Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
How depressing to see a rare talent like Haaland being hawked by an agent feasting on our football
LIFE’S optimists will have you believe that the past year will lead to human behaviour changing for the better.
Mental health issues will receive more empathy, there will be a workplace revolution, with those who want to graft at home being excused the planet-destroying commute, and we’ll be so clued up about hygiene all men may even wash their hands after taking a leak.
But what about football? Will a year of battered revenue streams and fanless matches make it realise how far it’s gone from its roots and jolt it into a muchneeded reset for the benefit of those who really matter? The signs aren’t good. A huge fanfare greeted news that 8,000 spectators may possibly be allowed into Wembley for the Carabao Cup final between Manchester City and Spurs, with talks taking place between Government officials, Public Health England, the FA and the EFL. The one party excluded from the decision-making? The customers.
The Football Supporters’ Association was stunned by the lack of consultation while the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust accused the authorities of showing “a complete disregard for the fans”. City supporters’ 1894 Group put it more succinctly: “Fans being s**t on again.”
It seems the soulless stadiums that turned off so many TV viewers failed to persuade people at the top to trust or value its lifeblood. Normal service is being resumed.
And then there’s the sight of former pizza chef Mino Raiola hawking his latest piece of tender meat around the wealthiest European clubs, hoping to siphon millions of pounds out of the game into his pocket, in return for telling Erling Haaland which dotted line to sign on.
This is the super agent (not to be confused with supermodel) who, according to German authors of the book Football Leaks: The Dirty Business of Football, made £41million out of the three parties involved in Paul Pogba’s return to Manchester United from Juventus.
And showed his gratitude to United, on the eve of a vital Champions League game last December, by telling them his client was so unhappy with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s treatment of him, he needed a “new team” and “a change of air”.
But back to Haaland. There is something magical about watching the emergence of a pure talent who looks different from anyone we’ve seen before. A prodigy, who appears to have every asset needed to become one of the game’s greatest goalscorers. A phenomenon, who could have you drooling over outrageous moments of skill for many years to come.
To see him offered up, at the age of 20, to any club who can get close to the £150m asking price is utterly depressing. This cattle auction is the antithesis of what sport should be about.
The likelihood is that Haaland will come to the Premier League, and Raiola (left) will get another massive payday from English football for doing nothing, at a time when many lower-league and grass-roots clubs are in danger of going to the wall.
Despite Covid supposedly dealing a mortal blow to clubs’ finances, agents’ fees are still rocketing. Figures released last week show they have just enjoyed their most lucrative year on record. Between February 1, 2020 and February 1, 2021, Premier League clubs handed agents £272m, a rise of £9m on the previous year.
This summer they will be filling their boots again, sucking even more millions from clubs, some of whom a year ago either took, or considered taking, taxpayer money to pay their backroom staff ’s wages.
It seems that regardless of whether customers are paying to enter stadiums, there is so much easy money washing around the game, parasites will carry on feasting on its fat.
Proving that economically, as well as morally, fans are becoming nothing but an afterthought.