Tuesday, February 12, 2008

On Soccer Whores

Cherie Getchell of Soccerlens wrote an interesting article a couple of days ago.

Much has been made about the strength of South Africa’s infrastructure to host a successful World Cup. To that end, South Africa is considering beefing up their capabilities in providing the best World Cup possible by legalizing prostitution.

It was South African police commissioner Jackie Selebi who first proposed the idea, arguing that if prostitution is legalized, it would free up police to deal with more pressing security issues.


But this was not the whoring that has been consuming the football world over the last few days. If you really want to hear some venom, just go to any English football fan and whisper the number "39."

Here's what the Gaffer (EPL Talk) said about the topic yesterday:

With the Premier League and its 20 clubs, they’re all in for the money and nothing else. By shaking up the system and becoming open to playing one round of games overseas, they’re making waves in the world of advertising. By taking the Premier League of today to the international Premier League of 2010/2011, the league will be able to generate more money from advertisers. After all, their brand will be seen by more people overseas as interest in the league continues to grow in those countries.

Playing matches overseas will also create interest in acquiring TV rights to the league in those foreign countries. You can expect more TV companies to be interested in bidding on the rights, which means the league will be able to generate even more TV revenue for its clubs.

While the league has been chastised for even considering the proposal to play matches overseas (now commonly referred to as the 39th step), you have to give credit to the Premier League if you’re a businessman or marketer. If you’re a football fan, you probably hate the idea. But from a marketing and business perspective, the moves they’re making are pure genius.


Yes, a number of English football fans object to playing games outside of England for monetary purposes. But then again, there are English football fans who object to Fabio Capello's appointment solely because of his country of citizenship.

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Whenever people talk about legalizing prostitution, what they're really talking about is legalizing "pimping" (brothels, agencies, etc.), which is mainly the realm of men making money off working women, while keeping it illegal for independent women to control their own prostitution experience (like keeping all of the money they make instead of forking over half or more to their boss). If anybody here is interested in an independent working girl’s blog you can check out mine.

Ontario Emperor said...

One argument made for legalizing establishments, instead of independent sex workers, is that the establishments can ensure that their employees get health checks, AIDS tests, etc. Of course, from an economic standpoint, that's the same as arguing that it should be illegal to buy food from street vendors...wait a minute, it probably already is...

We'll have to see how Ron Paul and his baba booeys stand on this issue. Doctrinaire libertarians are all for legalizing prostitution, but privatizing the "freeways" that you use to get to the establishments.

It's interesting that 69 raised a comment while 39 didn't. Then again, mrontemp isn't known as a big footy blog.

Anonymous said...

Should there be a Salary Cap in Football?
Personally I think there should be! It’s just getting to be stupid money in football at the top of the premiership!
It’s always the same teams at the top proving that football success is based purely on money which ruins the idea of it being a sport! They’ve done it in rugby, basketball, hockey and American football and it makes the sports more competitive and better to watch!
I do a little Spread Betting from time to time and most matches don’t hold much surprise who is going to win, its boring! I want to see a team at the bottom pulling off an amazing season beating last seasons winners in a close fought battle!
Make things fair! It shouldn’t be about money!
Plus!
All there is all that money in the premiership and barely any of it stays in the UK so it’s not even helping the economy!
From my Spread Betting, if I ever win big (which is never, I’m unlucky) it’s still nothing compared to the average premiership players weekly wage!
This Rant was brought to you by Spread Betting Spike. 

Ontario Emperor said...

Yes, I allowed the preceding comment, because (1) it added to the discussion, and (2) I was amused by someone who complained about "stupid money" while promoting a betting site. JJ did make a valid point: "[I]f I ever win big (which is never, I’m unlucky) it’s still nothing compared to the average premiership players weekly wage!" But I wonder what JJ thinks about the ownership and the money that some of them (not all of them) are hauling away?