wco81 wrote:Now to bring it back to football, when promising youngsters go to football academies, what percentage of them reach the top leagues?
Any indication that a number of them could have gone to a good university but chose to sign with a big club's academy?
Or are those with any kind of potential channeled from a very early age away from higher education?
Percentage wise it's almost impossible to tell. Clubs in England tend to sign anyone they come across who might be even remotely good, as the cost to them at that point is almost negligible. There are a lot of clubs and organisations now who specialise in 'recycling' those who have failed to make the grade at bigger clubs.
As for going into education, that's a lot less common, unlike in the US where I guess most of the major professional sports are at the end of a chain which includes colleges and universities. In soccer over here, if you are 16 you can leave school and thus commit yourself to a club, and in a lot of cases can find yourself soon on a professional contract and playing in the league, including the Premiership.
"The players come from all over the world, the money from deep underneath the Persian Gulf, but, as another, older City poster campaign put it, this is their city. They may now exist in the global spotlight, but they intend to keep it that way."
There are a lot of stories about promising American football and basketball players who get scholarships but don't get a marketable degree and they don't make the pros either.
Some basketball players make a living in European and other international leagues. But otherwise, it's all or nothing, due to injuries, not being good enough, etc.
I would think that beneath the EPL and other top European leagues, players don't even make a middle class income? Yet only a few percent ever get to the very top leagues?
Comparative info is relatively difficult to find - the last detailed figures I came across were in 2006,
If I inflate them by about 40% for increases in the subsequent 5 years, you come out with the following averages
Premiership - £946k per annum
Championship - £274k per annum
League One - £95k per annum
League Two - £69k per annum
These look reasonably high, though it has to be remembered that income above £30k per annum is taxed at 40%, plus another 11% NI contributions. The players in the higher divisions will probably have financial advisors working on this, the others not so much.
And, as usual with all sportsmen, their careers will average out at about 8-10 years.
"The players come from all over the world, the money from deep underneath the Persian Gulf, but, as another, older City poster campaign put it, this is their city. They may now exist in the global spotlight, but they intend to keep it that way."
National Insurance - your contributions towards your state medical care and your state pension.
Contributions are currently, from memory, 11.4% of income over 10k per annum. As usual with UK tatxation stuff, this is deducted at source by your employer and paid over to the relevant body by them.
Sounds a bit like an insurance system, but your payments are tied to your salary and not your previous claim history.
The NHS and social services system in the UK has also been referred to as the 'largest Ponzi scheme in history'.
"The players come from all over the world, the money from deep underneath the Persian Gulf, but, as another, older City poster campaign put it, this is their city. They may now exist in the global spotlight, but they intend to keep it that way."
Hmm, 69k Pounds is an okay middle class living, unless you're trying to live in the center of London?
Our Ponzi scheme is about 7% up to about the first $100k of income. Employers contribute another 7% or so.
No deductions for health care, the premiums for which are well into the double-digits percentage-wise for many people.
I thought many of the clubs in the lower division were struggling to sustain themselves. Even in the EPL, the clubs at the bottom of the ladder seem to be at the margins because relegation is so costly.
Didn't a lot of these clubs merge with others? I saw some Sampdoria supporters. Didn't realize the club was from Genoa, the result of two smaller clubs from the area merging.
wco81 wrote:Hmm, 69k Pounds is an okay middle class living, unless you're trying to live in the center of London?
Our Ponzi scheme is about 7% up to about the first $100k of income. Employers contribute another 7% or so.
No deductions for health care, the premiums for which are well into the double-digits percentage-wise for many people.
I thought many of the clubs in the lower division were struggling to sustain themselves. Even in the EPL, the clubs at the bottom of the ladder seem to be at the margins because relegation is so costly.
Didn't a lot of these clubs merge with others? I saw some Sampdoria supporters. Didn't realize the club was from Genoa, the result of two smaller clubs from the area merging.
Employer's contributions for the separate pension scheme that I am in are currently running at 7.2% for me and 14.9% for my employer...but then if I manage to put in my full 30 years, my pension will be a lump sum of 3x my final salary plus 50% of it as a pension annually.
Club mergers in England are relatively rare - as are moves from place to place - MK Dons being an exception. It's also worth noting that most countries. there are 4 all full-time divisions, and most of the fifth tier are FT as well.
£69k is an extremely good income - you'd need to be an FD in a fairly large company before you'd be pulling in that sort of money.
I don't know huge amounts about Sampdoria, though apparently the merger was in 1946, presumably as Italy recovered from WW2. I think there were a couple of others around the same time - Venezia were a merger, as I think were Lazio, though that was pre war.[/i]
"The players come from all over the world, the money from deep underneath the Persian Gulf, but, as another, older City poster campaign put it, this is their city. They may now exist in the global spotlight, but they intend to keep it that way."
That'll be in case they get the same sort of 'refereeing' that was on show in Korea in 2002.
If you ever want to see an Italian get annoyed, you could either
(a) take him to Pizza Hut or
(b) Mention the name 'Byron Moreno' to him.
"The players come from all over the world, the money from deep underneath the Persian Gulf, but, as another, older City poster campaign put it, this is their city. They may now exist in the global spotlight, but they intend to keep it that way."
fsquid wrote:La Liga teams are 3.5 billion in debt. Wow.
Only 12 of 20 teams have filed their accounts for the 2008/09 season.
Only 9 of the 20 teams paid their players on time every month this season.
Real Mallorca have just gone into administration with debts of €80m.
Sightings of 'Fingers' Blatter and that French twat spouting off about unsustainable debt ? Zero.
Yes, I know they're still busy sorting out their bribes and dodgy media contracts for the WC, but you'd think they could find time for at least a brief word.
"The players come from all over the world, the money from deep underneath the Persian Gulf, but, as another, older City poster campaign put it, this is their city. They may now exist in the global spotlight, but they intend to keep it that way."
Blackpool beat Cardiff 3-2 to earn promotion to the Premiership. Be some fighting away days there. methinks.
And, much as I don't want to say it - c'mon Bayern. Can't stand Mourinho and it would do him good to learn a little humility.
"The players come from all over the world, the money from deep underneath the Persian Gulf, but, as another, older City poster campaign put it, this is their city. They may now exist in the global spotlight, but they intend to keep it that way."
Awesome victory for Inter with Mourinho joining the extremely elite group of managers who have won the European Cup with two different teams. Can't see him learning any extra humility from today.
Cambiasso not being in the Argentina squad for the World Cup is hilarious. At least Maradona wasn't dumb enough to leave out Milito.
dougb wrote:Milito scored a couple of pretty goals.
Guy I can't stand is Robben. Dives far too much and becomes petulant when they are behind.
Best wishes,
Doug
He's still BM's best player by a mile. Not a classic game, but when it came down to it Milito could finish and Muller couldn't, Samuel and Lucio could defend and Van Buyten and De Michaelis couldn't. Both midfields were largely anonymous, apart from Schneijder.
And of course, Mourinho decides he'd like some more of the spotlight by having his own little lap of honour while the players are still lifting the cup. Be interesting if he goes to Real Madrid as, so Graeme Souness correctly put it, they are perhaps one of the very few clubs for whom just winning isn't enough, it has to be with style. That isn't Mourinho's way, so I suspect there will be trouble ahead.
"The players come from all over the world, the money from deep underneath the Persian Gulf, but, as another, older City poster campaign put it, this is their city. They may now exist in the global spotlight, but they intend to keep it that way."
I honestly think he should go to City. He could buy exactly the players he wanted, get back at Chelsea by winning the league and the Champions League within a few years, and he wouldn't have to deal with the bullshit the Madrid fans and press give any manager who doesn't win every competition AND play "beautiful" football.
Geez, wished I played my lotto numbers today. If Milito is opportunistic and dangerous as he was today, Argentina will be fine in the WC. But as good a game that E. Cambiasso had, I still think that Zanetti should have been included among the 23 members in SA.
Mourinho maybe a cocky bastard, but he's won a silverware pretty much everywhere he coached. Hola Madrid, not sure how the fans will see enjoy the type of football that Jose displayed today though.
fsquid wrote:Told you defending would kill Bayern, just three rounds later than I thought it would be.
Can Blackpool play in the EPL with that stadium? Doesn't it only hold 12k?
It'll hold 16k when finished, not a lot but then I don't think they were planning for the Premiership when the overhaul was started. There's also no use changing the design now, as this has the whiff of one-and-done about it.
"The players come from all over the world, the money from deep underneath the Persian Gulf, but, as another, older City poster campaign put it, this is their city. They may now exist in the global spotlight, but they intend to keep it that way."
Well all these Italians were celebrating winning the CL for the first time in over 40 years. The Inter team that won back then must have been mostly if not all Italians. Although, it sounds like Zanetti and Cambiasso are Argentines of Italian descent, kind of like Messi and Manu Ginobli.
FIFA castigates EPL clubs for having too many foreign nationals, going deep into debt to buy those players. Yet the best players on the best Italian club is all foreign.
wco81 wrote:Well all these Italians were celebrating winning the CL for the first time in over 40 years. The Inter team that won back then must have been mostly if not all Italians. Although, it sounds like Zanetti and Cambiasso are Argentines of Italian descent, kind of like Messi and Manu Ginobli.
FIFA castigates EPL clubs for having too many foreign nationals, going deep into debt to buy those players. Yet the best players on the best Italian club is all foreign.
The 'Italians' are celebrating because those players were wearing the shirt of Inter Milan. Their ethnic origin is an irrelevance.
FIFA criticises English clubs because it fits in with their agenda, not because they are particularly well-versed in financial reality, riddled as that organisation is with corruption, nepotism and incompetence.
"The players come from all over the world, the money from deep underneath the Persian Gulf, but, as another, older City poster campaign put it, this is their city. They may now exist in the global spotlight, but they intend to keep it that way."
