Money has ever been a motivating force in soccer; in fact this is the only game where money roles faster than anywhere else. To provide a level playing field across the soccer playing nations, European governing body even introduced Financial Fair Play policies but they did not provide the atmosphere everyone had expected. Clubs still spend mounting money to lure their choice of players and adjust the money paid with different tricks into their financial statements – we have seen how Neymar issue is being dragged into the court. If we look at current system, cost of hiring players in a transfer window has increased by more than forty percent to what it had been in the similar period last year, which means, clubs are exaggeratedly willing to throw away any price for their lovely players irrespective of what FFP says. On one side, it helps players earn more than they used to be, but on the other side, it also concentrates finest talent of the game to few high rich soccer clubs and this is what we are seeing today. FIFPro, the world players union, has come forward against this practice and asked FIFA to strengthen current transfer of players’ mechanism in such a way that it could offer equal opportunities to both rich and poor clubs so this game could add more regions under its vicinity.
FIFPro president Philippe Piat lambasted current system via a statement where he said, “Today, transfer fees are exorbitant and obscene. It’s the system that permits this, just as it allows clubs to run with enormous deficits. It even authorises third party ownership to trade shares in a player, as is done in the world of horses. These trends must worry all those who are thinking about and preparing for the football of tomorrow, as they worry FIFPro.”
Though, both FIFA and UEFA have long been pointing the same thing FIFPro is saying right now, but they failed to provide a level playing field across every aspiring soccer region and that is why players union has to come forward against current practice. Piat added, “We see this trend developing on numerous levels through our vast experience of nearly fifty years in the game and the complaints received from of our 55 member unions worldwide who show us daily that the majority of professional players are denied their basic rights.
“Part of the problem is these are ‘invisible’ players, those who do not command the attention of the wider public, whereas in actual fact they are the front line of this battle. Their struggles are representative and symptomatic of the transfer system’s core deficiencies.”