Football: it’s all about the money
Kaching: Roman Abramovich pictured here in 2007. Since taking over in 2003, the Russian oligarch has pumped millions of his riches into Chelsea. (Getty Images)
‘I play for the money. Football’s not my passion’ – Benoit Assou-Ekotto
Money has without a doubt shaped football for the past decade at least. The game is full of players who have turned into millionaires, billionaire owners who invest countless amounts of money into clubs and fans who spend thousands each year in order to see “money ball” at work.
Football was once a game that was based on passion; the players were all about the game – that’s all they cared about. It was a beautiful sight to see, when winning and losing mattered more than the money. When if you weren’t passionate about the game, you weren’t a true footballer and fan of the game.
However, that’s all gone out the window in the past decade. Now, it’s a club’s dream that some billionaire (or millionaire) comes up and wants to invest in the club. He becomes the owner and splashes money left, right and centre in order to take a team (no matter how good or bad) to the top.
An almost innumerable amount of money has been put into football since 2003 and it’s that year that Roman Abramovich took over Chelsea Football Club. It is that same Russian oligarch who is mostly blamed for the huge change in football. Some would consider Abramovich a “pioneer of the new football” or “the champion of the football industry”.
While I’m a Chelsea fan, who certainly appreciates everything Abramovich n has done for the club, I do believe that he has ruined football more than he has helped it. It’s created a negative effect; it’s created an image that no longer portrays football as a sport, but as an industry.
Since we’re talking about the billionaire, let’s look at how much he’s spent on transfers since he took over in summer of 2003:
2003-04: £121.3 million
2004-05: £92.2 million
2005-06: £54.2 million
2006-07: £66 million
2007-08: £50.5 million
2008-09: £24.2 million
2009-10: £21.5 million
2010-11: £95.8 million
2011-12: £71.55 million
2012-13: £86.5 million
Total amount: £683.75 million. (Some other numbers have it at around £700 million.)
Now of course, there are sales involved that have not been counted, but Chelsea rarely make a profit on a player, so the total investment (with sales) is without a doubt above £600 million at the very least. That is an insane amount of money.
It wasn’t until the 2011-12 season (Abramovich’s ninth season at Chelsea) when the club reported their first profitable year – the amount was £1.4 million. The season before, Chelsea reported a £67.7 million loss. After adding everything together, at least £600 million spent on transfers and an additional £400 million spent on other things (wages mostly), it is said that the total investment into Chelsea since 2003 is £1 billion. I wasn’t lying when I told you it was an insane amount.
However, Abramovich doesn’t stand alone when it comes to spend big money in football. You have the following Presidents/Owners: Florentino Perez (Real Madrid), Sandro Rosell (Barcelona), Sheikh Mansour (Manchester City), Qatar Investment Authority/Nasser Al-Khelaifi (PSG) and Dmitry Rybolovlev (AS Monaco) who have also splashed the cash into their respective football clubs.
Manchester City (since 2008): £930.4 million (at the very least).
AS Monaco (since 2012): £106.1 million
PSG (since 2011): £270 million
Liverpool (since 2007): £317 million
Barcelona (since 2003): £800.35 million
Real Madrid (since 2003): £815.2 million
Bayern Munich (since 2012): £112 million
Anzhi Makhachkala (since 2012): £105 million
All of this together and you have £4.46 billion (£4,456,050,000) among nine teams. It is absolutely mind boggling how much money has been pumped into football.
Now, some of you are probably looking at those numbers and wondering what I’m trying to get to. Well, what the main points are how football, as a whole, has been ruined by being turned from a sport into an industry/business and how England has suffered from it.
England has disappointed in major tournaments for some time now. They haven’t been to a major tournament final since 1966 World Cup (beat Germany 4-2), they failed to qualify for Euro 2008, had a quick exit in South Africa 2010 and in Ukraine-Poland 2012.
England, especially when compared to Italy, Spain and Germany, has been completely outdone by each country in major tournaments (both club and country). Italian, Spanish and German teams have won the Champions League more than England. Let’s go back in time to 1992: