Football Field

Sometimes it happens in the school playground where we like the colour of a shirt (although this reason totally baffles me). Other times it is because we like to support the underdog. For me the choice of football team to support was easy. I was born in Davyhulme, grew up in Swinton, now part of Salford near Manchester, and went to a school where 90% of the boys were Manchester United fans. I know this will dispel the popular myth that people in Manchester don’t support United but who cares. As Mancunians we know the truth. I’ve been in life threatening situations, I’ve been carried away with immense emotion and I’ve screamed my lungs out so hard that my voice was left to the football God’s for days before slowly and painfully crawling its’ way back. I’ve witnessed decades where rivals have gloated over success while we continued to flatter to deceive. I’ve laughed, I’ve cried and I’ve fallen out with friends and family alike. Whatever the reason that you support your team; there is n …

As of this writing, we even have the ex-Thai Prime Minister wanting a slice of the action by taking over the reins of Manchester City. Is the Premiership gradually becoming an expensive playground for the super-rich? I fear the answer is yes. And how true can this get, going by the latest annual review of soccer by one of the world s top-four auditors Deloitte & Touche. The Deloitte Annual Review of Football Finance, released on 31 May 2007, revealed that the following startling financial facts: 1) The combined wages of the English Premier League is expected to surpass the 1billion mark for the first time ever since the competition was formally inaugurated in 1992 1993. The wages of the twenty teams rose to 854 million for season 2005 2006 compared to merely 168 million in 2005. Now isn t it wonderful to be a soccer player instead of having a desk-bound job? 2) Wait, the rich pickings gets better for we can expect the first 200,000 a-week player in the EPL to emerge before …