I can distinctly remember my earliest football memory. It was the arrival of the English Premier League, and my family was in a holiday town in Zimbabwe. My father took my brother and I to a shop to buy a cap for our favourite team. Quick with his choice, my brother grabbed the red and white of Liverpool. On the other hand, I was not so sure. I was too young to know the old Division 1 or understand what I was picking. There were 22 caps to pick from, and I had no idea who any of the teams were. For a while I ummed and ahh’d over two designs. I was going purely on aesthetics. Eventually, Manchester United won out. From that day, I pledged allegiance. Learning about the team was step one. Then came the kit purchase– I still have it. The love for United was planted in me on this day, and more than 30 years later, it has become an unbreakable bond. Unfortunately, there is a point of disillusion creeping in. With United to some degree, but football as a whole. Some could argue that generally happens with age, but it is hard not to acknowledge it specifically to football.

United is famed for its youth academy. Dating back to October 1937, the club has had an academy product as part of the matchday squad. It’s a feat that perhaps will never be matched. A record to be proud of and one that any United fan is excited to shout about. However, on March 8 2025, it was an academy product that ignited furore within this United fan. Kobbie Mainoo had rejected a new contract worth 180 thousand pounds per week. This equates to 9,360,000 over a year before tax. It is the kind of money that would provide a very comfortable life for anyone. Significantly, it is the kind of money that some people will never earn in a lifetime of working, let alone one year. This is the crux of the umbrage.

Football provides an escape for billions of people across the globe. It is the most watched sport, and the single most watched sporting event for the World Cup final. It is an understatement to call it’s following huge. Unfortunately, it’s hard to ignore the reality of life. It’s impossible to ignore that life exists outside of football. It’s hard to ignore that people are currently living through a cost of living crisis, ever existing threats of war, and widening economic gaps. These are very real problems. Mainoo is not the first, nor the last footballer to reject a contract after deeming the offered wage to be too little. Ashley Cole infamously wrote, “I nearly crashed my car” when talking about the 60 thousand pound a week offer that Arsenal offered him as too low back in 2006. To add fuel to the fire, footballers are rejecting transfers because they deem contract offers not worthy.

Marcus Rashford has constantly spoken of his desire to play for Barcelona. The one big stumbling block in a move for him is not just the transfer fee, but his wage demands. Rashford has constantly said he would be unwilling to reduce his reported 225 thousand a week wage. It is this unwillingness from footballers that spits in the face of the hard-working fans that support them, watching them week in week out. Counter arguments could be made for justifying the demands and requests of footballers, but in the face of a global economic downturn and the financial elite widening the financial gaps, it is hard to feel any sympathy for footballer’s eccentric wage demands. Latest data by the University of New South Wales shows that the highest 10% of Australia’s wealthy, grows wealth faster than 70% of the rest of the country.

Fixture lists are congested, footballers are working hard, their careers are short, they are doing what anyone would do in a job wage negotiation. Whilst some may argue these cases, the weight of these holds -for me- nothing. Footballers of today are far gone from the working-class roots that their clubs were formed on. Unfortunately, this creates the vast canyon like gap between those who wear the shirt, and those supporting it week in and week out. Fans are created through generations, generations that come from hard work and industrious labour. The working class will always hold the majority of the fan base, and the worker ethic will always remain prominent within the fan base. Players demanding wages above and beyond that of those they play for will always hold a strong distaste.

I will always tune in to watch my team, and wear the club colours with pride. Passion will always exude from my chanting, and the nerves will always be a wreck during the 90 minutes of drama that unfolds on the football field. Supporting your football team is a must. It was ingrained in us by those who came before. Unfortunately, I sense the growing disillusion in doing so will only get bigger. It is hard not to feel a lack of sympathy for footballers who cry in woe when they feel a wage offer of six figures is not good enough, particularly when earnt weekly. I do not feel their anger. My anger is in reading of electricity price increases, or that my wage is 9% below inflation. My anger is in knowing no matter how hard I work, I will never -in my lifetime- earn close to the salary a modern footballer earns in a year. Football was made by the workers. Sadly, the workers no longer hold value to the football.