Football Clubs as major ‘Engines of Positive Social Change’

I once heard a premier league football manager giving a very frank interview on the radio. The perceptive interviewer asked him why it was that Premier league footballers (and major-league footballers around the world) get paid such astronomical money each week for playing the game they love. (Players weekly wages were already high – but seem to have increased massively in recent years.)

The manager replied that the clubs had so much money rolling in each month from the TV companies around the world, that they simply did not know what else to do with all the money apart from pay the players these high salaries. The problem the clubs had 'came across' as that they simply would not be able to spend all the money they received otherwise…..

While I understand that in the film, TV, music, and sports industries - that getting the best talent comes with a price……  it did seem such a pathetic answer for the football manager to give; that they simply couldn’t think what else to do with the money. Of course, we should not blame the football manger being interviewed since he may well of simply been answering the interviewers question truthfully.

“If” it is the case, that the football clubs (or rather the mentality of the people running them) is such that they can’t think of anything worth doing with the money apart from paying higher and higher salaries each month - then perhaps some more creative thinkers should suggest to them some alternatives for that money, or at least a small part of that money - perhaps 10 to 20%.

Even the Bank of England has commented on the extraordinary rise in player wages (with expanding TV revenues) particularly in the last 5 years.

https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/knowledgebank/why-are-football-players-paid-so-much

Major football clubs are not just blessed with disposable cash (and mostly unused facilities for 6 days a week) - but importantly they are also blessed with having established positive role models for local youngsters - playing for their teams each week.

It seems to me therefore, that football clubs (at various levels of the game) are ideally placed to be major ‘engines of positive social change’ within the local communities they supposedly ‘serve’ and represent.

While it is true that some players have taken this role on as individuals, and indeed some clubs run ‘community projects’ (e.g. notably Arsenal) there is an argument to be made that the football clubs as organisations could - and indeed should - do a great deal more to improve life within their local communities and perhaps beyond in a whole range of areas.

I hope that somehow this idea of clubs becoming major ‘engines of positive social change’ can be suggested regularly to the people who can make a difference in getting such an idea off the ground. Any help with this sharing of ideas would be appreciated.