Wesley Sneijder has seen his reputation and value diminish spectacularly in recent times. One of the stars of the last World Cup, his steady downfall at the age of 28 is largely due to his standoff with Inter Milan; a mix of financial and tactical issues has left him unable to play. As is the case with most up and coming, young footballers, Sneijder’s social media reputation has triggered even even more press interest in this growing problem not just at Inter, but with other clubs too.
Sneijder, the current captain of the Dutch national team and star player at Italian club Inter Milan, is held hostage by the club because of contractual issues. Inter have been refiguring their finances lately by offloading players with high wages and see Sneijder as a player with which they can negotiate to save cash.
The Dutchman came to Inter from Spanish club Real Madrid. His first contract with Inter was £3 million per year. After his outstanding performances in the 2009-2010 season (including the World Cup) Inter agreed to give him a £6 million a year contract till 2015. Club president Massimo Moratti said ’it simply comes down to whether he wants to stay or not. In any case he’s within his rights to either continue with his great contract or to accept our terms – which we’d be happier about – or to move to another club. We’ve left it up to him and we’ll see what happens.”
One of the reasons for his decline is the trio of coaches after the treble-winning Jose Mourinho that were unsuccessful at the club. He hasn’t played for almost four months and is presently training with Inter. Inter says continually that Sneijder being left out of the squad on game day is the “tactical choice” of Coach Andrea Stramaccioni.
The Sneijder situation has caused FIFPro Secretary General Theo van Seggelen (also a Dutchman) to state that it is “unacceptable” for teams to hold players hostage under the circumstances of wage issues in midst a slipping European economy. “For us, the time has come around to sound the bell.” Says Seggelen.
Clubs do know that with UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) keeping a close eye on each their financial obligations, they can be taken out of European competition, such is the case with Spanish club Malaga who were banned from European play for one year.
In the last few years, Inter have been breaking part with their stars because they could not keep
up with the enormous losses the club was making financially. Mario Balotelli was sold for financial reasons to Manchester City.
Inter have long been one of European football’s lavish spending clubs; during the mid-1990s Massimo Moratti (son of Angelo Moratti, the club’s president in the 1960s) took charge and set them on that path. With the help of the family’s oil company Saras the club has bought some of the world’s best players such as Ronaldo, Roberto Baggio, Maicon, Samuel Eto’o and Wesley Sneijder.
UEFA have steadily announced a unilateral Financial Fair Play movement set to take full effect at the start of the 2014-2015 season. This action was implemented in order to make European Football a much more financially sustainable arena; to help clubs overturn their losses so they can make money and to make competing in competitions much less costly.
Whether Wesley Sneijder’s inactivity is due to financial issues, tactics, or both, he’s seen as an invaluable player who can also cause a lot of drama related to the ethics of football. He is a key example of the austerity measures unfolding in European football.
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