Does Football Have a Positive or Negative Impact on the City of Manchester - Essay Example

Topic: Does football have a positive or negative impact on the of Manchester? 29/8 Does football have a positive or negativeimpact on the city of Manchester? Soccer, or Football as it is generally known today, is the most played and the most watched sports in the world as of now. Its popularity is spread all over the continents and in the early history of football an organization was much needed to control the affairs of football internationally. The Champions League Final between Manchester United Football Club and Barcelona Football Club officially broke all records of the highest viewership of any televised program. It’s a multi Billion dollar industry and it is literally a money making organization. People all over the world watch football even if they are not interested in playing it. Players of important and rich clubs are considered super stars and are treated with the utmost reverence. Their earnings are in millions and they enjoy limitless bounties. Having established the fact that Football is one of the highest viewed and one of the most famous sports in the world we can come to the conclusion that football can have a large impact on the society and economy of any country or city etc. The city of Manchester is one such country which has been hugely affected by the activity in football. There are many football clubs in London which account for the best entertainment for people on the weekends. Due to these clubs there is a lot of activity apart from the business point of view. The matches that are held every weekend report the audiences in tens of thousands in number. It has a large impact on the local business of Manchester. Millions of pounds are earned each week through television rights and ticket sales. But despite all of this there are many negative effects on the city of Manchester because of the activities regarding football. Education, time and a lot of other important things are compromised due to the high popularity of football in Manchester. So in no way it can be concluded that football has only a positive effect on the city of Manchester. Education is one of the main things which get affected and shamefully majority has failed to identify this. Being the national sports of England most youngsters wish to join a football club by the time they are 14 and because Manchester has one of the biggest clubs in Europe education becomes a formality for most of the young generation. The huge sums of money involved provide a major source of attraction luring scores of youngsters away from the necessary education. The upheaval of economy has made the government blind towards the negative social impact, football has had on the city of Manchester. It is hardly noticed that most of the students who excel at the highest level of education are immigrants from abroad (Rosca 2010). The impact that football has had on the city of Manchester cannot be ignored. The locals of Manchester are affected in a variety of ways through the activities of football. The money generated by the clubs through selling of merchandise, television rights and high tickets sale is in such huge amounts that the economy of Manchester is influenced by it. Thousands of supporters go to watch the matches and buy the merchandise in huge numbers which generates a lot of profit for the clubs. The local business gains a lot from selling the merchandise of different clubs because supporters come in huge numbers to buy the club t-shirts, kits and other merchandise stuff. It is a very huge business worth thousands of dollars, and is backed by the fans of the sports (Hitt et al 2011). The effects are not limited to the economy or the business of the city. Its affects reaches out to the society as well. Football brings a lot of people together. It forms a kind of bond between the supporters of a any club, because they share a passion and can relate themselves to each other. Fans of football clubs consider each other to be like brothers, and treat each other as families. They fight for their favorite clubs as if they are fighting for their families. If anyone insults or tries to degrade the club they support they can go as far as getting involved in a brawl with others which shows their loyalty and support to the clubs. This promotes brother hood among the people of clubs, if we ignore the negative point of view of the fights. Many people also maintain blogs and websites to support their clubs and spend a lot of time maintain them and many people read them every day because it is of their interest which encourages reading and writing among those who do not give enough significance to their education. Other than that many people are also inspired by the way clubs win matches and trophies. Their failure and the way they cope with them are a source of inspiration for a lot of youngsters who watch football regularly. They also learn different strategies to cope with different problems because they research a lot about football and learn the art of their trade. People who are deeply involved in the events and episodes of football experience many things and they learn about the lives of super stars and discover new things every now and then. Soccer also provides a chance to bring out the best out of those who do not excel in their studies, but are more interested in football. Through football many people who do not have enough money for education, many citizens make a career out of (Rosca 2010; Swinnen & Thijs Vandemoortele 2008). As stated above, however, it is important to take the negative effects of football on the city of Manchester, into consideration. There are some major negative effects which have been neglected by the British government. One of the most important effects which need to be discussed in detail is the turmoil in which the education of Manchester is in due to the vast influence that football has on the citizens of Manchester. As a whole educational institutions in Manchester are widely recognized all over the world. However, those who excel in those institutions are foreign students from other parts of the world. Yes, there are some exceptions to this but the proportion of students from Manchester who are excelling in these institutions is negligible compared to the population of Manchester. A vast majority is blinded by this fact due to obvious reasons. The economy of Manchester is so well established due to the popularity level of football and the effect it has on its economy that it is difficult to create awareness amongst the people especially youngsters about the importance of education. The young generation is inspired by the lavish life styles and the payrolls received by nearly every player in the three major clubs of Manchester namely Manchester united, Manchester city and Bolton wanderers. Even players of Bolton wanderers which is the most lowly ranked amongst the three Manchester clubs are paid at least 20,000 pounds per week (The Telegraph 2010; WG 2011; Hitt et al 2011). Players enrolled in bigger clubs receive as much as 2 million pounds per week. Taking these facts into consideration, a vast majority of the emerging generation wish to be a part of a major club by the time they are aged 14. This leaves just a handful of youngsters who wish to excel in various educational fields. A large number of students taking education as a field are due to their lack of ability on the soccer pitch. However, these students lack motivation as education had never been their utmost priority. This is a serious matter which must be taken into consideration by the local government. Turning a blind eye towards this fact can have disastrous effects on the social setup of Manchester in the forthcoming future. The buzz all over Manchester each week over the weekend matches outweighs all other aspects of the personal life of each and every citizen of Manchester. And the fact that this carries on for the majority of the year is dreadful when considering the effect it has on education (Rosca 2010; Swinnen & Vandemoortele 2008). Another negative impact football has on Manchester is on its atmosphere. The film “The Green street hooligans” described the effect of football on the atmosphere in a precise way. Fans of the respective clubs get involved in fights which end up in deaths. They can also get in trouble with the authorities and end up being jailed for months at a stretch. Disputes can break out on streets, pubs, and other public places on the topic of football which can create a very negative impact on the people and specially children. The language used by the players on the football pitch is inconvenient as football is watched by a large audience, including children as young as 6 years of age. These children tend to imitate their idols and learn the offensive behavior demonstrated by the stars of football (Poulton 2006). It can be concluded that the effect football has on the city of Manchester is widespread. Yes, the positive impacts do outweigh the negative ones but the negative impacts cannot be neglected. Football does offer a major boost up for the economy of Manchester but the effects it has on the education system of Manchester is enormous. People should start realizing the importance of establishing a good educational background for the young generation instead of being blinded by the money involved in the business of football. All in all football should be treated in a manner in which it can be beneficial for the city of Manchester instead of getting affected negatively by it. References Top of Form Vlad ROSCA. (2010). Strategic Development of the Manchester United Football Club. Editura ASE. [Online][Accessed on 29th August 2011] Available from Sports and Development: An Economic Perspective on the Impact of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Jo Swinnen & Thijs Vandemoortele 2008 Manchester United top world rich list. WG 2011. Football Economy. [Online] [Accessed on 29th August 2011] The Telegraph Staff and Agencies (2010)Manchester United announce record operating profit of £100.8m but post £83.6m loss. The Telegraph. [Online] 8th October [Accessed on 29th August 2011] Top of Form Hitt, M. A., Ireland, R. D., & Hoskisson, R. E. (2011).Strategic management: Competitiveness & globalization : concepts and cases. Mason, Ohio: South-Western Cengage Learning. Top of Form POULTON, E. (2006). Lights, camera, aggro! : readings of celluloid hooliganism. Routledge. Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Read More