The Money Cup
'Is sport too closely linked to money these days?' This was the one of the questions Cambridge included in their General Paper examinations back in 2001.
This inspired me to write about the current disturbing issue prevalent in the World Cup - money. Much hype has been placed on the heat, Shamsul Maidin refereeing his third game and the sporadic arguments between the England and Manchester United manager on the fitness of Wayne Rooney. However the media failed to emphasize on how profit motive proved to be a social anathema in this year's games, or simply how monetary gain could prove to be the sine qua non of success.
Hundred of thousands to each player to play, thirty thousand for a win and half of that for a draw. Does it sound familiar? By this time, I suppose the Togo players have already pocketed much of that controversial sum. This long-standing pay dispute has venerated myriad problems ranging from loss of team morale to the highly disputed walk out of their coach. The worst is yet to come, their threat to boycott their match against Switzerland will inevitably lead in unthinkable ramifications. They were just unrelenting despite Fifa's intervention, a plausible ban from future competitions apparently did not halt their unreasonable claims. It was outright ugliness, the three red cards committed in the Italy-USA match suddenly didn't look so bad. Fending off challenges from African powerhouses such as Nigeria and Cameroon to reach the World Cup Finals, and giving it up for a fast buck. I suppose the Nigerian players would have gladly forfeited their salaries for a month to play in the finals, for what reason? The Beautiful Game of Soccer.
Back in the Johan Cruyff days of Total Football, the impact of bonuses were minuscule. They played purely for their passion of the game. Gabriel Batistuta, ranked in the top twenty soccer players ever in AskMen.com, resisted the much higher payroll from larger clubs when he chose to stick with the relegated Fiorentina and reaped great success after. The Togo players should just take a leaf out of Batistuta, and not whining like babies for bonuses when poverty has already engulfed their country. Perhaps Eric Cantona can knock some sense to them with his endorsed 'Joga Bonito' compaign. Play beautiful.
Even more disgrace for former Botwana footballing manifesto Bhamjee who apparently got himself expelled from Fifa for selling tickets two times the original price. He must have been mad to give up the 54000 pounds annually he earns working for the leading football association just to earn a few hundreds. To think he has another year to go before retrieving his pension. Fifa must be secretly laughing on the cash they saved due to the stupidity of this man, and right now he must be asking himself 'What for?'.
From the high profile Italian corruption incident to the most recent betting case by Socceroos' two goal hero Tim Cahill, the similarity of these two lies in 'profit motive'. I've heard the Saudi Arabian players were offered gargantuan sums for their draw in their opening match, and businessmen are willing to give even more out of this world sums provided the Saudi Arabia team gets to the second round. Major upsets driven by the lure of money by the opulent Asian nation? We'll see soon enough.
Now the new question of year 2006. 'Is the World Cup too closely linked to money these days?'
Alvin Ng Choon Boon
(currently a JC2 student)
This inspired me to write about the current disturbing issue prevalent in the World Cup - money. Much hype has been placed on the heat, Shamsul Maidin refereeing his third game and the sporadic arguments between the England and Manchester United manager on the fitness of Wayne Rooney. However the media failed to emphasize on how profit motive proved to be a social anathema in this year's games, or simply how monetary gain could prove to be the sine qua non of success.
Hundred of thousands to each player to play, thirty thousand for a win and half of that for a draw. Does it sound familiar? By this time, I suppose the Togo players have already pocketed much of that controversial sum. This long-standing pay dispute has venerated myriad problems ranging from loss of team morale to the highly disputed walk out of their coach. The worst is yet to come, their threat to boycott their match against Switzerland will inevitably lead in unthinkable ramifications. They were just unrelenting despite Fifa's intervention, a plausible ban from future competitions apparently did not halt their unreasonable claims. It was outright ugliness, the three red cards committed in the Italy-USA match suddenly didn't look so bad. Fending off challenges from African powerhouses such as Nigeria and Cameroon to reach the World Cup Finals, and giving it up for a fast buck. I suppose the Nigerian players would have gladly forfeited their salaries for a month to play in the finals, for what reason? The Beautiful Game of Soccer.
Back in the Johan Cruyff days of Total Football, the impact of bonuses were minuscule. They played purely for their passion of the game. Gabriel Batistuta, ranked in the top twenty soccer players ever in AskMen.com, resisted the much higher payroll from larger clubs when he chose to stick with the relegated Fiorentina and reaped great success after. The Togo players should just take a leaf out of Batistuta, and not whining like babies for bonuses when poverty has already engulfed their country. Perhaps Eric Cantona can knock some sense to them with his endorsed 'Joga Bonito' compaign. Play beautiful.
Even more disgrace for former Botwana footballing manifesto Bhamjee who apparently got himself expelled from Fifa for selling tickets two times the original price. He must have been mad to give up the 54000 pounds annually he earns working for the leading football association just to earn a few hundreds. To think he has another year to go before retrieving his pension. Fifa must be secretly laughing on the cash they saved due to the stupidity of this man, and right now he must be asking himself 'What for?'.
From the high profile Italian corruption incident to the most recent betting case by Socceroos' two goal hero Tim Cahill, the similarity of these two lies in 'profit motive'. I've heard the Saudi Arabian players were offered gargantuan sums for their draw in their opening match, and businessmen are willing to give even more out of this world sums provided the Saudi Arabia team gets to the second round. Major upsets driven by the lure of money by the opulent Asian nation? We'll see soon enough.
Now the new question of year 2006. 'Is the World Cup too closely linked to money these days?'
Alvin Ng Choon Boon
(currently a JC2 student)
posted by jingli K at
3:02 am
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