Buy or Bust: Football's ugly truth

Oh the memories: Filbert Street.

Every one remembers going to their first football match right? I've been a Leicester City fans for nigh on ten years now, and as much as I can remember last weekends opening game win against Coventry City, I can also remember  my first ever game watching the foxes: weeping in the stands at City's old stomping ground Filbert Street, on the back of a 3-1 loss.  In-between these two largely contrasting games, I've experienced  Leicester's roller-coaster journey throughout the last 10 years, from the dizzying heights of the Premier League Summit, right down to the depths of England's third tier level of football, League One. It struck me whilst awaiting kick-off at the weekend, that I had very rarely looked back on my time as a Leicester City fan, and with this I remembered all sorts of controversy and magical moments, yes that's right, even at Leicester...

Big Build, Big fee, little goals.

  After a while I got thinking about the various players to have been in and out of the club, the likes of goal machines such as the international superstar Emile Heskey and Adi Akinbiyi (hope my readers appreciate sarcasm), alongside players that went on to become established Premier League Stalwarts such as Wolverhampton Wolves'  defender Richard Stearman, and the ever 'popular' Robbie Savage, whether it be for Blackburn  Rovers or Birmingham City. Then there's the famous arrivals at Leicester City, whether it be the arrival of established Premier League striker Yakubu during last years Championship campaign, or the arrival of at the time, Derby County's team captain Matt Oakley, halfway through the Ram's ill fated Premier League season and the Foxes's similarly ill fated  Championship campaign under Ian Holloway  in the 2007/08 season. With all these various arrivals and departures exiting and entering the glass doors at  Leicester's King Power Stadium (formerly the Walkers Stadium), comes the influence of money on such moves. After the foxes' big spending during this seasons summer build-up, and with the large amounts of money regularly mentioned in and around transfers on a day to day basis in the media, anyone would be forgiven for quite frankly taking the fee's involved for granted. However, it hit me square the face the other day that the money in football, is quite simply ridiculous.

Children literally in Need,
overlooked by footballs greed.

  In order to get your head around it, it takes some sort of comparison to money in the world outside of football. So lets take a figure well documented year in,year out: The Children In Need fundraiser total. Last year, the charity managed to accumulate a brilliant £18 Million pounds thanks to donations and charity events; an impressive figure by any means. As is well known, that money is spent on helping to provide health and infrastructure to those in need living in third world countries, pre dominantly in Africa. Now back to the world of football: Leicester City's owners have so far pumped over £20 million pounds into their newly acquired club, with £15 million being spent purely on transfers (and that's without even considering wage fee's agreed when bringing big name players in...). Quite frankly, it acts a perfect example to the morally wrong and politically crazy society we live in. Despite this, the money side of football is generally ignored in terms of being outrageous, something I've recently come to realise as being nothing other than outrageous...

Adiós: Cesc close to departing the Gunners

  Lets take it up another notch: In today's news, the main headlines have obviously been dominated by the on-going public disorder surrounding cities and towns throughout the nation. In the Sport press however, the transfer saga regarding Arsenal's influential captain Cesc Fabregas has once again gained stranglehold of the top story slot, with a deal thought to be have been agreed between Arsenal and Barcelona in the region of £30 million, with up to £6 million pounds extra being given in performance add-ons.  Should this deal go through, the grand total of expenditure in this summers transfer market will pass the staggering, £300 million pound mark. This struck me as significant in relation to the devastating riots happening across the country right now, but specifically to one quote I heard on BBC News last night when keeping up to date with the nationwide destruction: "The damage caused by the riots could cost the tax payer up to £100 million". This figure stands at a third of the grand total that has been spent solely on bringing new sets of legs to clubs around the continent. When put into perspective like this, the issue escalates from  being 'outrageous' to quite simply disgusting. Oh, and guess what the second headline was on tonight's news unless you already know? The 'worldwide economic crisis'. How ironic.

  Money has spiralled out of control in the modern game to a point now where fans no longer consider it as 'money'. It's seen primarily as a figure used to describe a players ability and quality. Football as a sport is tainted beyond belief, to a point where its rotten, yet the media and in fact even the government choose to ignore the quite frankly crazy situation.

  So whilst families and businesses are destroyed on the streets of North London and elsewhere in the nation, you can bet your last penny that as we wake up to tomorrows inevitably shocking news headlines, Mr.Moneybags at the King Power Stadium and his fellow smug  rich friends at the helm of other clubs will be creating other headlines,funding a bid for one or two more humans, instead of helping save the lives and lively hoods of thousands.

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