Shouldn't modern sportsmen actually win something before they become millionaires?

Sport still captures the imagination like it always did - and wall-to-wall television coverage of nearly every event means that we can all see far more action than in the days of my youth (and it's in colour as well)! But much of professional sport has changed beyond recognition in the last thirty years - and there is no area of sport that has changed more than the salaries that are paid to the top sporting stars.

Working class heroes paid a working class wage.

Back in the 1960s a top footballer in Britain would be paid a weekly wage roughly equivalent to the national average for a semi-skilled worker. The pay was quite a bit higher in Europe and many of the top British players like Dennis Law and Jimmy Greaves were forced to ply their trade in Italy quite literally to make ends meet. There was a maximum wage applied in the Football League and even the truly great players were ill rewarded for their talents. In time this changed and the economic laws of supply and demand stared to apply - the rarer your skill the more you could earn and the top players then began to gravitate to the richest clubs. George Best wasn't just the 'fifth Beatle' because of his hairstyle and his charisma - he began to earn almost Beatle-like amounts from the game to fund his Beatle-like lifestyle.

Modern football's pay structure has been modelled on American sports.

Today's top footballers - especially in Britain and Europe, earn quite breathtaking amounts of money - a phenomenon that had its origins in American sports. The parallel is precise. In American Football, Baseball, Basketball and Ice Hockey the teams are businesses - often with a rich entrepreneur at the helm. The cash generation potential for the top teams is huge and a substantial part of this cash finds its way into the pockets of the top players and coaches. This is exactly what now happens at Real Madrid, Barcelona, Chelsea or Manchester United. Even paying some top players upwards of $150,000 a week the economics apparently just about stack up!

It's not all payment by results 'though!

It would be churlish to deny great sportsmen the market rate for their skills and their efforts - even if the market rate approaches the Gross Domestic Product of a small African state. Rio Ferdinand, the England and Manchester United defender who is one of the top earning players, must pay over $3million a year in income tax - and that will help the National Health Service pay for around a hundred nurses. A bit of 'trickle down' there then. But what about the more recent trend to make millionaires of players based on their potential rather than their performances? Wayne Rooney, for example, was a wealthy man well before his eighteenth birthday and when he had only played a handful of games. And Theo Walcott, Arsenal's new star signing, had to call in the financial advisors to help him manage his loot before he had played even one Premiership match and whilst he was still at school!

Reputations are built on performance not promise.

Jensen Button, the Formula one driver who at last won his first Grand Prix in 2006 after six years of trying, could afford the yacht and the private jet well before he ever won a race. Tim Henman, a consistent loser in the tennis tournaments that really matter, had no money worries within a year or two of turning professional. Andy Murray his young compatriot has much promise and my well be Britain's first Grand Slam winner for a long time, but it won't be the pursuit of fortune that drives him to success. The teenage Murray already has plenty of dollars stacked away from sponsors who hope to benefit if he does succeed.

Now it may be my middle-aged grumpiness that makes me want to see results from sportsmen before they call in a merchant bank to advise them, rather than the other way round. But I just wonder whether the comparative failures of Button or Henman or (recently) Rooney are in some way attributable to a lack of the drive that comes from not really needing the prize money? If your self-esteem is bolstered by people throwing millions of dollars at you as a teenager can't you perhaps persuade yourself that you are a success (as well as a celebrity) without the need actually to deliver the goods?