Written by Elliot Carpenter; edited by Charlotte Lewis
Evidently, a lot has changed since the prime of the late, great, Pelé. In 1960, the average wage of a footballer in the top flight was £20 a week - roughly £450 a week in today’s money. Now, the average Premier League player is paid just over 60k a week. George Best, arguably the best player to ever come out of Britain, was paid the equivalent of £16,900 per week in his heyday. Cristiano Ronaldo will be making nearly 5k more than that per hour at Al-Nassr. An immense amount of money is being poured into football - which isn’t all good news.
Players’ wages aren’t the only figures to soar. Player value has shot up, under the increased spending of club owners. Roman Abramovich’s Chelsea has spent 425 million euros in the 22/23 season at the time of writing. Supporters of Chelsea, or more likely Manchester City, would argue that huge investments into football is a good thing. Owners ploughing money into the club has enticed the world’s best players - allowing them to lift the UCL trophy. In a way, this is only fair; these players are so talented, it is only right that they get the chance to leave their country and win some meaningful silverware for their CVs. Christian Pulisic, for example, would be hugely limited being stuck in the US ‘soccer’ teams, but managed to become the first US international to feature in a UCL final with Chelsea. Undoubtedly, this is a major step forward for international football, and the joy that fans receive watching world-class players represent their club is unmatched. However, this might be making the competition a little unfair.
After a recent run of poor results for Liverpool, a lot of fans have taken to blaming club owners - FSG. They argue that their lack of spending and investment into the club is causing their drop in form - no midfielders signed in nearly three years has left them with an ageing gap in the middle of the pitch. More recently, we’re seeing developments around a potential bid from Qatar. Only a couple of months ago we were hearing massive criticism of the country for their disregard for human rights at the World Cup - now Liverpool fans are left hoping for a takeover of their own club, purely so they can compete with the likes of Manchester City and Newcastle in terms of spending. City has, in many ways, ‘bought the league’ in recent years. Since the summer of 2016, City has had a net spend of £581.8 million - Liverpool’s is just £240 million. It goes without question that their four PL titles are of course partially down to Guardiola himself, but if you can have double the money that your main competitor has, you’re expected to win. It’d be embarrassing if you didn’t. Football has become a money game - no longer a game of tactics and skill, but a question of who can spend the most. It’s almost normalised cheating. What is the point of club academies if all big teams simply throw tens of millions away on whomever they wish? There’s no need.
Football used to be a working-class sport. It still should be. Now, the average Premier League ticket is around £60. How much further can we alienate working-class fans? Liverpool and Manchester City were once clubs for the locals - tourism might be good for the country’s economy but distancing fans from the club only makes the game less meaningful. Fewer regulars filling Anfield with passion and more one-off tourists crowding the stands are shrinking the atmosphere down to be embarrassingly minute. Football is being snatched away by the rich and ultimately, its spirit will be drained. You hear more cockney accents in Old Trafford nowadays than you do in Essex. Fans are simply those who can afford to go to the game - no longer the locals who have always supported the team, the family with a long tradition of backing them - simply tourists who are willing to pay £60 a ticket.
I think every fan of Liverpool is at a sharp turning point. The argument that a club should hold pride in their identity and value the fans more than anything else is slowly quietening down. They know that if they uphold that value forever, they’ll see their club slip further and further down the table. And so, out of that passion, they’re almost forced to support a Qatar bid. It’s a horrible decision to make for many. And surely, many clubs will follow suit over the upcoming years to eventually rebalance the table once the majority of top clubs are owned by a foreign investor. It’s only a matter of time. For now, the only voice fans have is through supporting their local. A good club values its community, and fans may feel more listened to by supporting teams in League One and Two. A team shouldn’t be all about signing bench-warmers for £100m, but about passion and bringing a community together. And that just doesn’t seem possible in the top English teams anymore.
Pelé image courtesy of the BBC
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