Commercialisation

Football is such a lucrative business these days. We often find that we are losing values within sport just to appease the People who are providing the cash. For example, there are discussions for premier league games to kick off on Sunday at 11am to appease the Asian watching communities. There are even talks to get rid of 3pm games altogether. Many fans these days are really upset at how commercialisation seems to have come at a cost to the true game. Some would argue that since the Friday night fixtures and Monday night fixtures were introduced, the quality of games have decreased. However, Football wasn’t always such a lucrative business and it certainly never used to be so commercial.

Money is now a huge part of the game whether we like it or not. In 1961 the average wage of a footballer was just 20 pounds a week. Compared to in 2016 where footballers on average earn 2.4 million a year. Furthermore, Sky sports current tv deal is worth an incredulous 10million a game. This is crazy money for a sport which had such humble beginnings in the 19^th century.  A lot of top players are now choosing to join uncompetitive leagues with the promise of huge wages meaning a lot of players in their prime are being wasted. A good example of this is Carlos Tevez. Tevez is earning £615,000-a-week in China against players no where near his level. He stated in the past ‘I don’t want to play anymore. I’m tired of football but also the people who work in football. I don’t want to play anymore and I’m talking seriously. Football is only about money and I don’t like it. I would love to have my old life back old my neighborhood as I don’t like my way of life today’. The effect money and commercialistion has had on Tevez is a prime example of why fans are upset. A player previously heading for greatness, settled for money. I believe that many footballers will follow suit and many of the leagues will find it hard to compete financially. In addition, I believe that the sport itself will start to be adversely affected by this, not just the players.

According to Holt (1990, p12) Modern sport according to received wisdom was invented in the mid-Victorian years- the 1850s to 1880s.  However, since then so much has changed. Before all the money was introduced into the game, many players used to play for the shirt. Now it’s all about following the money. Players are happy to sit on the bench and earn £100,000 grand a week instead of earning less and getting game time. However, it would be very naïve to say all footballers are like this. Many players still love the game for what it is. But how long will that last? With more and more money getting pumped into the game, how long before even the most hard working down to earth heads get turned?

However, there are those that would argue football is progressing in the right direction. Compare a game of football from the mid 90’s to now and you can see that players are a lot more physically fit and managers and coaches are a lot more tactically aware. Although as I noted in a previous essay a huge consequence of commercialisation is that the divide between elite and amateur performers is growing with the divide set to increase more over the coming years. This is very true and can be seen today in the Uk Football scene. Grassroots football has suffered as a result of this also. A good example of this is how England do very well at youth levels versus rivals but then those rival players stay on and become better whereas the young English talents are loaned to league 1 and championship teams as managers have so much pressure as a result commercialistion to win everything and would rather trust a multimillion pound star then a young talent.

In conclusion I believe that even though teams are reaping the benefits of commercialisation, the fans and young players are suffering as a result and some would say the National side is suffering the most.

Reference List

Richard Holt (1990), Sport and the British: A Modern History, Oxford: Clarendon Press

Bibliography

Rob Steen – Floodlights and Touchlines, A History of Spectator Sport (2014)

Bill Murray – Football, A History of the World Game (1994)