General Chat

...............but in the present economic climate I think the money recently exchanged for football players is obscene. 35 million.....50 million?

Sue

Rather rubs our nose in it doesn't it Sue.

I realise that football has become big business but this is ridiculous. I might add that as I'm in Australia this is not a slur against Britain but rather a comment on the business of football.

Sue

Not only is the amount the top footballers get paid obscene - but the fact that they pay little tax on it.............using perfectly legal tax avoidance schemes.......is just as bad as far as I am concerned.

Mary

I didn't realise that Mary - that's dreadful. Too much money and so many young *stars* not able to manage it. We have a similar problem with a lot of our rugby players. Although they don't get as much money they often go silly and dabble in drugs etc. Their behaviour is often disgusting and I wonder how their parents feel.

Sue

Well apparently according to paper this morning the young man going from Newcastle? to Liverpool at the ripe old age of 22 has been in toruble a number of times and has been in court twice for assault.

A pity a lot of the clubs did not go bankrupt and have to start over, stop paying silly wages and punish players if they bring their profession into disrepute on or off the ground.

Some old fashioned discipline and respect would go a long way.

I don't understand why - when they have so many young men coming through the ranks - they don't have some kind of 'buddy' system to keep them on the straight and narrow. Some of our young rugby players get into all sorts of strife - in fact some of them are little better than street thugs. The sex scandals they get involved in are dreadful - often involving very young girls.

Sue

I used to live and breathe Arsenal in the 60s and 70s. Wonderful when they did the double in 1971. Nowadays? Could not care less, I can't even pronounce the names of the team.

Players , proper footballers, like Billy Wright and Stan Matthews used to catch the bus to the ground with the fans.
Today its just about money, I don't even look at the results anymore.

Family members have told us that it's very expensive to buy tickets to see the games and that it's beyond a lot of people to take the family to the football for the day. What a shame.

Sue

Too many of them have lived and breathed football all their lives (probably aided by the parents) and education has taken a back seat. Then, when they reach celebrity status, they don't know how to handle it. The think themselves above the law and everything else.