What is modern football all about anymore? That is the question many football fans and specialists keep on thinking, as even the new Chelsea boss Antonio Conte claims the sports is starting to lose its plot.
Nowadays there is only the slightest of chances that players are available for less than tens of millions of pounds anymore, as the inflation on transfer markets is getting out of hands.
Trend of football inflation
The so called “Big-5 level” – that includes the top-flight leagues of England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France – is the main reason for the inflation in the transfer market. According to Football Observatory’s newest data, clubs on overall have spent 16 % more on players with the same characteristics than in the previous five years.
The inflation has become a somewhat of a trend in the Europe’s top leagues, but there’s no specific deal that would have sent the transfer market on a whole new level. However it’s obvious that big money moves, like Angel Di María’s £59.7million transfer from Real Madrid to Manchester United, and James Rodriguez’s £63million switch from AS Monaco to Real Madrid are seen as fair trendsetters in the football inflation flush.
Chelsea’s case
Chelsea can be arraigned as well for their transfer market actions in the past. As we all know our beloved owner Roman Abramovich is not the poorest of club chiefs in the world, and a few years back we certainly became aware of that. Our £50million transfer fee in the deal for the not-so-worth-it Fernando Torres in January 2011 also broke the then British transfer record.
The new Chelsea manager Antonio Conte also criticized the way modern football is currently heading towards, and was skeptical whether it could last too long like this.
This season we are seeing a crazy market – it’s incredible.
When you touch a player it’s very difficult because you must pay a lot of money. I don’t know if this situation can continue.
Chelsea have already signed two players this season, investing a total of £65.1m for N’Golo Kanté and Michy Batshuayi, and Conte isn’t happy how much the clubs have to spend to sign the necessary players to compete in top level. Chelsea have been told to bid no less than £75 million for either of their striker targets, Romelu Lukaku and Alvaro Morata, or otherwise the clubs won’t even consider selling.
Gonzalo Higuain was also a player many Premier League sides were after for some time, but this week Juventus made the biggest offer and had their £75.3million bid accepted by Napoli, which made the Argentine hitman the third most expensive player in the world. Crazy.
It’s very difficult for all the teams to try and buy the players. Now, we are starting to speak about £100m, £120m, £95m, and these prices are incredible.
But this is football now. It’s important that we must maintain the passion. This is the most important thing, to transfer our passion and transfer it to fans and players.
I’m sure many of us football fans can relate to the Italian’s statements, as it certainly is unbelievable how strong offers the clubs are currently exchanging for football players. But in addition to the “Big-5”, financial competitors from Asia have also arrived with their money to try and sign these very same players.
China splashing the cash
No more it’s just the multimillionaire owners in Europe that are battling for world-class players, as the Chinese Super League clubs are taking over to lure players to a whole other continent to get paid for playing. Even Sky Sports have bought the licence to show Chinese Super League games on TV for the next three years. Astonishing.
BREAKING: Sky Sports agrees three-year deal to show live games from the Chinese Super League. #SSNHQ
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) July 26, 2016
Thanks to Sky we’ll be seeing the former Chelsea midfielder Ramires in action for Jiangsu Suning, and other big names who have moved to Far East with money in their minds. The Chinese takeover has boosted the transfer market inflation even more, considering how much they are paying for their players. Italy star Graziano Pellè was one of Conte’s main targets at the start of the transfer window, but the striker went with the flow (of money) and headed to China instead.
Hulk – Brazilian winger who has been linked with Chelsea every summer for the past four or five years – completed a £46.1m move from Zenit St. Petersburg to Shanghai SPIG this summer, while Alex Texeira and Jackson Martinez also made a big money Chinese Super League-switch this year.
FIFA? Corrupted.
All in all, where would we get help from? It’s very unlikely that FIFA in any matter could help the situation as it’s already very suspicious how their whole thing works. Corruption you say? I’d say so, but in the end that’s just an opinion.
It’s money that has been the reason for the 2022 World Cup being held in Qatar. Sure it’s great how we’ll get to experience new countries taking part as competition holders, but how much money did Qatar have to offer to get the WC moved to January as well? The bid of course is in FBI investigation over suspicions on corruption and bribery, and many reports are also blaming Qatar for violating human rights among the stadium workers. But it’s only time that will tell where will the World Cup be played.
Whatever the direction we’re heading with football here is, it’s obvious that without doing nothing, we won’t make it through for long. The trending football inflation isn’t going to help itself, and someone has to step in.
