Sunday, August 9, 2009

Big Spenders

When the big clubs go spending big there is an excitement in my daily online soccer readings. The truth is it is short term excitement. This is never good for soccer when the big teams are spending at such an extreme. It creates a great disparity between the haves and have nots. I like seeing the big four play because of the quality and skill of the match, but I also enjoy seeing the underdog rise up. The big spending I believe makes this less and less like.

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My comments were spurred on by the following article below I finished reading…

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LONDON (AP)—European soccer’s governing body is concerned Real Madrid and Manchester City have distorted the transfer market by paying big fees for new players. Real Madrid has spent $271 million to obtain Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka and Karim Benzema. Backed by wealthy Abu Dhabi owners, Manchester City paid about $170 million to acquire Carlos Tevez, Roque Santa Cruz, Gareth Barry, Emmanuel Adebayor and Kolo Toure.“I would say in this financial climate, it is surprising—a little bit destabilizing of the market,” David Taylor, general secretary of the Union of European Football Associations, said Tuesday in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp. “It is certainly raising the ante in terms of the player costs, in terms of the general market place, which is not a thing that gives us a great deal of comfort in these difficult times.”UEFA president Michel Platini has called paying for transfers by taking on debt “financial doping.”With Leeds still struggling in the third tier of English football five years after being relegated from the Premier League with huge debts, Taylor highlighted the danger of spending huge sums.“We’ve seen what has happened in recent years with a number of very high-profile clubs—Leeds United for example,” he said. “They fell into serious financial difficulties by overextending themselves.”Newcastle faces challenges both on and off the field after being relegated in May. Just days ahead of its League Championship opener, it has no manager and has been unable to trade players because owner Mike Ashley is trying without success to sell the club.Ashley bought Newcastle for $270 million two years ago and paid another $222 million to reduce its debt. But relegation cut the club’s value and has left him trying to sell it for $169 million.“There are stories concerning some English clubs that are of significant concern,” Taylor said. “There are a number of English clubs where the value of the club itself has fallen significantly.”

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