Why are footballers’ salaries so high?

This is a very old comment. Footballers, whilst role models in some sense, are not as societally critical as doctors, nurses, teachers, or firefighters. So do they warrant their high salaries?

The basis of a salary is the responsibility, qualifications, and affects one’s work has in an organisation and/or community. This is why the CEO of an organisation gets more money than the office cleaner.

A similar rationale applies for footballers. Footballers are the chief employees of any football club. All other employees, it can be argued, in a club are geared towards their success. Take Real Madrid. Ronaldo, Modric, Marcelo, or Kroos, win games, leagues, and Champions Leagues leading to more commercial revenue, TV rights, and match-day income for Los Blancos. This, in turn, provides medical staff, ground staff, or even HR and ICT staff, with continued employment.

With this scope, footballers as prime assets bring in big bucks so they can get the big bucks. Moreover, their talents are pretty much unique. Not many, ever, can be as good as Messi or Ronaldo.  Their talents bring in great revenues for numerous factors, namely FIFA, UEFA, La Liga, Real Madrid and Barca, Adidas, Nike, and various other firms/organisations.

So using the principle of responsibility and impact/effects, there is a sound reason why footballers get paid so much. They are prime entertainers.

It’s odd that few people question why Hollywood actors receive equivalent remuneration to footballers. Their roles are not strictly societally critical, yet like sportspeople generally, they do drive industries from top to bottom. Film executives and producers, right down to camera, video, make-up, etc. all rely on their continuance.

Similarly is true of musicians, or top people in other sports. What about Serena Williams, Usain Bolt, Conor MacGregor, or Lewis Hamilton? Tennis, track and field, or MMA, are not core social functions, are they?

So it’s pretty much natural that they get paid highly.

Is this ethical? Well, we accept readily the notion that, as aforecited, responsibility and scope are key factors in remuneration.

I would support the increased pay of doctors, nurses, firefighters, teachers, or other more societally critical fields.

However, what is societally critical as a point? Football and other sports provide a lot of employment to various sectors and are key entertainment vessels in the world. People need entertainment, and thus possibly Ronaldo and Messi are societally critical.