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Michel Platini's obligation
by Thanos Kalamidas
2009-07-28 08:51:47 |
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Michel Platini used to be a football player and a good one, which in football nowadays translates into an expensive one. The man enjoyed everything nationally and internationally and there isn’t a football trophy he didn’t touch, which again nowadays translates into all the major football clubs wanting him on their squad. And they want him at any cost. Teams such as Inter, Napoli, Arsenal, Valencia and Barcelona all wanted him, with Juventus being the winner.
His transfer from Saint-Étienne to Italian Juventus in 1982 saddened the fans of the French team, but in the end it was all about money and when it comes to sports we must remember that these players have an expiry date. So they must do the best they can in the shortest time possible. And this is fair. It is fair from the minute football is not amateurish anymore, but a game for professionals with very high demands put on them, especially when the players are doing championships like Platini did, like Russ did, and like Ronaldo does! Actually, Cristiano Ronaldo might be the exception that proves the rule, because according to the rule, most of these people started playing football when they were young, very young, but they were selected for a team when they were sixteen or seventeen, and then it took them another ten years to establish themselves and hone their talent. After this they have another five years to make the money and the reputation that will help them live for the rest of their lives. You see, out of the thousands of players that play for the national leagues, not all of them can become coaches or trainers, actually only very few. The rest have to find other ways to survive, most of the time not very glamorous ways.
Remember that we are talking about thousands of players, where the Platinis and Ronaldos are the exceptions. Also, football is not like playing chess. It is a dangerous game where accidents happen, vicious bad accidents. Accidents that destroy careers. Out of the thousands of players I mentioned before, hundreds of them see their career finishing because of a wrong kick, because of a stupid push, because the field was in bad condition. The accident means the end of a career, most of the time one step before moving to the big league, before getting to the money and the insured future. And then, the end! All the dreams, the efforts, the lifestyle are dead! What’s the common reaction? It’s a game! No! It’s not a game, it’s not a hobby, it’s not for personal pleasure, and that’s why it’s called professional football. I should write this in bold fonts, because I think that most of the time we forget this.
We forget that Cristiano Ronaldo is a bright and rare exception among thousands, if not millions of young kids all around the world. These kids see their professional future in the leather ball, investing all their time and sacrificing hundreds of small and big things, including families and pleasures. Instead we see Cristiano Ronaldo kissing Paris Hilton somewhere in Las Vegas and the untalented David Beckham dining with Tom Cruise!
To do any job you must have some kind of talent. An engineer can understand engines and a graphic designer can paint. If something happens to them, the state is there to support them – it doesn’t matter how small or big this support might be – and help. But when it comes to athletes, it seems that everybody, literally everybody is blinded by the bright flashes of David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo and the other …exceptions. You see, in sports and especially in football, everybody thinks that the exception is the rule. The same thing happens in all sports; in basketball people see Magic Johnson and in volleyball Steve Timmons, and the names might come from other decades but you know what I mean. The reason I talk about football is because it is the most popular sport all around the world, because it is the sport of the poor – you can see kids playing football in the refugee camps of Darfur and in the cities of Afghanistan. It is also the sport with the most amazing amount of money. An unbelievable amount of money.
Michel Platini knows all this because he was there. He didn’t start from Manchester United like Cristiano Ronaldo, but he had to climb his way up to the glory and the money. And he saw what happens with the other players, he was there when accidents happened and he was there when careers ended in one game. He knows what it is like to be considered professional, but dealt with as a hobbyist, and he knows well how it is when everybody thinks that you are millionaire just because the team spent millions on adding you to their squad, but still left you with pennies. Apparently he knows this very well. He lived it!
Michel Platini is the president of UEFA since July 2006, the powerful Union of European Football Associations. He did try to make some changes, but he hasn’t made the critical change; the one that would protect the dignity of the sport and the athletes. He is there, watching and making soft comments about the disappointment regarding the provocative transfers and the money involved with football nowadays. But this is his golden moment; these transfers and the unbelievable money spent is his chance to take control and change everything and three years just …watching and suggesting is enough if he wants to do something about the sport everybody loves. It is his obligation, not only because he is the president of UEFA but because he has been there!
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