I am not a football fan and so this observation of mine comes with a slight bias but, can any man, in this case Torres, whose greatest ability is to be able to kick a ball fairly accurately be, not only worth a transfer fee of £50,000,000, but also a salary of £157,000 per week. Then there is Andy Carroll who I understand is more likely to grace the front pages of newspapers for his misdemeanours off pitch, than the back pages for his football skills, who has broken the premier league record for a transfer fee for an English player and Liverpool have paid £35,000,000 for him with an equally ridiculous salary.
Then there are the riots in Egypt by a people so impoverished that they live a life not even worthy of a dog whose President Mubarak is worth £20 billion plus (don’t know how many 0′s that is!) and yet he is determined to hang onto power and deprive his people of a decent lifestyle so that presumably he can corruptly syphon off more millions.
On the other hand the orphanage in Lesotho, that my eldest daughter worked in during her Gap year, has just sent out an SOS for urgently needed money to feed the children, since the World Food Programme has had to cancel its aid presumably due to lack of funds. It takes only 17p per day to feed one of these children. My daughter, who is just about to celebrate her 21st, is asking all her relations to send a donation to the Mants’ase orphanage rather than buy her a present.
As often happens on these days I think the world has gone mad and we need a complete re-shuffle of funds and Mr. Abramovich (owner of Chelsea FC) and Mr. Henry (owner of Liverpool FC) might start a trend and not pay these ridiculous fees in order to possibly win some silverware, though I am reliably informed by wiser football fans than I that these purchases do not guarantee them this glory that they so desire.
As for President Mubarak I hope that the millions demonstrating on the streets of Egypt today get the democracy that they crave and the quality of life that every human deserves and my daughter raises a lot of 17p’s!