yeah you will find a lot of British players moving to France for the euros, Wilkinson is joining SBW for about 750K euros a season, having said that he is unlikely to play for England again.

It will ultimately stuff up les Bleus, there are a host of Kiwis, Argentinians, South Africans, Georgians and Islanders running around the fields of France. Funnily enough, having their players exposed to a professional setup has benefited the Pumas and Lelos.

Maybe similar to the EPL, and there are always complaints that the preponderence of foreigners in the EPL will hurt England’s chances of winning the FIFA WC ever again.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/sports-stars-richer-after-high-court-ruling-20090618-cis4.html

Funny how in talking about Australias richest sports stars….we’re really only talking a relatively modest number on globally modest pay. Chris Judd at a million, after tax, all spent in Australia is hardly comparable to Australias REAL richest sports stars like Kewell, Webber, Norman etc who pump just how much into Australias tax basket??

Anyway – - proof again that looking only locally is being pretty small minded using this phrasing Australia’s richest sports stars just got richer

Especially when one of the claimants is out of the AFL system, playing for Port Melbourne, and his claim is in relation to a $2100 spend 4 years back when he was on the princely sum of $70,000. Yep, sure – David Spriggs is one of Australias richest sports stars!!!!

Let’s discuss again how much Viduka get’s per week (and how many weeks he’s been unable to take the field with his ‘old man’ achilles).

According to the English press several high profile England players have gone off to France because they don’t have a salary cap?

Having a salary cap in one country only doesn’t make much sense unless you want to lose all your best players.

A salary cap is easiest to enforce where the professional level of the sport is either limited to one competition (i.e. NFL or AFL) or where it is dominated by one competition (such as the NRL).

In the world of futbol, it is only really useful where there are strong competitors to the game of futbol and the game is less entrenched in the country as the other sports, i.e. Australia and the USA, i.e. supporters will get turned off if one team kills the comp and it is not their team.

From what I know best, i.e. rugby, salary caps are enforced in some competitions, and it can be useful, look at England, where futbol dominates, but thanks to a well regulated salary cap, a successful rugby competition can be run.

French rugby does not have a salary cap (however the sport is well entrenched in parts of France), however I understand in order to be in the top competition, each club faces a detailed audit prior to season by the body which runs the competition.

A Salary Cap is fine if the sport is getting into too much debt or some teams just can’t compete any longer and you want an even competition?

Let’s just give the moralising a bit of a rest. These sports stars earn big salaries because their sport generates huge revenues. It’s just business.

No, I don’t read or hear these other sports stars and others copping flak for earning all that money except for evil executives? Who’s calling for a Salary Cap in Tennis, Golf and Motor Sports?

I guess only American sports stars, Golfers, Tennis Players, brain dead celebrities and evil Executives should be earning that kind of money?

Lazza when those guys earn that sort of money everyone says the same thing ( its way to much), or dont you listen.

Its outrageous and IMO immoral.

I think a salary cap is a good idea.

It’s like the old adage – no one ever went broke selling for a profit.

In theory the $ value should have a sizeable correlation to the perceived “football” value at the time of purchase. All the $ amount gives you is a reference point.

So all Man U are doing are buying players that their past experience suggests will increase in “football value” rather than decrease. This is just making smart use of their resources and trying to ensure that they use their resources to put the best football team on the pitch over the long term.

I believe there’s a few culture factors -
i.e. cricket – players getting big pay cheques seems fine, until suddenly they’re getting it via the IPL and thus threatening the ‘sanctity’ of test cricket………..a bit of dejavu 30 years on from the Kerry Packer WSC days.
However, here, we’re still not in the ball park of many tens of millions of dollars as in the soccer scenario.

those who battle at the coalface of certain sports at the grass roots level must get disappointed sometimes, such as basketball in Australia, seeing that we can’t sustain a decent domestic league, and yet there’s all this money in the ‘sport’, but, in a global sense but in that sense it’s highly localised in the top league and ‘trickle down theory’ doesn’t apply to domestic sports in Australia unless a bunch of Aussies who made got come back and buy/own NBL teams. So, they battle on domestically ‘for the love of the game’.

And I find it ironic when myopic folk in Australia lambast NRL and AFL players as over paid and lazy full time pro sports people with too much time on their hands………if only such folk would cast their eyes to the EPL for example for real over paid sports people.

Then there’s the difference between actual ‘pay cheques’ for on field efforts, vs the marketing/promotional pay day. Personally I rebel against shoes promoted by a sportsperson who is being paid $20 million for the job whilst the shoes are fabricated by under paid and over worked ‘cheap’ labour in dubious conditions.

At any rate – - many of us DO hope the bubble bursts – - but will it? The world economic sectors desperately needed a ‘correction’ – - but, thus far, sports has remain pretty imune.

And re the AFL comment – as many times we have said, the best game of the year is so often the week before in the Prelim – example 2007, Geel vs Coll, MCG packed by true fans of both teams and the house rocked to the final siren with less than a kick in it. That is the ‘peoples’ final.

At any rate – that’s why I celebrate that special something about a bunch of sporting misfits who pay their way to the otherside of the world to play a game they barely know – - and no doubt it’s the similar sentiment that soccer fans seek a Cameroon type ‘fairy tale’ each time the World Cup comes around. They may not realise it, but, I reckon they are rebelling against the big dollars as much as the ‘reputations’.

That 9.5 million pounds per annum (which is only a starting point), is more than double the salary cap of your average AFL club.

Ronaldo’s incremental wage contract (not including bonuses/endorsements) reportedly starts at 9.5million pounds per year and by the 6th year is 27.5 million pounds per year.

I read he was on 555,000 pounds per week? Not sure if it’s accurate but would be pretty close. Football players don’t get quoted as per year, per week sounds more evil!

After spending big on the first galacticos experiment, Real Madrid had a massive increase in revenue as a result. Sport is a business and these huge fees and wages just reflect the enormous worldwide popularity of the sport. When that changes so will the sums being spent on players.

It’s hard to argue with.

Better to pay $60 mill for a 22 year old, who you might have for 5 years and then be able to sell at a tidy profit (maybe even double your money), than pay $30 mill for a 32 year old, who you might have for one or two years (if they don’t break down first) and who will then be worth absolutely nothing.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/jun/17/manchester-united-transfer-policy

break over ,,, back to work

Heaven forbid that a working class boy or impoverished kid from the Third World should get paid that much? Instead of describing their wages as per week we should try per minute instead. That should get an even more emotional response.

In the end, both Ronaldo and the CEO of XYZ Ltd negotiate and accept remuneration deals put to them by their current or potential employers. The employers offer what they can afford to pay, and also what they think their employee is worth to them. The employers have expectations of success, and likewise the employee wants a certain portion of the salary guaranteed, to ensure they are still well paid for their services even when success is lessened or not achieved due to things out of their control (such as injury or recession).

It’s like buying a house, where the price is determined not by the buyer or seller, but by the market. If the market says Ronaldo is worth a A$163M transfer fee, then so he is. Man Utd obviously agree he’s worth that amount, otherwise they would’ve rejected the offer. And if Real Madrid can afford to pay A$163M, then what’s the problem??