraints that others have.
In the four seasons since Roman Abramovich took over at Chelsea he has splashed out over 350 million Euros in new signings alone. While Manchester City’s new owner has spent over 200 million since joining just last season and they still missed out on a place in the Champions League, while Tottenham Hotspur clinched the coveted fourth spot only spending a tiny fraction of the cost that other clubs did.
The list of spending of the various heavyweights could go on and on as these big clubs keep spending and going further and further into debt and making what was once a beautiful sport into just a business or very expensive trading card game.

FIFA needs to act now or else there will be no end to the ridiculous spending.

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