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Football Transfers! The most exciting (and irritating!) period in the world of Football.There is a provision of two official transfer windows in a year: Summer Transfer Window and Winter Transfer Window.
Summer transfers are done to rejuvenate the squad to mount a certain challenge for the trophies in the upcoming season and to replace some inefficient faces in the squad who failed to impress in the previous season with the fresh ones.
Winter transfers are more of a rectification of the squad, so as to correct things which went wrong during the first half of the season and to bring in players who would help the team to crawl up.
Transfer window raises a few eyebrows every year due to some controversial transfers. But, nevertheless, both the team and the fans remain equally excited about the new players coming in. But the question is are the transfers done in an ethical way?
In the recent years, there have been transfers which inflated the transfer market way beyond imagination. The Clubs are so desperate to bring the best talent in their teams that they are ready to pay any amount for the player. This attitude in the transfer market leads to an impact on the financially weaker teams. The teams know, that in today’s world, if a team needs a player and they are willing to pay, so they put up a huge price tag on the player, irrespective of whether the player is an established footballer or not, whether he has done enough to justify that price tag on him.
Let’s take an example here, the progression of Transfer fees in Football:
The first ever transfer took place in 1893 which saw, Willie Groves moving from West Bromwich Albion to Aston Villa for £100, a record back then.
100 years later, Torino sold Gianluigi Lentini to Milan for £13,000,000. An astonishing increase in the transfer fee. But the time period of 100 years justifies the increase. Since then, the transfer fee has been rocketing upwards at an unbelievable speed.
9 years later, in 2001, a new record was made, which saw Zinedine Zidane of Juventus moving to Real Madrid for £46,000,000. But this was just a beginning. Just 7 years later Real Madrid shocked the world by their transfer antics. Two of the best players in the world, Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo moved to Real Madrid from Milan and Manchester United respectively. Real Madrid spent £136,000,000 on both these players in a belief that these world class players would help them regain the glory days of the Galacticos.
WHY TO SPEND?
What makes the teams spend so much? A belief that the player they are signing will bring Glory days to the club? To add the glamour value, the star player carries? To make changes to their tactics? To replace a retiring Legend? To make a back up for an injured player? The reasons varies from team to team and from time to time.
But the record setting transfers left a negative impact on the transfer markets. The small and financially weaker clubs willing to grow, to expand, to compete at higher level are left with no option but to look forward to their Youth Academy instead of carrying the Cheque Books in the transfer market.
RECTIFICATION OF INFLATION
Due to these ‘maybe’ unethical transfers, governing bodies like FIFA and UEFA are drafting out new policies for the transfer rules. The main highlight of these policies would be to allow the clubs to spend in the transfer window only from the revenues generated from the club proceedings in the form of season tickets, gate reciepts, merchandise sale etc. The club would not be allowed to spend from the kitty of the owner of the club.
These steps would recieve a definite welcome from many teams. Critics, of course there are critics for everything, and the critics for these policies could be the ‘Rich’ clubs who stay active in the transfer window even when no player is required to improve the squad.
But till these policies come into picture, don’t you dare enter the transfer market with a small balance and please carry blank cheques to bring a talent to the club.
INFLATION NEVER LEAVES ANYONE
NOT EVEN FOOTBALL
