In Praise of Celebrity Football.(International Edition; GAME POINT)(Essay)

Myth 4: Only a handful of teams have enough money to win year after year. This is simply not true.

Is there too much money in European football? Its critics say some of the top teams are spending such enormous sums that no one else could even hope to compete. A quick look at the headlines shows they may have a point. Over the last decade, billionaires like Roman Abramovich of Russia, the American Malcolm Glazer and Abu Dhabi's Sheik Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahayan have spent fortunes buying English football clubs. Player salaries have increased dramatically, and footballers like David Beckham and Wayne Rooney now rank among Britain's wealthiest people. But the allegations about the relationship between football and money have given rise to a number of myths about the way football is played--and what it is likely to look like in the years to come.

MYTH 1: Today's players care more about money than they care about the game. That may be true for a very small percentage of players, maybe 10 percent. But those afflicted by this problem are usually the midlevel players, not the best ones. The top players, and I was among them, are already financially secure. The Sunday Times Rich List estimates that their net worth can be as high as [pounds sterling]125 million for a player like Beckham. Manchester United's Rooney has [pounds sterling]35 million. Having more money will not change their lives, and they know that if they were to think about money they would quickly disappear from the game. Instead, these athletes have one goal in mind: winning and attaining the kind of respect one gets from delivering. At a certain level, the money is an afterthought.

MYTH 2: There is too much celebrity in the game. A quick scan of the papers at a newsstand in any European city shows just how important the top players are to the media, with their exploits on and off the field chronicled on a daily basis. In fact, some of the stars seem to have become bywords for overpaid loutish extravagance. But the savviest players have themselves learned to exploit the media. Beckham and Rooney are perhaps the most successful, and as long as they are careful, with the help of agents and advisers, not to devolve into ugly behavior, the media exposure brings them more sponsorships and ultimately more money. The fact that people keep buying newspapers, attend matches and watch them on television proves that celebrity culture has not affected the game's quality or people's affection for it.

MYTH 3: The financial crisis will hurt the sport. The bottom line is that English football is not hurting. All the stadiums are full. Sponsors are ready to spend a lot of money, and for every firm that needs to bail out, a new one will come in. Insurance giant ...