Urban Central Roundtable: Exorbitant fees in the European football transfer market; the causes, the problems, knock on effects on finance and footballer long term.
David B.S. — Urban Central Editor and Resident Pragmatist.
Truth be told, reading about the exorbitant price tags football clubs place on their players with only a season of fame under their belt, such as Mbappe, doesn’t freak me; football today is a business and these clubs are enterprises out with profit making motives — the higher the demand for their players, the higher the price-just a simple principle of economics.
Prior to the 2013–14 football season, only players with “world best” credentials attracted price tags above £50million; it’s a different ball game today. There are a lot of factors responsible for this change in tide but chief amongst them are: Real Madrid (constant desire for galaticos); FC Barcelona (rivalry with Real); Oil wealth (Man.City, PSG, Monaco, et al); Chinese football clubs (Hulk, Oscar, Tevez, et al); American Football League, English press, improved EPL TV right money; FIFA financial Fair Play Rules; fall in crude oil price; a lack of SAF & Wenger type coaches; reduced number of natural born strikers; the constant fans’ pressure for star names (Arsenal's purchase of Lacazette) and desperation, amongst others.
Should the prices be reduced?
Demanding for a cut on the price tags of players is like asking for an increase in the price of crude oil, which to me is impossible — for now. These new club owners are businessmen who aim to maximize the market and make constant profits. So, these crazy price tags may keep rising high till the lunatic asylum becomes too sane for it to dwell in.
We haven’t seen exorbitant price tags yet till in a season or two to come, Enyimba FC of Aba enter the market for a player worth £100Million; I’ll beat any who disagrees with me. Lol
Duminiyk — Urban Central Writer and Resident CR7 Stan.
Most clubs want to be elite and by that you have to buy the star players, football today can not be compared with football of yesterday, there is alot of money pouring in from all angles, endorsements, investments contracts etc,they have no choice than to spend big. Fans may also be held responsible for this, most fans are interested in seeing star players play for them than academy graduates, they believe that these star players will give them trophies and titles and as such the club should bring them by all means. So clubs spending big is inevitable, especially for teams that seem desperate. Smaller clubs take advantage of this and slam outrageous price tags on their players, although no club entirely misses a star player forever, with time they get to adapt without that player and move on; it is true that no player is bigger than a club.
However the exorbitant prices we see now are caused by inflation, clubs that do not have a rich or elite history are striving to attain those heights, they believe spending and getting quality players will take them to the very top. Although this may be true, it’s also important for clubs to look within and develop their younger players, it’s cheaper and they usually earn the utmost loyalty and respect from these younger players. We have seen players stay in a club for their whole career, and these players become the idols of these clubs, some of these players are not just the club’s great they are also the game’s greats.
When a club spends heavily to get a player there is every tendency for another club to later on spend double the amount to get that same player, and of course the players and the club may not have any choice because they could both benefit from the transaction.
I believe that players should be groomed and be imbibed with a club’s philosophy from the very beginning, I also believe that good players should be bought in order to strengthen a team, however I don’t believe in most of the price tags set on average players these days. It is disturbing.
Nico — Urban Central Editor and Resident Peacemaker
What is exorbitant? What is excessive? If we. carry out a cursory Google search we’d find a definition peppered with any of the following words or phrases: going far beyond what is fair, reasonable, or expected : too high, expensive, etc.
With the above in perspective, laced with my transfer know hows, thanks to countless Football Manager campaigns — don’t @ me — I believe I can contribute to the debate surrounding the. exorbitant. fees in the European transfer market.
First the facts; these days football clubs generate astronomical sums of money via everything from shirts sales to television rights. There also exists the clubs that are Bank rolled by. Rich Oligarchs who are willing to fork out insane amounts to sign the best players.
Secondly, the words excessive and exorbitant do not exist in the mind frames of coaches who want to sign the best players -except you are Arsene Wenger.
We must also understand that there is more than meets the eyes when these transfer deals go down as a player’s valuation is determined by all but not limited to; the asking fee, his release clause, perceived skill or skill set, there is the issue of his brand, his sponsors , the purchaser, his marketability as regards shirt sales and the time left to run on his contract. Therefore clubs are willing to match the asking price for younger or marketable players because they can almost guarantee recouping the sum.
With all these in consideration we can begin to get the picture of why certain player valuations are off the charts.
And for all the hullabaloo regarding this matter it may be interesting to note that a recent KPMG study shows that clubs are far from violating the financial fair play rules as prescribed by UEFA.
One look at online chatter relating to transfer fees and you will discover that there’s a divide between folks who believe funds should be splashed out to sign players regardless of the valuation and those who are vanguards of frugality disguised as evaluation experts.
The Bottom Line is this; transfer fees will continue to rise astronomically fam.
Why? Football clubs will always find the money to finance these deals. However I don’t think the debate on excessive spending or over valuation is going anywhere, it is here to stay.
PennedMusingsNG Urban Central Editor and Practicing Stoic
Alvaro Morata — £79million
Andrea Belotti — £60m
Naby Keita –£70m
While I might be a professional cynic, In each of the above listed cases, there lies a serious betrayal of logic and reasoning;
- Until 3 seasons ago when Juventus took a chance on Morata, he was a castilla player. In 2015/2016 season, he was a bench warmer for Juventus before Madrid resigned him. Last season, he was a bench warmer, AGAIN! But then, he managed to score 20 goals in all competition. So, he’s now worth £79million. Did he win the Balon D’or?
- Andrea Belotti was relatively obscure to the rest of Europe until the 2016/2017 season when he hit like a wave only to fade away toward the end of the season. But then suddenly, he’s worth £60million. How? He’s not even first choice for Italy, I think.
- Naby Keita was signed for around £13.5million in summer 2016. Fast forward summer 2017, Leipzig want £70million for him — just 20million shy of the world record signing, another talented, but grossly overpriced fashionista. He wasn’t even the oughtright best player in Germany last season?
Tell me, where are logic and reason in that? It seems even they are hiding at the site of such betrayal. They probably don’t believe their eyes.
The problem with this situation is excessive discretion possessed by selling clubs. Argue for increasing revenue cap of football clubs all you want, they don’t explain this phenomenon that is currently the wave of stupidity that has hit.
The worst thing is people try to use market value and inflation to justify this ludicrous trend, but they’re nothing but facades. Because Madrid says Morata is worth 70million doesn’t mean he’s worth it. Matter of fact, market value is what the selling club says it is. The purchasing club has to decide if the player is worth it. And like the preface says, inflation is the greatest sham to justify this trend with. It will fail against reasonably and tested parameters of finance.
It hit a head this summer when Vicinus Junior, a 16 year old who’d only played once for Sao Paolo was signed by Madrid for about £34million. N’Golo Kante was signed for about the same figure in summer 2016, he’d just won the League as one of the best players for Leicester City. This is anathema; a hugely detrimental culture ruining the pristine nature of the game and will over time probably impact finance and economy, when football clubs spend more than Countries.
This trend might have been on for a while, but I think the signing of Andy Carroll in winter 2011 brought everything to a head. Things have spiralled out of control since then. Of course, we all know how that ended.
Football clubs might be making a killing right now on TV deals, franchising and merchandize, but players are also grossly overvalued. While I’m not saying gold is precious than human life, football talent isn’t human life.
I knew something was wrong when I heard Dortmund had a £61million agreement with PSG for Aubameyang and I thought Dortmund stupid. That’s how much things have derailed figures are now devoid of any form of reason and will capitulate when placed against metrics of age, talent, pedigree, other worthy going rates, age, pedigree, ability and so forth.
FIFA and other major governing bodies should definitely find a way to checkmate this trend before it gets out of control because NOTHING IN THE WORLD makes Gylfi Siggurdsson worth £35million. At Urban Central, we will propose a solution in another article, soon to be published, please watch out. It includes;
Complete abolition of the shambolic Financial Fair Play rules that’s about as effective as my mother’s attempts at preventing us from watching TV after 10pm, and replace with something more stringent and tight fisted.
A well thought, all round regulation to determine fees based on metrics of talent, pedigree, age, numbers, awards and stance. We will propose this regulation for the critiquing of our readers hopefully within a short while after the publication of this piece.
Thank you.
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