Letter: Football is a business

One agent alone earned £30m during that period. How much did his colleagues? Perhaps the truth was that Premier League clubs spent nearer to £1.5bn may have been more accurate when 'loan' payments, signing-on bonuses and agents' fees are taken into account.

The Premier League is an obscenely wealthy collection of business organisations – deliberately written because they're hardly football clubs any more with the emphasis that they all put on either staying there or getting even richer from the wealth of football competitions in Europe. Never mind the 'tours' they take into the Far East, Australia and the American continent.

Of course some if these businesses will grumble about the amount of football their employees have to play for their home countries, saying that their players will be tired towards the end of the season. Yet they're the main reason why players may become 'tired' because of the owners chase after more money into their pockets.

Players don't help themselves either. They're very happy to take the high wages on offer in the Premier League, but what do they put back into 'sport' during their career or afterwards when retired? It's said that players who represent England donate their match fees to charity, after taxes and, probably, agents fees they wouldn't see a lot if it anyway. When you're receiving a seven figure wage from your employer, representing your country hardly seems worth it to many, in fact England players in the not too distant past have said that they'd sooner win the 'Champions League' than the World Cup! To be the world's best should be the ultimate aim for any player, it doesn't seem that way with too many of these 'players'.

The 'rich' get richer with the money pumped into the Premier League, from TV and sports goods companies, never mind the shirt sponsors. The 'poor' relations in the Football League will find the 'gap' between 'them' and 'us' growing ever bigger every year. How will promoted clubs cope with the wealth there! Well three of the favourites with the bookmakers for relegation just happen to be the newly promoted ones. In the Championship the favourites for promotion are the newly relegated teams, who spent at least two thirds of the £180m spent on new players during the transfer window.

It's noteworthy that many of the new players brought in are not 'British'. Why? Well they may be 'names', like Pogba, they may be 'cheaper' than home born British players, they may even be capable of keeping a 'business' in the Premier league. None of these things help develop new British players who can represent their country of birth. The excuse given by too many Premier League managers is that they can't risk young players in the pressure cooker Premier League. Poppycock. The real reason is that they're frightened of losing their jobs if their employers are dissatisfied with results.

One of the worst things that ever happened in British football was the 'founding' of the Premier League with the TV money flooding into it. It claims to be the 'best' league in Europe, if not the world. It isn't. Just probably the richest.

It's been several years since a British team won a major European competition, even longer for a national team. Why? No structured development of British players here. Too much money swilling around enables 'success' to be 'bought'.

The future of football as a sport is cloudy. It cannot continue its growth as it has over the last few years. It's not possible. It makes me almost grateful to be the age I am. I am probably right in my vision of the future. In the meantime enjoy while we can, any success for our local clubs, if not for our home countries in international competition.

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