Slavery in Football

"There's too much modern slavery, in transferring players or buying players. We are trying now to intervene in such cases. The reaction to the Bosman law is to make long-lasting contracts to keep the players, and then if he wants to leave there is only one solution, he has to pay his contract."

- Sepp Blatter, about Cristano Ronaldo

Sepp Blatter says the darnest things. It must be part of the job description for president of FIFA. I still chuckle over his "female footballers should wear skimpy clothes" line. Classic Sepp, that.

There is an element of truth to this quote. Impoverished young footballers from underdeveloped nations can get sucked up by unscrupulous agents, made to sign lengthy, exploitive contracts, and dumped in Europe. There is the unwholesome taint of slavery with some aspects of commericalised professional football.

I remember the MSI-Tevez-Mascherano saga with West Ham a couple of years ago. That seemed a bit exploitive, to have one's registration held by an agent, and being parked at a Premier League club. And I heard that that situation is pretty common in South America, where a promising young player would raise funds by selling his registration to investors. It's a bit like indentured service.

However, a contract is also a good thing for a player. A club will pay a player a guaranteed salary regardless of injury, poor form or poor behaviour. In return, a player will play exclusively for that club. Quid pro quo. The club takes a punt on the player's ability to perform, and a player commits to a certain time frame.

If Sepp was really planning to abolish contracts, we'll end up with a situation where a club can sack a player with two weeks' severance pay. There'll be no security at all. That might go well for the best players in the world, who can flit from big contract to big contract, but it won't be as good for the mediocre player who suddenly develops a niggling, undiagnosed injury.

I don't know what the solution is, but when you get down to it, no one twisted Cristiano Ronaldo's arm and made him commit to four years (or whatever). He negotiated the length of his contract himself. He accepted a fixed salary for a set number of years, over negotiating a shorter length contract without the security of the guaranteed income. He signed a contract.

And the contract should be honoured.