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| Our millionaire
footballers have become the focus of media attention. The accusation that our
young stars are going off the rails has become a dominant feature of media
news. Alleged rape, infidelity, punch-ups, binge drinking, racist beatings and
gaffes in taking required drug tests, have exposed our so called heroes, as
young men who appear to believe their fabulous wealth puts them above the law.
British society has changed with the demise of the aristocracy; young people
from ordinary backgrounds have become the affluent with prosperous opportunity.
A recent Sunday Times rich list included the 18- year old Everton player, Wayne
Rooney, who is predicted to be worth £25m by 2020. Football clubs are
turning these young men into commodities in such a way that they are treating
people in the same way. Young women gravitate to the superficiality of the footballers wealth; but in reality these are young men who have not yet graduated into the world of maturity. They view life through their fast cars, VIP nightclubs, five-star hotels and exotic resorts. Yet they have not fully grasped the transition into the adult world. They are lost and confused and hide behind a materialism that stifles their growth and exposes their vulnerability. If you have everything too soon and too young, you don’t have that sense of value that comes with struggle. Some of the most inspirational people of our world, such as Gandhi, Mother Teresa and Mandela, have shown the beauty of dignity and respect through human poverty and struggle Football is now a huge business with an annual turnover rise at around £400 million for last year. Since the game’s senior managers raised the annual fee for televising the best matches from £5,000 a year from the BBC to £650 million a year from Sky, the greed within the sport has become almost uncontrollable. Young lads are attracted to the sport because they want to play football but soon they are caught up in a self-indulgent lifestyle that can become more important than the game they play. Today’s premier footballers just starting their careers, can earn more in six months than a low paid person can in a whole lifetime. They write their auto biographies in their mid twenties as if they’ve lived life to the full. Yet all they’ve seen is a world far removed from reality. I recently spoke to a former professional sportsman who now has a drug problem. A few years ago he was earning a tremendous amount of money, however due to an injury he became incapacitated and had to give up his sport. Once he became disassociated from his profession he turned to drugs because he could not cope with life. The affluent lifestyle prevented him from developing the basic life skills that are needed for survival. He now struggles to pay bills and can’t manage the domestic side of life. In the past everything was done for him. Some of our young professional footballers are vulnerable young men lost in a world of fame. Their celebrity status is confusing their development and depriving them of an authentic insight into the adult world of responsibility. |
