FOOTBALL FINANCES (2)

It's hard to feel sorry for football players. To someone like me, they seem to get paid an awful lot of money for not doing very much; indeed, with so many substitutions allowed, they don't often play a full game any more. And while they are playing, they act like prima donnas and cry babies, challenging refereeing decisions, falling over in the box in the hope of a penalty, and doing weird things like biting their opponents.

However, these things apply mainly to the big leagues in the major countries such as England, Germany and Spain. In smaller countries such as Denmark, football finances are precarious, since crowds are small. The hot team of the moment, Hobro, who came up from the second-best division last season, have a lot of part-timers. As a consequence, players wishing to make money generally have to go abroad.

Wage negotiations in Denmark are normally carried out between strong unions and strong employer organisations. Strange as that may seem to outsiders, that is also the way it is done for footballers. The two sides are currently locked in negotiations over a new basic contract that sets out terms and conditions (though not individual pay rates). Since non-agreement would mean that Danish clubs could not participate in the qualification stages of the Champions League and Europa League, I fully expect them to find a solution.

Walter Blotscher

Update: They did.