…discuss??

From my point of view I can’t get over how many (Premier League) footballers, with all the trappings that come with it still seem to be unable of keeping themselves out of trouble. What the hell is it with footballers? Is it that maybe the media concentrate on them and we don’t here about all these other sportsmen getting in fights at nightclubs? Or is it that they have genuinely become too big for their boots?

Micah Richards is the latest to find himself in trouble. Arrested for fighting outside a night-club. Now the chances are that somebody, somewhere has said something to him. But then again that’s what happens when you go out, put a thousand pissed people in the same spot and you get all sorts of banter. Stick an overpaid, flash harry footballer in the mix and a lot of that banter will no doubt go his way. Yet how often is it that footballers seem to be unable to walk away.

Think about it this way, how many lads are there in the 18-25 age group in the UK right now? What percentage of them have been arrested in the last 18 months for assault/indecent assault? Now think how many Premier League footballers are there right now? How many of these have hit the headlines in the last 18 months? I’m sure if you do the maths in terms of the percentage it doesn’t look too good on what are supposed to be out sporting role models. So what’s changed to make it such a problem all of a sudden? Two things as far as I can see. They are being paid way over the odds and that you’re not allowed to discipline them anymore. What’s a 20 grand fine to somebody on £80k a week?

If I was in charge I think the first thing I’d do is change the way that footballers are paid. During their career they get a basic “normal salary”. Maybe a couple of thousand a week tops. The rest of the money gets paid into a “pension” fund that they can claim when they retire. Remembering that more likely than not this will be before they are 35. Not only that but if they act like scummers in public then they should be treated such. Clubs shouldn’t be hiring high price lawyers to defend them, instead they should be putting them out in the community to clean parks and do whatever else crap job that can find to fill their free time. Money is not a punishment, the courts have shown that. You need to make this cocky sods do something that they really don’t want to do.

So that’s it, like I said at the beginning maybe it is just the media hyping it up but I get a feeling that the percentage of footballers who get in trouble is way above the joe public average. What do you think?