I believe it was in the book "Inverting the Pyramid" (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Inverting-Pyramid-History-Football-Tactics/dp/1409102041 http://www.amazon.co.uk/I

I believe it was in the book "Inverting the Pyramid" (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Inverting-Pyramid-History-Football-Tactics/dp/1409102041 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Inverting-Pyramid-History-Football-T...) that I read the phrase "Financially, you can think of football as a transfer of wealth from the fans to players". Players are the only ones who make any real money from football (maybe Sky Sports does too, but they have to bid billions for secure the rights and then spend years recouping the cost). The author goes on to state that the highest earning football club (think it was either Real Madrid or Manchester United) made only a tiny fraction of revenue of the lowest ranked, anonymous company on the Fortune 500 index. Football is not played for financial reasons.