- Apr 26, 2005
- 919
- 888
Put simply who are you or I to dictate a business model? What's the difference between Southampton buying up young talent and players from Celtic cheaply and selling them on for big profits? It's clearly worked for them.There are clearly two schools of thought about how wealth is used in football.
I think it's often (as in this case) an abuse of the principle of sport. I know football is a business, that is too obvious to keep repeating, but if it wasn't for the underlying principle it wouldn't even be a business because it couldn't exist, and the more the sporting ethos is undermined and neglected, the less it matters to many of us.
I believe even when the business objectives and practices are perfectly legal, the sporting foundations need to be respected and when they are not, the important question shouldn't be "is it legal" but "is it in keeping with the spirit of the game?"
And then we could argue about what constitutes the spirit of the game. But at least we'd be arguing about the right thing, instead of how to interpret some legal statute designed for other purposes entirely.
If it's sustainable and profitable then the model has simply its fuck all to do with any of us.