Pay dispute: Wanderers players feel insulted and humiliated by the pay offer. Photo: James Brickwood
We love our sportsmen far and wide, often to a fault, idolising all they represent and supposedly stand for. Yet we always get a bit funny when it comes to their money.
When we see the demands of high-profile players holding world-renowned clubs to ransom, it's hard not to think of them as greedy mercenaries.
Maybe some are, as it goes in any profession. But the vast majority are only trying to make a decent living before their bodies wither in their early 30s.
Hardly any player who plies in the A-League could be ever be tarred with the gluttony brush. The fierce financial restrictions on Australian-based players ensures they sweat for every penny.
So to see the Western Sydney Wanderers' players being offered just 10 per cent of the initial prize money ($1.2 million) for participating in the Club World Cup is low-balling in the extreme.
The players reckon they'll lose 50 per cent of that in tax, too, which makes it roughly $2500 a player for a week's work. Real Madrid's players wouldn't roll over in bed – let alone get out – for that sum.
The Wanderers players feel insulted and humiliated by the offer. They're embarrassed to make an issue of it for fear of it being seen as an act of greed.
Just for context, Wayne Rooney earns roughly $467,630 a week before his accountant gets to work. You do the maths.
They also know that the foundation of their success in the A-League and in Asia has come from a tight-knit unity, the determination to put the collective before themselves.
Indeed, this act of rebellion is the first sign of mutiny we've ever seen from the Wanderers. But they have an iron-clad case.
Clubs might be agitated by the work of Professional Footballers Australia from time to time but the players' union did a remarkably generous thing that has largely been forgotten during the last collective bargaining agreement.
They agreed, in effect, to a pay freeze, which allowed the clubs ample financial breathing space. They also hoped it would bring goodwill when it was time to reward the players.
Roughly 20 hours after being part of the Adelaide side that routed Western Sydney on Saturday night, PFA executive member Bruce Djite argued the Wanderers players' case most eloquently on television on Sunday night. It was compelling, convincing viewing.
Besides, if ever there was a time to reward a group of footballers, surely – surely – participation in the Club World Cup was the ideal opportunity.
It is a bonus money-maker for the club like no other, and prize money is the tip of the iceberg. They're three games away from being world champions.
Sponsors will be clambering to pay top dollar to put their name on the Wanderers' shirt for another decade. Broadcasters will be hammering Football Federation Australia to have the Wanderers play in key timeslots. Big names from overseas – and the best kids in Australia – will want to play for them.
These are all priceless opportunities. Impossible not to leverage, especially given football is the boom sport of our times.
In their first two seasons, the Wanderers have exceeded what is expected of them ten-fold. Clubs with budgets of $50 million would struggle to win the Asian Champions League. They did it with $2.5 million.
Bang for buck, they have an argument for being the best value football club in the world.
For all that, new owner Paul Lederer has scooped a bargain. Their value was touted as $15 million-$20 million but Frank Lowy generously agreed to a $10 million sale. And that was before they won in Asia. Lederer could already sell it for double.
He owes that to the players. Paying his fair share this week is the least he can do.
Twitter: @sebth
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