A clear analysis of the exploding salaries of star football players and what that means to the economy of the sport on an international level.

Football is both an international sport and a social phenomenon. It has gone through a period of exponential development following substantial investments made by billionaires, the explosion of TV rights and profits from merchandising. The increasing number of transfers and the salaries paid have reached historic records. In 2017 alone, European teams spent more than 5 billion Euros.

However, this dynamic is fragile and the risk of the football bubble bursting is very real. But above all, behind this vision of a flourishing economy hides a harsher reality of the inequalities in the treatment between the rare superstars and the overwhelming majority of those players with modest incomes.

Pierre Rondea and Richard Bouigue explain why salaries have skyrocketed and offers solutions on how to protect the football economy.

Pierre Rondeau is a sports economist and a professor as the Sports Management School (Paris La Défense). He is the author of Coût Franc, les sciences économiques expliquées par le foot (Bréal, 2016), Management Football Club (Bréal, 2017) and Pourquoi les tirs au but devraient être tirés avant la prolongation (Le Bord de l’eau, 2017).

Richard Bouigue is an elected official of the city hall in the 12th arrondissement of Paris and is responsable for Sports at the Jean-Jaurès Foundation.