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Friday 22 October 2010

Rooney saga highlights growing concerns

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They say a week is a long time in politics, well if this past 5 days are anything to go by then a week in football is more like a year.

It looked for all the world on Wednesday evening that Wayne Rooney was on his way out of Old Trafford and possibly heading 5 miles down the road to a certain Manchester City.

Who knows what a move across the City would have done to some United fans; their anger highlighted by a 40 strong mob protesting the move outside Rooney's house as well as shouting "Join City and die."

With Ferguson on Tuesday confirming rumours that Rooney wanted to leave in an emotional and revealing press conference. He admitted that he was bemused and let down by his star players request to leave the club he had been at for six years.

A day later, just an two hours before United were about to face Bursappoer in the Champions League, Rooney and his team released a statement saying that he thought the club weren't giving him assurances about the future of the squad and suggested they couldn't win many more trophies.

After their Champions League encounter, Ferguson said that the matter 'would be put to bed' on Thursday.

But it wasn't to be the case because all that came out of a day of meetings and negotiating was a United statement pleading fans to remain patient and the outcome will be revealed shortly.

Now, after Rooney signed a new 5-year contract, the saga appears over now but there's no doubt that it will raise many questions about the money and player power in football that has escalated dramatically over the last few years.

Holloway expressed his view in his usual way with a extremely passionate rant at the influence of agents and the Bosman ruling which allows players over the age of 24 to walk away from the club for free.

His point is a strong one but there are more urgent matters that threaten to destroy football as we know it now.

A warning of the ridiculous amount of money taking over football is the likely liquidation of Portsmouth FC, who are on the verge of being closed down after talks of a takeover broke down on Friday evening.

Their problems came about as a result of their FA cup success in 2008 when players of that team were given insane bonuses which ruined the financial structure of the club.

It's a sign of things to come as rich owners taking over clubs like Manchester City and Chelsea means that other clubs are forced to raise their expenditure to compete with the huge sums of money invested into clubs like City.

Their wage bill for the year ending in May 2009 was calculated at £82 million, how can football go on like this?

It may be good for the short term but what happens when the current owner leaves? Whose going to be paying the players £200,000 a week?

Surely something has to be done, how about a cap on the amount of money you can spend on wages and transfers each year as many have suggested?

Not only will this restrict spending and reduce the risk of teams going under but it will make the market place a lot fairer place as teams with not as much money will be able to compete resulting more of a level playing field.

If not this then something has to be done by the governing bodies of football because the silly amounts of money involved in the sport cannot go on.

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