Inequality: Why do footballers get paid so much?

I still ponder this question as I turn on my TV to catch a glimpse of some young sweaty men racing round a pitch after a leather ball. I still can’t believe they get paid an absolute bomb to burn off a few calories, whilst there are still children in Africa clutching their swollen malnutritioned stomach and walking miles to get a droplet of water.

The world has its priorities wrong.

What is so great about football anyway?

Men seem to love it. Every World Cup or Euro event you can almost taste the tension in the air, as they sit themselves down at their local pub, grab a pint and a packet of peanuts and prepare themselves for what they believe is possibly the most ‘important match of the year’.

Killjoy, I hear you whisper. Yes, maybe I am, I understand football can unite countries and pull together nations and all that corny crap, but if you dig down into the surface, is it really doing the world any favours?

Maybe, we should start to think not about the millions of pounds being wasted on men that already have a few million in the bank, and instead the poor poverty stricken children that lay with growling stomachs under the scorching sun.

Do Wayne Rooney or David Beckam really need that extra few grand or could it be given to a young child trying to care for their dying mother?

At a time when sport is so important, in the year 2012, with the Olympics and the Euro 2012 not many people are going to agree with my negative view against the game. They believe the Olympics is showing off London’s greatest gems and England’s achievements and beauties, I simply believe it is all a rather big waste of money. How many years have they spent slaving over the Olympic sight, how many thousands of pounds has been spent to ensure that the jumping, swimming, running and cycling goes to plan?

Could this money be better spent? Don’t we have enough problems on our plate, with the recession? I understand the Olympics may be taking some people’s minds off the issues we are facing, but that is called burying your head in the sand, or rather the sandpit. Surely we should be trying to aid poverty and pump a bit of money into the economy rather than blow it all on a big event that will be over in a couple of months?

I can see the proud English citizens shaking their heads in fury at my suggestion and stating ‘This is the first time in years that we have had the Olympics in our country’ and yes I do understand that, but rather than glorifying our own country couldn't we try to help another that is still suffering?

So next time you settle down on your sofa, in your central heated lounge, with a cup of tea boiled from your kettle, and switch off your lights, and take a biscuit from the metal tin, think about all those people less fortunate as you as you watch the lads zoom around the pitch, shouting, sometimes swearing, sweating and swaggering in an attempt to score goals and save goals and get a few hearts pounding and pulses racing.

Written by Victoria Munro in 2012 for AS English Language course.