Alert Amnesty International
Fri Jul 11 05:03PM
I am today launching a new initiative. It will involve public protest, lobbying, perhaps a march on the House of Commons and a delegation to the United Nations. In order to further its aims, maybe someone will have to chain themselves to the railings outside Number 10 Downing Street just to highlight the scandalously overlooked cause. It is a cause I hope you will see fit to join me in battling.
I am, of course, talking about the issue of slavery in football. Highlighted by the case of one poor soul currently suffering in the damp north of England. We'll call him C, so as not to compromise what little dignity the unhappy chap can have in his position as the victim of near-criminal exploitation.
I know it is not pleasant, but let's for a moment imagine ourselves in his position. He wants to be free, to break away from the cruel and inhuman shackles keeping him against his will in a dark and dangerous place, where he is liable at any moment to find himself the butt of a practical jokes perpetrated by a lanky centre-back filming a new show for satellite television. Or where, without notice, he might be shouted at by an elderly Scotsman with a red nose. Or where a spud-faced minor might lock him in a sweaty embrace of celebration.
If he were anyone else, anywhere else, he could walk away tomorrow. He would be allowed to fulfil his destiny, his dreams, his hopes. He would be able to wear a crisp and unsullied all-white uniform to work, instead of being forced to don costume in an unhappy shade of crimson. But in a cruel and unnecessary manner that harkens back to the worst excesses of empire, the poor mite is kept against his will, expected to scrape by on a pittance of no more than £120,000 a week, barely enough to keep him in a constant supply of hair gel. If we didn't speak up for him, who else would?
There is - however - another way of looking at Sepp Blatter's suggestion that modern footballers like Cristiano Ronaldo are slaves. It is that maybe these guys, instead of bleating about how unlucky they are, should consider their responsibilities. Instead of insisting that - since their earning days are short - they should be entitled to head off to whichever employer pays them the most no matter what the terms of their contract suggest, maybe they should pause to think about who exactly it is that pays the gargantuan wages they enjoy.
Money does not arrive in Ronaldo's bank account, for instance, by chance. Whatever Sepp Blatter may claim about the lad's current terms of employment, he is paid lavishly from money does not arrive out of the ether, nor is it plucked from the trees. It comes from the pockets of the fans of Manchester United, either through their season tickets, or through their purchase of merchandise or through their subscription to satellite television.
It is they who are supporting Ronaldo's lifestyle, with his new-build mansion in Cheshire and entourage of minders and hangers-on. It is they who are allowing him to live a life so financially elevated he can earn in a week what most of those supporting him would take several years to pick up. Maybe, in return for their financial largesse, these fans showed a little bit of respect.
And - although this is a concept apparently entirely absent from the modern footballer's mindset - maybe a little bit of loyalty. Instead of claiming slavery, maybe they should acknowledge their luck and not spit in the face of those who have propelled them to undreamt wealth.
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IM this storyif i were in the MU board place, after this, after he made clear his mind to leave for real madrid, i would relegate him to the reserves. what a looser is he... my father wouldn't earn £120,000 in his full life with 8 hours per day...
From atnif_leda on Sat Jul 12 11:15AMhe should stay at manchester united and play for the club they are the best club ever i mean every kid would love to play for manchester united i will support him and say he will stay good god lets end this case for now
From mel.wufootballfreak on Sat Jul 12 11:20AMI think "C" should suck it up! He should honor his contract and keep the mouth shut since he is way too overpaid even he was instrumental in winning ManU all of them trophies in past two seasons. Finally, if he is so eager to leave the club, ManU should sell him...I guarantee you, his price has peaked, better sell him now or risk seeing his price tumbling down like in cases of Ronaldinho, Adriano and others who seem to be nowhere when compared to two, three years ago...Being a Liverpool supporter, I would not mind seeing him leave..
)
From ddeejjaann2002 on Sat Jul 12 11:32AMGood job Mr White! Superb article!
From jin.curtis on Sat Jul 12 11:37AMI'm a Man Utd fan for Algeria. I really think the lad should show some respect to the club, the team mates and to the fans that allowed him to get where he is. Now, if he wants to leave, let him leave. The club is bigger than him. I totally agree with m.Jim white. Glory United glory.I don't think i can bear to see him again in the red shirt.
From hamokri on Sat Jul 12 11:40AMmanchester united forever...............
ronaldo is the legend for man utd.............
From mkas_280787 on Sat Jul 12 11:41AMNothing changes, a crafty look at the bench when you stab a colleague in the back, numerous affirmations of his intent to stay with Man U. No man is bigger than the team so U say let him go for as much as u can obtain,and cast him to vagories of a team who will blame him for everything that goes wrong. Thank you for a well penned article. bgsufc a 72 year old long suffering football fan
From albertmoulds1 on Sat Jul 12 11:42AMinmy view the footballers agents are the slave traders, not the clubs, in a freemarket enconomy a player should be incharge of his own destiny and he sells his talent to the highest bidder, just as in the oldest profession, take a look at cricket, today the players are lemmings at the thought of 4 year contract to the value of ronnies.
From kremlemway on Sat Jul 12 11:42AMslave is people who not pay for do ing some job....
ronaldo is a paying person...
so he not a slave...........From mkas_280787 on Sat Jul 12 11:44AMIn this world it is very simple, players signs a contract! A contract is an agreement with rules and clauses. If a contract is broken or ends earlier, their is a penalty(fees most likely). And it can be broken if the one who OFFERED the contract, which is the club, agrees to have it broken or breaks it. Ronaldo signed a contract, he was a NOBODY at Sporting, just some fanciful player there. MU bought him and refined him into a superstar. Now he got wings and wants to fly to RM. He thinks he had accomplished everything in Premier league after winning the Premier titles and the Champion League! But he is wrong, if I were him, he should continue his form in plays for MU. MU is not a small club, it is arguably the current Best European Club. Ronaldo is damn young, he can move later on a Bosman rule or when he is older like 27-28. In that way he might gain MORE wages on a Bosman transfer.
But it is sad, all in his mind is that RM is a great club with 9 Champion league titles. So what? Look at Owens and Beckham, and even Van Nisterol, they went there and did not even win any Champion League title!
SO I think Ronaldo has got to wake up his idea!!! Get real!!!
From greeklander88 on Sat Jul 12 11:45AMRight on, mate!!!
Too bad CR7 won't read this, and even worse that it probably wouldn't make a dent!
Regardless, GLORY, GLORY, MAN UNITED!!! Let's go for more trophies this year (and take back the FA Cup)!!!
From billshattner on Sat Jul 12 11:46AMhey, here's a thought: maybe they should pay him less! can you imagine the outrage? the scandal, the indignation! the tragedy! or maybe he should spend less, seeing that his earning days are short. buy less hair gel
, fire some of the hangers-on, sell some cars... or invest part of the money! jeez... the problems that some people have!From square_peg05 on Sat Jul 12 11:48AMCR is not a slave......
MU juz don't want Real manipulate Europe......From mkas_280787 on Sat Jul 12 11:50AMMy understanding is that once the slaves ronaldo and lamps have gone to Madread and Inter City Wonderers respectively, slave 'Big Boy Ballack' will be coming to WHUFC
From arttidesco@rocketmail.com on Sat Jul 12 11:53AMbest, charlton,law,beckham,cantona,keane,hughes,bruce ,giggs,scholes, ole , all true united greats ronoldo has a way to go yet so lets hope he stays and one day may be talked about in the same regaurd as these legends
From kevinwhyte88 on Sat Jul 12 11:54AMAlso I do not understand why Blatter used the word "slave"? Slave does not get paid GBP120,000 week!OR else I love to be MU's slave my whole life!!!LMAO!!!
Ronaldo is just like Rooney, Nani, Neville, Giggs, Scholes, and even Sir Alex. They are all employees of MU and PAID by MU. Ronaldo signed a contract and knew the terms and clauses when he joined MU. Why didn't he complain when he got so much better wages as compared to his days in Sporting? Cos he was well paid!
If I am MU, I will let him go with a high transfer fees. After all his heart is no longer in MU, so what for keeping a player where his heart is elsewhere? But Ronaldo is just another ungrateful punk! Van Nisterol and Beckham are different, cos Sir Alex benched them and you cannot blamed them to move to RM. Ronaldo was not benched at all. That's the difference. But after this SAGA, he can warm the bench the whole season or appear as late Sub. To Sir Alex who is a hard man, he is just a rebellious player and he will get the same treatment like others.From greeklander88 on Sat Jul 12 11:57AMrooney is a better player than ronaldo. I really think ronaldo should show some respect to his team mates at least. Lets not forget 90% of the penalties were from his team mates; and vast majority of his goals were set up by someone else (typically rooney).
If there is 1 player man utd cannot afford to lose at the current moment, then that player is rooney.
However, with the loss of ronaldo, man utd must either purchase or find a goal pouch type of player; with good heading ability and pace. I honestly think if trained well enough manoucho is more than enough to fill that role.
From nechi2001uk on Sat Jul 12 11:57AMLife is a journey not a destination! "c" ronaldo know what he want for his life.we all have a dream but only a fool will not let is dream come true and become slave.jose was sack despart on contract......so many like that on contract in a club and club decided to sell them because they are not needed anymore."But anyone who is alive in the world has some hope; a live dog is better off than a dead lion" let ronaldo live a freedom life and be free.to accomplish is dream,dream is only dream when will achieve it.
From tunbinext on Sat Jul 12 11:57AMGood point of views by the columnist...good job!
CR is FAR FROM being a SLAVE!
Show some gratitude & loyalty to the club that makes your name, Ronnie!.- united forever -
From v1v1leung on Sat Jul 12 11:58AMIf I want to leave my job for another company it will take me one month notice, no matter what my salary is. How come a footballer is forced to stay for years?? They can work out a rate that increases through the years but to say "you are here to stay for 4 more years" is a slavery to me!!
From jrad878 on Sat Jul 12 12:02PMTo call any footballer a slave is an absolute joke, I'd gladly give up my £35,000 a year job to be considered 'a slave' on £120,000 a week - in all honesty I'd do for £70,000 a week, I'm not greedy. The fact is Sepp Blatter loves to see his name on the back pages of every newspaper linked with some new controversy. It's his way of staying in the public eye. Platini has been brought up well by Blatter in my opinion.
A top article Mr. White.
From awkwardspike on Sat Jul 12 12:02PMTotally agree with tunbinext,
Too many people judge things with money. So naive! Maybe they grow up without a dream, or their dreams are all about money.
C already makes it clear that he wants to play at Madrid, it is his boyhood dream.
From wing_bristol on Sat Jul 12 12:14PMI am qualified in the Laws of Contract. As far as a football contrtact is concerned it is no different to any other. The contract is legally binding on both parties. If Ronaldo has signed a contract binfing him to Manchester United for the next four or five years then he is legally obliged to fulfil it. The only time a contract can be broken is by mutual consent or if there are clauses inserted that give a 'get out;. The laws of the land take precedence over whatever rules the Premier League, the FA, Eufa or FIFA impose. Sometimes contract will have 'negotiational clauses' such as re=assessing wages or bonuses but, other than that both sides must comply with it's terms. Of course if Ronaldo doesn't want to stay and shows this by deliberate poor performances or refusing to play then he can be fined two week's wages for each occasion, a move tha would soon leave him out of pocket. It is my professional opinion therefore that if Manchester United want to keep him then he has no choice in the matter.
From quatt47 on Sat Jul 12 12:15PMI believe he should be relegated to the reserves until he has paid, in full, to buy himself out of his contract.(Remember Jason Button did this for around £18M).
Once he is a "free agent" perhaps well find out how little he's really worth.From rjcdesign2002 on Sat Jul 12 12:23PMwell said quatt47.
to add to it, i'd like to say that if ronaldo was more mature about the matter and handled it better then I believe most people would accept his intentions and let him fulfill his dream and leave by mutual consent. But to cause all this controversy and havoc by neither accepting to stay or saying outright he wants to leave, he really deserves to be punished. If it really was his dream then why doesn't he just put man utd behind him and put 100% into joining Madrid; why does he not commit to his dream by leaving a door open for himself.
Man utd have never treated him poorly; look at what happened at the world cup between him and rooney, the entire team and fans stuck by him. He really needs to grow up and stop acting like a kid.
From nechi2001uk on Sat Jul 12 12:29PMLet the twit go already!!!! No shred of loyalty in this fellow. Best to be rid of him n all his rubbish.
From wsnpj on Sat Jul 12 12:47PMim only hearing comments about how ronaldo is a looser and that rooney is a better player ... U bunch of ingrats if MU won evrything last year is because and ONLY because Cristiano was in the team. English players alone cant win a damn thing we saw it in the euro qualifications so go find another hobby u bunch of loosers
From mauricechlela on Sat Jul 12 12:49PMMan U should keep him and then Fergie should sit him on the bench every week, so he has to face the onslaught of abuse and p*ss taking from every away supporter.
From elsie402931 on Sat Jul 12 12:55PMMan U are making the mistake of their life. People should understand and respect C. Ronaldo because he has brought glory to Man U. This is the time Man U can make a history by getting the most from C. Ronaldo. They can recover the so-called overpaid wages to Ronaldo. This money may be worth buying 10 potentially good players around the world. I doubt if Ronaldo can be twice as lucky scoring as many goals as the last season. Let him move on to another level. Football is a dangerous game and has a very short life span. There is no job all over the world that you cannot opt out at a price. If this is not there then it is a modern slavery. Let not deceive ourselves.
From warleykanmi on Sat Jul 12 12:56PMWhat silly people!!!!! If you keep somebody unhappy in your team, this person no longer gone gives you prdutivty that you expect. Why you dont let him go? In the end of all the football is money and produtivity
From joalmasa7 on Sat Jul 12 12:59PM
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Jim White
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