Football player Lionel Messi in Saudi Arabia will be 33 million euros Per month can earn. That’s 7 million more than he did at his current club, Paris Saint-Germain, every year Obtains. His salary is 400 million euros on an annual basis. That’s 1.2 million a day.
Messi earns more on one Tuesday morning than all MVV players in Maastricht in an entire season. They can distribute 750 thousand euros. Messi doesn’t have to do it for the money. The star has long since become a billionaire, thanks not only to football salaries and bonuses, but also to his promotional campaigns. For example, he will receive 25 million annually to polish the image of Saudi Arabia – a country that does not take gay rights seriously. He is the ambassador for major brands such as Adidas, Pepsi, Louis Vuitton, Lays, and Gatorade. Money is also flowing to the PSG striker through social media. For a commercial on the Instagram profile of the global star, who has 460 million followers, one would have to pay 1.72 million euros. It is itself a multinational company.
What is not acceptable in normal society is possible in football. Not long ago, a large banner was unfurled in a stadium – the same size as last weekend in De Kuip – with the eye-catching inscription: ‘Made by the poor, made by the rich’. Perhaps this is true of all sports. Since television rights revenues have exploded and Arab sheikhs, American billionaires and Russian oligarchs have infiltrated the sport, the gate has opened.
If this trend continues, the best footballers will earn €1 billion per season in 2033. It’s not just about football. The newspaper reported last week that the organizers of the tennis tournament at Roland Garros in Paris raised the value of the prize money by 12.3% to 49.6 million euros. The male and female winners receive 2.3 million each. Those who die in the second qualifying round will receive €22,000. This is a lot of money, but the winner gets a hundredfold.
In 1968, when there was no question of gender equality, the winner received 2,000 euros and the winner 750 euros. The winner now gets a thousand doubloons. In 1968, a loaf of bread averaged €0.36 and a glass of beer averaged €0.54. A loaf of bread now costs an average of €2.19 and a glass of beer €3.50. This is a six or sevenfold increase. In 1968 the average salary was €3,500 a year, now it’s €40,000 – a twelvefold increase.
The salaries of the best athletes have increased by a thousand, if not ten thousand times. It’s an absurd world. Athletes are looked up to as role models, but in terms of income, the income disparity is nowhere matched by sports. Even the payroll distribution in multinational corporations is almost a communist utopia by comparison.
Mathematical inflation – you can call it spin inflation – is the magnifying stage of hyperinflation. And this usually ends very badly.
