Many of us are left with a bitter taste in the aftermath of a jaded world cup campaign, we were promised so much but nothing was delivered. Our taste bitters even further at the fact that each of the players and our manager have come home wrapped comfortably in their oversized paycheques and premiership status.
Something that seems worse than our abysmal performance and the ignorance of our players is the fact that, after aggressive re-negotiations over his contract, Fabio Capello will remain as the England manager for two more years. The contract now states that regardless of performance he will stay in his multi million pound job for the remainder of the contract or until he chooses to resign. Now he can relax, safe with the knowledge that he will not realistically have to deliver anything again before the next tournament and even then expectations won’t be high. In order to expel him from his contract the FA would have to pay out a figure in the region of 12 million pounds as well as the rest of his salary payments for the remainder of his contract.
This raises the question yet again of the ridiculous salaries of today’s footballers and the management staff. They might well be worth the money when they are scoring goals and lifting trophies but otherwise they are undeniably overpaid. Many have argued that the introduction of performance based contracts would act as the best possible incentive to any player or manager as their ‘hard earned’ cash would indeed need to be ‘hard earned’.
Most football players and managers would not go hungry should they miss a couple of paycheques, in fact many would never have an empty fridge due to lucrative endorsements so why not give them a ‘no win no fee’ contract. Although the possibility of no paycheque is not realistic, the clubs could offer a base rate of pay for every team member with an attractive bonus scheme for good performance, this would make sure every player on the pitch gave it their all and those on the bench would train even harder to get the chance to have a shot. A contract could even state that if a player or manager was simply not performing they could face the sack or get sold to another club.
The reality is that today’s football is plagued by a generation of who are more eager to chase gold rather than lift it. Contracts and salaries based on performance would have to be introduced across a whole league rather than one team and even that could see many players jumping ship to warmer shores and deeper pockets.
Camisetas Deportivo Alaves Noticias de Fútbol – Diario de Noticias de Navarra