This is Obscene

[david63]

In my opinion it is totally obscene that Wayne Rooney, or anyone else for that matter, is paid £300k per WEEK - for what - at the most three hours work.

Not only is it more than twice as much as the Prime Minister get paid in a year it is more than a lot of people will earn in a lifetime.

[Quizzical Bob]

I agree, but would you say the same about a pop star, Elton John, say?

[Kenmo1]

I totally agree. Obscene is the only way to describe it.

[david63]

I agree, but would you say the same about a pop star, Elton John, say?

Yes

[Romig1]

I totally agree with your sentiment. It is totally obscene, but I would take issue with your assessment of the hours "worked".

[jay-ell71]

What exactly do they do with all that money? It is a nonsense.



I assume a great deal of it is paid to the Government in taxes……It could probably be enough to repair all the potholes in the country?????

[Quizzical Bob]

What exactly do they do with all that money? It is a nonsense.



I assume a great deal of it is paid to the Government in taxes……It could probably be enough to repair all the potholes in the country?????

There are various methods to reduce the tax paid, image rights, special pension provisions...

[oldbluefox]

It is indeed obscene and whilst I do not agree with bankers' bonuses it knocks their rewards into a cocked hat. Unfortunately this will continue for as long as people are prepared to pay for the privilege of watching him and following his team (and others in the same bracket).
Unfortunately it has a knock-on effect on other teams which are ill equipped to cope with such wage demands.

The same applies to 'pop' stars. Personally I wouldn't dream of paying £100+ a ticket to see anybody sing, no matter who they are but there are many who will. For as long as people pay they will command high 'wages' and employ clever accountants to make sure they keep most of it.

[Silver_Shiney]

IMHO, it is beyond obscene. I hate football with a passion but had always been brought up to understand that it is a game. Why should people be paid for playing a game? I've got no problem with spectators paying to watch a match, as the infrastructure needs to be maintained, but the ridiculous amounts being paid to a bunch of nonces kicking a ball around cannot be justified by any stretch of even the most vivid imagination.

It is indeed obscene and whilst I do not agree with bankers' bonuses it knocks their rewards into a cocked hat. Unfortunately this will continue for as long as people are prepared to pay for the privilege of watching him and following his team (and others in the same bracket).
Unfortunately it has a knock-on effect on other teams which are ill equipped to cope with such wage demands.

The same applies to 'pop' stars. Personally I wouldn't dream of paying £100+ a ticket to see anybody sing, no matter who they are but there are many who will. For as long as people pay they will command high 'wages' and employ clever accountants to make sure they keep most of it.

Banker's bonuses are also ridiculous. When my SIL worked for RBS, he was in middle management and single-handedly wrote a new MIS system for them from scratch. It identified savings of over a billion pounds. Top level management were raking in bonuses of hundreds of thousands for wrecking the company. His bonus - £27.

"Pop" stars are somewhat in a different category. Most people can get up and sing - I've got no time for boy/girl "bands" who rake in huge sums for warbling while the backing musicians go unnoticed. It takes skill to play an instrument well - far more so than kicking a ball around - so I've got less of a problem with the high earnings received by musicians. I really wanted to go and see the Trans Siberian Orchestra when they played Hammersmith recently, but couldn't justing the £35 ticket, plus travel and accommodation. Yes, it's a lot to go and see a concert/gig, but there's the hire of the hall, wages for the sound crew/stage crew, the cost of ferrying all the equipment from one venue to another - the band certainly won't be trousering equal shares of £35 per ticket.

[Romig1]

IMHO, it is beyond obscene. I hate football with a passion but had always been brought up to understand that it is a game. Why should people be paid for playing a game? I've got no problem with spectators paying to watch a match, as the infrastructure needs to be maintained, but the ridiculous amounts being paid to a bunch of nonces kicking a ball around cannot be justified by any stretch of even the most vivid imagination.

It is indeed obscene and whilst I do not agree with bankers' bonuses it knocks their rewards into a cocked hat. Unfortunately this will continue for as long as people are prepared to pay for the privilege of watching him and following his team (and others in the same bracket).
Unfortunately it has a knock-on effect on other teams which are ill equipped to cope with such wage demands.

The same applies to 'pop' stars. Personally I wouldn't dream of paying £100+ a ticket to see anybody sing, no matter who they are but there are many who will. For as long as people pay they will command high 'wages' and employ clever accountants to make sure they keep most of it.

Banker's bonuses are also ridiculous. When my SIL worked for RBS, he was in middle management and single-handedly wrote a new MIS system for them from scratch. It identified savings of over a billion pounds. Top level management were raking in bonuses of hundreds of thousands for wrecking the company. His bonus - £27.

"Pop" stars are somewhat in a different category. Most people can get up and sing - I've got no time for boy/girl "bands" who rake in huge sums for warbling while the backing musicians go unnoticed. It takes skill to play an instrument well - far more so than kicking a ball around - so I've got less of a problem with the high earnings received by musicians. I really wanted to go and see the Trans Siberian Orchestra when they played Hammersmith recently, but couldn't justing the £35 ticket, plus travel and accommodation. Yes, it's a lot to go and see a concert/gig, but there's the hire of the hall, wages for the sound crew/stage crew, the cost of ferrying all the equipment from one venue to another - the band certainly won't be trousering equal shares of £35 per ticket.

Shiney, methinks you are being a tad dismissive about the level of skill required in order to play football at the highest level. Whilst I totally agree that the sums of money being paid are wholly excessive, I can't agree however, with your assessment of the relative merits of "kicking a ball around" and paying an instrument.
It could be argued conversely that it takes more skill to play football "well" than to make an instrument play a few notes - but this would be similarly dismissive of the musician - and similarly unfair.
In order to excel at either occupation, it takes years of practice, dedication and no little skill.

[Dark Knight]

agreed
but to add perspective old Rooney, doesn't come close to the real high earners in sport
Golfers, tennis players, motor racing drivers and the American sports of baseball and Football, far out strip Rooney
and he is not the even the highest paid footballer, that is Ronaldo and then Messi,
however on top of his salary, there will be untold millions in endorsements and sponsorship, so he could double his basic wage or more
interestingly the rights to televise the premiership etc has risen to over £2 billion a year, which is the real problem

[towny44]

I wonder what Sir Bobby Charlton thinks about Rooney's new contract, he was quite well paid in his day compared with the average worker, but nothing like the current differential.
I do like watching footy on Sky and so I am in a small way contributing to these huge wages, but I can only see more wannabe clubs falling into administration as a result of trying to compete, and probably more and more overseas players coming into our game at the expense of the national team.
I just hope he is paying a fair proportion of this huge sum in taxes and not employing hoardes of accountants to minimise his tax bill.

[gfwgfw]

This "bubble" has to burst sooner or later sadly to the detriment of the trillions of footie fans world wide

It only need the commercial TV companies to with draw their allegiance to the football scene

I agree whole heartily with the OP

[Frank Manning]

The trouble is that by paying that much to Wayne Rooney (and one can only guess at what others in the Premiership are being paid), they are impoverishing the smaller clubs some of whom have a proud football league heritage. I would not go as far as Silver Shiney, I can enjoy watching football from time to time, but I think that the English game is being ruined by money and too many foreign players. I agree with gfw, the bubble will burst soon, and they will run out of Russian millionaires to bail them out.

Ou MP was at our local supermarket yesterday helping to collect for the food bank. Before anyone says anything no it wasn't a photo opportunity, most people didn't recognise him, and the guy genuinely wanted to help. It did me a power of good to see him there because it evaporated a small part of my growing cynicism about politicians. Now Wayne, Steveie G, etc., how about evaporating my cynicism about footballers by playing a real part in helping England win something for a change.

[oldbluefox]

I wonder if he will 're-locate' to some tax haven to preserve his earnings. All credit to him if he doesn't.

The media led quite a campaign in favour of David Beckham getting a knighthood (and God forbid Victoria becoming a 'lady!!). Yet where is he choosing to invest his money in the formation of a new team? Not in this country. Very shortly we shall be seeing the bekilted Sir Sean Connery swaggering into the country from his tax haven to lend his weight behind the Scottish referendum, no different from a multitude of sports, film and pop stars who have pledged allegiance to this country but pay little or nothing into it.

Pardon me, but I have little time for their shows of fake nationalism.

[kaymar]

A quick calculation would suggest that before he gets out of bed on the first Monday morning of his new contract, Rooney will probably have earned more that day than Sir Tom Finney earned in his entire footballing career. Is that reasonable?

[Admiral of the Humber]

IMHO, it is beyond obscene. I hate football with a passion but had always been brought up to understand that it is a game. Why should people be paid for playing a game? I've got no problem with spectators paying to watch a match, as the infrastructure needs to be maintained, but the ridiculous amounts being paid to a bunch of nonces kicking a ball around cannot be justified by any stretch of even the most vivid imagination.

It is indeed obscene and whilst I do not agree with bankers' bonuses it knocks their rewards into a cocked hat. Unfortunately this will continue for as long as people are prepared to pay for the privilege of watching him and following his team (and others in the same bracket).
Unfortunately it has a knock-on effect on other teams which are ill equipped to cope with such wage demands.

The same applies to 'pop' stars. Personally I wouldn't dream of paying £100+ a ticket to see anybody sing, no matter who they are but there are many who will. For as long as people pay they will command high 'wages' and employ clever accountants to make sure they keep most of it.

Banker's bonuses are also ridiculous. When my SIL worked for RBS, he was in middle management and single-handedly wrote a new MIS system for them from scratch. It identified savings of over a billion pounds. Top level management were raking in bonuses of hundreds of thousands for wrecking the company. His bonus - £27.

"Pop" stars are somewhat in a different category. Most people can get up and sing - I've got no time for boy/girl "bands" who rake in huge sums for warbling while the backing musicians go unnoticed. It takes skill to play an instrument well - far more so than kicking a ball around - so I've got less of a problem with the high earnings received by musicians. I really wanted to go and see the Trans Siberian Orchestra when they played Hammersmith recently, but couldn't justing the £35 ticket, plus travel and accommodation. Yes, it's a lot to go and see a concert/gig, but there's the hire of the hall, wages for the sound crew/stage crew, the cost of ferrying all the equipment from one venue to another - the band certainly won't be trousering equal shares of £35 per ticket.

Shiney, methinks you are being a tad dismissive about the level of skill required in order to play football at the highest level. Whilst I totally agree that the sums of money being paid are wholly excessive, I can't agree however, with your assessment of the relative merits of "kicking a ball around" and paying an instrument.
It could be argued conversely that it takes more skill to play football "well" than to make an instrument play a few notes - but this would be similarly dismissive of the musician - and similarly unfair.
In order to excel at either occupation, it takes years of practice, dedication and no little skill.

Dear Romig, frankly I'm with Silver on this one. NO sportsman is morally worth the sort of money they are throwing at Rooney. I imagine it takes an incredible amount of skill and practice to become, for example an intensive care nurse, but nobody is chucking £300,000 a week at them. Rooney is an offensive, ill educated man who luckily for him happens to have been born with a skill for "kicking a ball around" and even more luckily for him there are millions of people around the world happy to support the morally indefencible and abhorrent entity that is the Premier League.

Regards
Rob aka AOTH

[Stephen]

Nice work if you can get it

[Romig1]

AOTH.

I think you have somewhat misinterpreted (or misrepresented) my post. I made no defence (and would never do so) of either Rooney himself, or his obscene contract. I simply took issue with Silver Shiney's dismissive post regarding the level of skill required to "kick a football about", a phrase which I felt was deliberately belittling and perjorative.
There's a lot of talented people around in many walks of life, some of that talent is born - but much is honed through years of dedication, be it in the medical profession, the musical sphere or the sports arena. I wish to denigrate none of these, and recognise them all. The merits of their renumeration and reward levels were never part of my post.

[oldbluefox]

What I fail to understand is the disdain shown when bankers' salaries, politicians' salaries or the salaries of captains of industry are mentioned, particularly from certain political elements. However they readily accept the astronomical salaries of pop stars, football players and media people who do less to generate the wealth and well being of the country.

Romig is right. You do have to be extremely talented to work at these levels in whichever sphere it is and all deserve to be rewarded for the skills and dedication they possess. There is a Carpenters song where he sings about people who say how lucky he is to be able to play the piano as he does. The lyrics then go on to explain it's not just luck, it's loads of practice and hard work.

Having said that £300,000pw, no matter what you are doing is undoubtedly obscene.

[Admiral of the Humber]

AOTH.

I think you have somewhat misinterpreted (or misrepresented) my post. I made no defence (and would never do so) of either Rooney himself, or his obscene contract. I simply took issue with Silver Shiney's dismissive post regarding the level of skill required to "kick a football about", a phrase which I felt was deliberately belittling and perjorative.
There's a lot of talented people around in many walks of life, some of that talent is born - but much is honed through years of dedication, be it in the medical profession, the musical sphere or the sports arena. I wish to denigrate none of these, and recognise them all. The merits of their renumeration and reward levels were never part of my post.

Dear Romig,

I'm afraid I'm still with Shiney. I don't dispute that some of the skills exhibited on the football field are indeed impressive and take many hours of practice to hone to such a level. However, it is "just kicking a ball about",and to be honest with a little application we could all do that to a reasonably competent level. But learning to play an instrument to the highest level, becoming a brain surgeon, etc. etc. etc...far fewer of us are capable of that.

Regards
Rob aka AOTH

[Delboy]

Of course these sums are obscene, but football is no longer just a game, it is a multi billion pound business, and these company are only paying what is the current market rate for a top player.

Most football clubs are run by company's and they would not invest such large sums in these players if they did not think they were going to get a return on their investments. The same way with TV company's who pay such vast sums to obtain the viewing rights.

You cannot blame Rooney, he is a the top of his profession, and like anybody at the top of their profession, is looking to be paid what is the current market rate for a top player. There are a lot of top sports professionals at the top of their profession who get paid far more than Rooney does.

Fortunately for Rooney the same as most top sports professionals, they were born with a particular talent, but it is a talent which requires a lot of skill, and as with any profession unless you keep practising those skills and keep up the hard work needed, you could soon find yourself out of a job, also the working life span of a top sports professional is much shorter than most.

Yes there are a lot of professions such nurses etc who also have a skill, which also need a lot of training and dedication, but in order for them to receive the kind of salary's of a top sportsmen, then there would need to be vast increases of investments in these professions, governments have no money, it all comes out of our taxes, are you prepared to pay more.

Of course these sums paid to footballers are obscene, but the millions of supporters who support football, do so out of choice, and it is up to them how they spend their disposable income. Not for me it has been many years since I went to watch a game of football.

[Kendhni]

I have no issue with anybody taking what they can get for the skills that they have.
However i think it is long overdue for the tax man to review the tax payments of sports people (many seem to rely on some very dubious tax practices) and their clubs/teams (many of whom are in large arrears with taxes). Some say this would wipe out many of the teams because so many are living way beyond what they can actually afford, but maybe that would help rebuild football around a much more sustainable model that provides far better value for money for its supporters.

[towny44]

AOTH.


Dear Romig,

I'm afraid I'm still with Shiney. I don't dispute that some of the skills exhibited on the football field are indeed impressive and take many hours of practice to hone to such a level. However, it is "just kicking a ball about",and to be honest with a little application we could all do that to a reasonably competent level. But learning to play an instrument to the highest level, becoming a brain surgeon, etc. etc. etc...far fewer of us are capable of that.

Regards
Rob aka AOTH

AOTH, Not wishing to dispute your assertion that kicking a ball about is less impressive than surgeon's or musicians skills, everyone is entitled to their own views on this, however I do take issue with your comment that anyone could do it.
The reasons that a small number of footballers can demand these obscene wages is that their skills are very limited, even in what is a fairly highly paid profession even down to Championship level, and sometimes beyond.
Furthermore I suspect that there are far more surgeon's and possibly even virtuoso musicians working in this country than there are top talented footballers, which is again why their rewards are so much higher.
Notwithstanding these views I do think these wages are gross and, like Ken, I do hope that the taxman is chasing them for every last penny.

[Delboy]

AOTH.


Dear Romig,

I'm afraid I'm still with Shiney. I don't dispute that some of the skills exhibited on the football field are indeed impressive and take many hours of practice to hone to such a level. However, it is "just kicking a ball about",and to be honest with a little application we could all do that to a reasonably competent level. But learning to play an instrument to the highest level, becoming a brain surgeon, etc. etc. etc...far fewer of us are capable of that.

Regards
Rob aka AOTH

AOTH, Not wishing to dispute your assertion that kicking a ball about is less impressive than surgeon's or musicians skills, everyone is entitled to their own views on this, however I do take issue with your comment that anyone could do it.
The reasons that a small number of footballers can demand these obscene wages is that their skills are very limited, even in what is a fairly highly paid profession even down to Championship level, and sometimes beyond.
Furthermore I suspect that there are far more surgeon's and possibly even virtuoso musicians working in this country than there are top talented footballers, which is again why their rewards are so much higher.
Notwithstanding these views I do think these wages are gross and, like Ken, I do hope that the taxman is chasing them for every last penny.

Towns 44

I agree with you I played a lot of football in my youth, both for the school and at county level, even played for the school which Alf Ramsey went to (not at the same time) the last manager to win the World Cup for England.

I could have practiced 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and would never have been anywhere near as good as any of these listed in the top 10 of highest paid footballers in the world, sorry the lists only go up to 2012, but still the sums are remarkable.

http://www.footy-boots.com/worlds-top-t ... otballers/