Mammon is the new god of football, and the two most powerful governing bodies — Fifa and Uefa — are zealous disciples. Instead of standing for the good of the game, they are locked in an “arms race” to enlarge their tournaments and maximise profit. The only leadership they show is setting the pace in a head-long rush towards gigantism and greed.
As Manchester United’s owners, the Glazer family, haggle — even among themselves — over history’s highest fee (about GBP5 billion, or $8.2 billion) for a sporting institution, the English Premier League’s (EPL) GBP130 million offer to the lower divisions is dubbed “crumbs from the rich man’s table”. It seems pertinent to ask: Is football closing in on its “let them eat cake” moment?
The so-called people’s game is now in the hands of people who make Marie Antoinette look like a pitchfork-wielding Marxist. The chasms between haves and hoi polloi might soon be measured in units of the best-paid player’s salary: GBP260,000 per day, GBP10,800 per hour and so on. No matter how sliced, Cristiano Ronaldo (now in Saudi Arabia) picks up more weekly than most world leaders earn in a year.
