Football Dissected

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I read Gabriele Marcotti’s article the other day entitled "Wages tax would aid investment in youth". Here’s the article in its entirety:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/european_football/article3516816.ece

I have to say the idea of compensation being fixed at a percentage of the players’ wages for the rest of his career sounds a good and fair idea and even Marcotti indicates that it’s only a modest suggestion. But the whole debate about clubs (particularly bigger clubs) "stealing" youngsters got me thinking.

Marcotti gives the example of Giuseppe Rossi. Manchester United signed the forward from Parma in 2004 for a fee of £200,000, which by the way was determined by Uefa’s compensation parameters. United then sold Rossi to Villarreal for £6.7 million, generating a tidy profit of £6.5 million for the Premier League side. Marcotti writes that in most countries clubs can only sign players to professional contracts after they turn 16 and that before that they are, in effect, free agents. So this got me wondering. Instead of having the market determine a player’s worth with compensation fixed at a percentage of the players’ wages for the rest of his career as Marcotti suggests, why not have all youngsters sign a two-year professional contract after they turn 16 with the clubs that developed them? Of course there will be extreme cases where the player may not want to sign for his club, but these can be given special dispensation and can be arbitrated by a tribunal.

Arsenal are a excellent example of clubs "stealing" youngsters. They took Cesc Fàbregas when the midfielder was onlt 16, although it has to be said that Barcelona were more willing in this case to let him go to North London. Nicklas Bendtner is another example. The Danish striker came through the ranks of Kjøbenhavns Boldklub's youth system in Denmark only to then sign for Arsenal when he turned 16. Johan Djourou is yet another example, the Swiss defender having come through the youth system at Etoile Carouge but only then to sign a professional contract with Arsenal when he turned 16.

I realise that my suggestion is a little extreme, but if something isn’t done soon then some club academies could well close their doors. As Marcotti rightly points out, one of the main reasons clubs, particularly the smaller ones, develop youngsters and invest in youth development is that they can then have the opportunity to sell the players on for substantial sums. This is the way many South American clubs operate. Many develop youngsters and then sell them on within a few years while some clubs sell players within a year or two of the player making his first-team debut. A minority even sell players before they’ve even kicked a ball, although the amount clubs receive for these kinds of players is typically small.

So you see the point. I’m not saying financial gain is the only reason clubs invest in youth development, but it is one of the main reasons.