It’s a familiar pay-to-win script. Spend money that guarantees access to the highest level of club football, see off clubs on less of a budget.
It makes no sense to spend hundreds of millions in transfer fees for a squad that can’t beat teams on less of a budget.
It’s those escalating transfer fees, driving unsavoury practices which lead to the exploitation of players, that have helped to destroy the competitive balance between the top and the rest and that football is ever more the domain of the richest. This is why the end to the transfer fee may have arrived.
Rarely a day goes by without talking about a player and a transfer fee. Every day there is speculation about potential transfer fees for potential future transfers.
Transfer fees bring the whole game into some sort of disrepute because nobody is worth the money that is paid for players.
PSG’s Neymar broke transfer records (AP Photo/Kamil Zihnioglu)
John cost Everton $130 million to trigger a release and transfer him from Benfica. David cost Marseille $100 million to trigger a release and transfer him from Parma. No-one can point at a part of the Everton man’s body and tell us it’s worth $30 million more than the Marseille man.
Is he 30 per cent better? How would you even go about proving someone is 30 per cent better? There is nothing tangible that either justifies the difference between the two fees or the level of the fees.
With that, an idea was raised for putting the brakes on fees, including the use of an algorithm, or set of mathematical rules, to calculate the value of players and is being given consideration. Also, capping transfer fees to 5 per cent of club revenue.
As fees spiral ever upwards, unless a player has scored four goals and saved somebody’s life by the end of it, people may feel they’re not really worth the money. It is a mental discomfort between the football financial world and the normal world in which we live.
In a FIFA report titled, White Paper: Transfer System Reform 2018, the original rules had not intended to create a transfer fee market and the authors called for a renewed focus on solidarity rather than speculation.
Among the multiple failings in the current system, one of the main is various abuses at the expense of young players and the integrity of competitions.
There are few if any, other professions where the company you work for demands an arbitrary fee, to release your registration with that company, so you can negotiate another contract of employment elsewhere. You’d be outraged if you worked for Big W and they had the right to deny you the chance to take a job at K Mart and demanded a fee from K Mart in order to let you go.
It’s like cigarettes and lung cancer. At some point, someone joined the dots. Where are we at in joining those dots for our issue?
In Australia, we don’t have transfer fees. If a player or club break their contract then the remainder of the contract is paid by the guilty party.
Theo
Roar Rookie
You've put thought into the post and the idea that players will get more wages as a result of removing transfer fees and a possible solution to rewarding player development. If the money is there for transfers then put that money into wages and pay the person who counts, the player. Without players, there is no game so the players should be getting the bulk, the 22 on the field and benches.
peeeko
Roar Guru
thanks, i will have a read. its a shame that issues like that dont get more discussion
At work
Roar Rookie
I wasn’t necessarily saying that’s how the consulting job market operates, just saying that’s closer to the mark compared with a normal permanent employee. The football market is a different beast to normal employment though, factoring in injuries and movement in form warrants the necessity of contracts to protect both club and player. Nem your suggestion of a multiple is still a transfer fee though, it’s just a controlled one.
Nemesis
Guest
That's absolutely nonsense about consultants moving jobs. It simply is not how the labour market operates for consulting, or any job. If a consultant is employed by BCG and he/she gets head-hunted to go to McKinsey, there is no Transfer Fee paid by McKinsey to BCG. There will, most likely, be a certain minimum period the employee must give before leaving. However, in this type of case I've seen the original firm tell the employee to move out on the day he/she gives notice. As I said: the common law of contract will allow a party who suffers from any significan breach of contract to seek financial restitution. In football, this could be easily codified by forcing every player contract to have a Buy Out Clause that is based on some multiple of the remaining value of the Player's Contract. As the player's contract approaches the end, the value of his contract approaches $0.
At work
Roar Rookie
I don’t see a problem with transfers fees, and your analogy about an employee moving from Kmart to BigW doesn’t compute as they would be permanent employees. A better example would be a consultant at company A is on a 2 yr contract, that essentially provides the consultant with security of 2 yrs employment which the company A has to honour. If company B wants that consultant bad enough they can buy out that contract and pay company A a fee, of which the consultant would receive a cut. And in this situation obviously the consultant needs to agree to the move. Without transfer fees I think the players would be worse off as they would lose the security of longer term contracts.
LachyP
Guest
If a player is worth $x million more than his salary for the period why aren't players that run their salaries down worth $x more when they sign a contract? I genuinely don't understand the economic fundamentals of the system. I know players usually get a percentage of a transfer fee, as do previous clubs, third parties etc in different cases but it still doesn't make sense that players don't wield their power more.
Nemesis
Guest
I find the whole concept of Transfer Fees to be absolutely abhorrent. We are buying & selling human beings like chattels? How is this allowed to happen? The Law of Contract has relief mechanisms to allow compensation to ensure a party to a contract is not left disadvantaged from a breach of a legal contract. That should be the extent of restitution for players, or club, when a contract is terminated early. 18 months ago I wrote an opinion piece offering my thoughts on how to abolish the Transfer Fees, whilst ensuring clubs and players are properly compensated when a contract is terminated. https://www.theroar.com.au/2017/03/09/football-transfer-fees-become-ridiculous-need-go/