Last summer I was dragged to Coleraine by my boyfriend to watch the final of the Milk Cup, Northern Ireland’s largest youth football competition.
Whilst standing watching Chelsea and Barcelona’s Under 16’s battle it out on the field my mind became laden with a long line of questions concerning the whole world of football, the first one being “what’s the big deal?”
Why when one team wins do fans immediately say “we” won? What “we”? You just sat there watching it on the TV!
Another question I asked was “why would someone want the dirty shirt of a sweaty footballer or any other item of football memorabilia?” I was quickly informed that anything such as a boot or shirt worn in an important match could be worth hundreds of pounds and if it’s signed, well then even better.
This shocked me. I don’t understand how people can put so much money into football, especially as there are people in third world countries, even here in the UK, suffering from poverty.
This week Chelsea signed Michael Ballack from Bayern Munich, agreeing to pay him approx £120,000 a week. Almost 2000 people are infected with HIV worldwide each day, but this is how people chose to spend their money!
Almost £757million in total was put into building the new Wembley stadium, plans for which started in 1995. Where was that kind of money at the time of the Tsunami or in the aftermath of the Indian earthquakes? It was being spent on a building site in inner London!
Today’s society is becoming more and more selfish, finding new and more expensive luxuries to waste their money on - football tickets costing up to £1000 at this week’s Champions League final for example. Given the chance, what would you spend the money on? A two-hour long sporting event or to save the lives of dying children? It’s your call!
About this article
This article was written by Terri McLaughlin. It was published on the Reach for the Sky website.
