Posted by Stephen Kuzner

By Stephen Kuzner - WFD Fan Correspondent

There is no La Liga this week so I figured I tackle a topic that seemed to come-up a bit regarding English national team players: are footballers paid too much? The easy thing to do is rant and rave about the millions that superstars make, how spoiled their riches make them, and lessen their desire for national team glory. But before we try to answer this question, we should first determine whether a footballer can be paid too much?

Companies hire employees. For the most part, employees are paid relative to the value that they provide. If you are hourly, the hours you work are the hours you are paid. If you do incentive-based work, you have a base salary and commissions/bonuses on top it. Or you may simply be salaried. Footballers don't really fit any of these three categories.

Clubs sign footballers. Companies sign CEO's and high-ranking executives. Footballers and CEOs for large clubs and companies make millions. Footballers have buyout clauses if they are to be transferred. CEOs have parachute payments if they are fired. These compensation-packages are huge because footballers and CEO are supposed to have the biggest impact on the bottom-line both in terms of revenues and results on the pitch.

Compensation-packages for employees, CEOs, and footballers are dictated to a certain degree by market-forces. If you can afford it, you will employ the best. For most companies and clubs that means either breaking-even, turning a profit, or going into debt to acquire funds to hire top talent. The problem comes when an organization hires someone via debt. This seems to be the prevailing model in football. Clubs pay more than what they earn for players and foot the bill on credit. Does this mean footballers are paid too much if clubs are going into debt or administration/bankruptcy to sign them? No. Footballers aren't paid too much.

The world of football is for the most-part a highly unregulated market. Adam Smith would be proud. If clubs want to run themselves into the ground, that's their prerogative until the FA, UEFA, FIFA, or some other governing body decide to regulate the transfer market and make them somewhat sane. The problem is not the footballers or the clubs, but rather football's guardian regulatory bodies that have sat-by and done little for decades.

Why would Cristiano Ronaldo turn-down €94m from Real Madrid? Why would Kaka turn-down €70M? Do they provide enough value to Real Madrid on the pitch or in terms of revenues to justify their absorbent transfer sums? Probably not. Madrid did not win any Silverware last year. In terms of revenues, I don't know the numbers, but I have a hard time believing Madrid is going to make €164m in new kit sales or additional TV revenue. It would very interesting to see Madrid do an audit by a 3rd party like Barcelona did with Deloitte. But that's another story. Regardless of where the money comes from, Madrid should be smart enough not to offer it, but Ronaldo and Kaka would also be crazy not to accept it.

The complexity of this question comes from moralizing it. Moralizing who merits millions in recompense is a fruitless endeavor. Movie-stars, footballers, and rock-stars will always make more than nurses, teachers, and police-officers. This is unfair, but market-forces are unfair and amoral in nature and unfortunately dictate what people are paid. Morality does not enter the equation except through market regulation.

So if you follow England and don't think the players are giving what they should because they have grown soft from their exclusive lifestyles, don't point your finger at them. The better place to point it is at the FA, UEFA, and FIFA who let transfer markets spiral out of control the last few decades.



Please send any feedback to skuzner@mail.com.