Professional Soccer

[Rawthentic]

Professional soccer (football) players today are negated the freedom to play with joy to be tied down with the rigors of producing and winning at all costs. They fool their bodies with stimulants and creams to keep their performance up, not their happiness. Soccer, the beautiful game, is losing its beauty for a game of quickness and brutality.

In the first part of my signature, I outline why these players are workers, in a different way, yet they are workers. They sell their playing-power to the capitalist, which in this case is the owner of the club, and receives a salary or wage in return. They have no say as to when they play or how they play at all. The times they play at must be complimentary to the large television networks, and how they play must be always to win, no matter what. International soccer's governing body, FIFA, is a bunch of bureaucratic rich men that act more in the interests of Nike, Adidas, Coca-Cola, and McDonalds than the actual players they are supposed to represent. When player cry out for an injustice, they are told to shut up and play.

Im sure many people here know of Diego Maradona, and how his career was ruined by the cocaine scandal. Well, he used cocaine to get away from all the pressures and the rigors of being a famous commodity, of being oppressed as a human and as an artist, and was then chastised and expelled from the very same system that perpetuated his use of cocaine.

What are people's thoughts on this? Should these players be considered proletarians?

[phoenixoftime]

I would think so; in the same vein as musicians, who too are treated like commodities, stripped of their freedom-of-expression and trapped inside the corrupt record industry.

Having said that, I find it hard to condone the excessive wages that footballers get paid.

[Fawkes]

I can see how they are proletarians, yet they are lucky ones because they get paid huge amounts for what they do.

[Rawthentic]

Yes. that is correct, alot do get paid great sums, but the majority get paid about 50,000-80,000 dollars per year, and thats only in the advanced nations. You go to underdeveloped ones, like South America that has produced the greatest players in the world, and only about 3 out 10 pro players manage to make a living out of playing the sport. It is in these nations where soccer has become and export industry, where the best players follow a chain until they are sold to the big clubs (corporations) in Europe. Due to this, the level of soccer in South America has dropped, as well as the number of fans.

[Fawkes]

At least they get to be doing something that they enjoy to do unlike most proles.

[Rawthentic]

Agreed. Man, I love soccer, I used to want to be a pro player when I was younger, and I still have the skill to do so, but I've just gotten so disillusioned.

[Jamal]

The game has unfortunately been turned to a merchandise. Making money is the only interest of the team. It became just like any other form of trade and capitalism. I enjoy the game very much, bt I get pissed off when I hear something like David Beckham is getting payed $250,000,000 for his move from Real Madrid to LA Galaxy* and people are dying from hunger and poverty in the "third world" countries! :angry:

[Rawthentic]

True, things like that infuriate me as well. Beckham is more of a model and a star than an elegant player. He plays for the money.

[Comrade_Scott]

well i know alot of top level football players and they tell me they willingly subject themselves to win every week. they tell me the only thing they would change is the post match tranning. anyway as someone playing club ball the brutality is a necesity and hell no one wants to loose a match so we subject ourselves to that. the thing i have an issue with is if a player wants to leave then let him/her, dont fight them out let them go of there own free will and stop *****ing.

[Comrade_Scott]

However david beckham made me laugh. he is getting paid 128m for doing nothing. he is a washed up footballer who needs to retire and is milking his status for all its worth. when he plays he makes a mokery of the sport and as much as i hate the england national team i felt sorry when beks led them out in 06 because there were so many better players than him who wernt even farted on (nolan from bolton should have played) :)

[Rawthentic]

Do you watch football in England? Whose your favorite team?

[The Grey Blur]

A guy from my organisation wrote a book on football and it's working-class base.

http://members.tripod.com/~militant/Reclaim_the_Game

I'm not sure about categorising all players as proles though.

[Comrade_Scott]

first bolton and then man utd then west brom (man utd because ive been loving them since i was 5 and they play lovely football- and of all the top 3 they make there own players) bolton because they play the way the game should be played to win and frustrate the opponent (and contrary to popular belife they play lovely football)

[вор в законе]

Its called football, not soccer. :D

Just taking the piss

I agree with most things said here. Sport have become a commodity. In fact, football is the most profitable sport, just see the agreement$ and the revenues of the companies during the world cup. We are talking about a lot of money.

Another trait of football - and of most team sports - is that it serves as a modern day coliseum for the people, a thing to makes them forget about the real problems, to divide them into teams etc. Those who live in a country were football is a dominant sport know what I'm talking about.

[Janus]

Professional sportsplayers certainly have the same basic roles and organizations that most workers do but their salaries are usually much greater. Of course, salary isn't supposed to determine one's class yet some professional players make so much money that they can definitely be classified as part of the petite bourgeoisie especially if they invest this money in order to further amass capital.