A serious challange to the idea of fairplay

One of the things I hate about the close season is the endless media transfer speculation that seems to surround certain players. Still to this day, whenever I pick up a paper in June/July, I expect to see a back page headline about Patrick Viera's imminent departure from Arsenal, such was the craze for that particular story for about four seasons running. So it comes as something of a relief to see that the fates of Kaka (last season's transfer window 'will he, won't he' story) and ultimate want-away whinger Ronaldo, have been all but sewn up before the middle of June. Hoorah!

Of course, there is the small matter of the £136 million that has changed hands in order to bring these players to the stadium of purchased dreams. The game has long been on a path of self destruction, with the bigger clubs accumulating resources and power leaving the lower league teams facing a future as barren as a Bobby Zamora goal-drought. £136 million would pay-off most, if not all, of the debts owed by teams in the bottom two divisions of English football and with such a high profile shattering of the world transfer fee record, now may well be the time for the FA and FL to start thinking seriously about the distribution of wealth in the game.

After all, it's not like this story has suffered from a lack of media exposure. BBC news put it as their lead story, ahead of strong stories on the Iranian elections and swine-flu. Every newspaper has had pictures of Ronaldo stretched across their front and back pages and websites have been packed full of news, rumour and speculation about who else might be joining the Perez revolution in Madrid and who Man Utd might spend their new found wealth on. To be fair, there have been a few mentions of the ludicrous sums involved and a little flimsy debate on whether a player could ever be worth so much. UEFA chief Michel Platini has called such transfers 'a serious challenge to the idea of fairplay and the concept of financial balance in our competitions' and the Sports Minister, Gerry Sutcliffe has apparently written to the Premier League and FA to voice his concerns on the sustainability of the game.

But the Premier League are unlikely to care one bit about the sustainability of the game. For them, as long as there are 20 solvent teams who can turn out in the top division each year, they'll be fine and will continue to have a license to print money, thanks to the expert marketing of their (flawed) product. Their concession to lower league football is a few cash hand-outs, but for them, the lower leagues go no further than the Championship, which is used to ensure that there is a decent standard of potential Premiership worthy teams to be promoted at the end of each year. Those unable to make the grade will drop, with no hint of remorse, as we've seen with former Premiership regulars such as Leeds, Nottingham Forest and more recently Charlton and Southampton.

I won't miss Ronaldo. Sure, he scored a few great goals and had a nice step-over, but his constant moaning and on-field tantrums are symbolic of a certain type of top-flight player that I just can't warm to. I'm sure he'll go down as one of the greatest players to grace the Premier League, but I feel that his legacy may well be felt further down the pyramid, as the cash injection at the top serves only to drain the life out of those clinging on at the bottom.

Whilst we're on the subject of money, it's always good to see a big corporation getting a good bashing, which is exactly what United Arab Emirates defender Saleh Obaid has done this week. Upset at his teams exit from the World Cup Qualifiers, he's blamed his teammate’s penchance for McDonalds meals for their poor on-field performance. In a dry state such as the UAE, maybe the flawed football prodigies have to turn to hamburgers, rather than booze, to get their kicks.

Fill your boots here:

http://english.aljazeera.net/sport/2009/06/2009611114844775351.html