I absolutely love sport. It has been a part of my life as long as I can remember. My father was a huge GAA man and that’s where it started. We went to matches every Sunday- and sometimes Saturdays and Sundays. I played loads too but I wasn’t very good. But I loved it. Even though the GAA was number one, there were other sports too. I saw Soccer on TV and watching the likes of George Best, Bobby Charlton and Dennis Law I began my interest in Manchester United. We also watched Horse Racing and Golf when it was on as well.
To this day I love sport- and probably even more now. The unpredictability of it, the excitement and enjoyment that it brings to so many people, the effort and sacrifice that people in all sports make to get to the top is incredible and without it there would be a huge void in my life. But one thing that is annoying me more and more in recent years is the vulgar and totally obscene amounts of money that are involved in most sports at the top level. What’s more frustrating is that there is never any meaningful comment or debate about the morality of it on any TV, or Radio programmes, or in the newspapers or indeed online either.
The sport that has probably stuck closest to it’s core values is the GAA, but don’t get me wrong, there is huge money involved there too, but the fact remains that most of the people involved in the GAA are there in a voluntary capacity. Of course there are a large number of well paid full time GAA people and there are plenty of well paid managers and hangers-on involved with some teams, but it has not been affected as badly as some other sports.
In Tennis, Golf, Soccer, Formula One, and in the American sports like American Football, Baseball, Basketball and Ice Hockey the sums of money swirling around are mind blowing. There is never any debate about it at all. Take Golf for example. Last week Rory McIlroy signed a 100 million dollar deal with Taylor Made to supply him with clubs and balls over the next 10 years. This money will be going to a man who is already reckoned to be worth well over 100 million. In fact it is reckoned that before he is finished his career he will comfortably pass the one billion mark.
I looked at the US PGA list of career money earners on their tour this week. The top earner is Tiger Woods at 110 million. The 100th placed player on that list is Graham McDowell at 15.2 million! Remember too that this is before any of these people pick up more millions for various endorsements.
We heard in recent weeks that Zlatan Ibrahimovic was paid 350,000 sterling per week over the past season. Not alone that, he was paid 147,000 sterling for every goal he scored. Jose Murihno the Manchester United manager is paid 480,000 Sterling per week yet he spent the whole season whinging and complaining- and I am a Manchester United fan. Paul Pogba’s agent was allegedly paid 41 million sterling for his part in the transfer of Pogba to United.
What I’d like to know is why is the obscenity of what these people are paid never properly discussed or debated in the mainstream media? Is it that they are all in it together and they are all getting a piece of the action- however small?
Surely these figures (and I could quote many many more) point to a situation where it morally wrong to hand any one person so much wealth and do it again and again and again. I know it goes on in business and in the commercial world too, but I am writing this as a sports fan and what they might be able to do to stop the madness. I could trot out statistics all day long like 29,000 children under the age if five dying of hunger every single day, but it’s a total waste of time.
I have no problems with high achievers in whatever field they are in getting well paid for what they do. But surely there must be a limit beyond which it is unacceptable. At least let’s debate it. So come on RTE, BBC, Sky Sports, Newstalk and others. Lets’s put it out there for discussion and hear what these people have to say, how they can justify it and how they feel about it. It may not achieve anything- but at least let’s have the debate.
