Wage levels approaching the obscene

Sports Betting: 

MARKET forces rule, so if a football club is prepared to pay a player the best part of £350,000 a week, then the action can be justified on a financial basis. But it doesn’t make it morally right.

I have long believed footballers’ wages are ridiculous, but now they approach the obscene.

I am sure Manchester United’s new signing Radamel Falcao is a terrific player and, if he does the business and helps to get the Reds back into the Champions League, then the Old Trafford hierarchy will say they were justified in shelling out.

The problem is the vast majority of working people in this country are feeling the financial pinch, yet a band of individuals is getting richer and richer for doing no more than kicking and heading a football.

When someone is paid more in a week than many people earn in a decade, there has to be something deeply wrong.

It’s almost — almost — enough to prevent me watching football on pay-per-view. But such is the attraction of the Premier League that I won’t. Not for the time being, anyway.

United, who once pointed the finger at others for lavish spending — not least neighbours City — have made an awful start to the season and despite new signings remain 16-1 to win the Premier League title.

Chelsea, no strangers to big-money deals themselves, look a powerful outfit and are already odds-on at 4-5. Manchester City are 11-4, Liverpool 11-1 and Arsenal 14-1.



EUROPE has finalised its Ryder Cup team and I am glad captain Paul McGinley has seen fit to select Stephen Gallacher for his all-round excellence and consistency this season.

He will be playing in front of his home fans at Gleneagles later this month and the bookies expect him to be on a winning team. Europe are 4-6 favourites to win, with USA 15-8 and the tie 10-1.



ANDY Murray takes on Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals of the US Open later today and is rated a

3-1 shot to prevail, with the Serb 1-3. Murray is 8-1 to win the title, with Djokovic 11-10 and the rejuvenated Roger Federer 5-2.