Footballer's Rights & Responsibilities

Mr X is a professional footballer.
He Plays for a Premiership team.
He earns £65,000 a week at the age of 21.

What do you believe he should not do as a human?

David James smoked 20 cigarettes a day throughout his liverpool career.
"I would be a hypocrite if I didn't confess my own 15-year 20-a-day habit. As ludicrous as it now seems, I spent most of my career puffing away on fags: after training, before matches and even on the team coach. It makes me feel ill just thinking about it."

Ha has since given up and attributes his revival to this act
"Now I'm 37 and talking about hanging on for the World Cup in 2010. None of that would have been possible if I'd kept smoking. Whereas I used to struggle with training, now I actually enjoy it. People praise my fitness, but there's no way I would be in this condition if I hadn't kicked the habit. There are still plenty of players who smoke. Some of them have been photographed, like Zinedine Zidane before a World Cup semi-final in 2006 and Dimitar Berbatov. And there are plenty of others around the country, arriving at training stinking of smoke or enjoying a puff on a night out. I look at them and wonder how much fitter could they be if they gave up."


Do you believe that as a footballer Mr x has a responsibility to not smoke?
How about legal drug use?
Is it ok for a footballer to smoke spice for example or to take salvia hits or herbal xtc?


Soccer used to have a huge drink culture
Players would always celebrate wins by going on huge pissups?
is Mr x allowed get dunk and if so how many days before a match?
Is Mr x even allowed to be seen at a club if not drinking?

Footballers get marginal returns on spending their dosh and often turn to gambling for cheap highs?
is this behaviour ok?
Do they have a responsibilty to be role models?
Can any footballer get away with just plying his trade and not give a fuck about kids from a country perhaps different to his own who may look up to him?

Do they have a responsibility to always sing from the same hymn sheet as the club?
Can mr X make his feelings known or should he comply with the PR voice in his ear?

Do they have a responsibility to not be influenced by money?
or can Mr X make coments such as
Helsingborg striker Razak Omotoyossi who says he's a 'football prostitute'. 'I've been offered deals to go to England. In an ideal world I wouldn't move to a big club where I wouldn't get in the first team. But then again, I'm a prostitute. All footballers are. We go where the money is. Why deny it? I'll never rule out leaving this club. Money is everything.'

Does Mr x have the responsibility of only stroking the arse of his team-mates at opportune times?
Boca Juniors defender Julio Cesar Caceres says he wants to 'knock the head off' Gimnasia y Esgrima striker Diego Alonso after Alonso carried out 'an act of on-field man-love'. 'The guy stroked my arse. It was an unacceptable moment. Who does he think he is? At the time I wanted to thump his face, but I held my dignity. I didn't want the red card. But seriously - I am very masculine. He needs to take a hard look at himself.'

Must Mr X absolve from all banter
Iranian league leaders Persepolis say they're 'sad' after defender Sheis Rezaei was banned for two games and fined £24,000 for telling fellow passengers on a flight from Tehran to Shiraz that the plane was going to crash and 'kill them all'. Staff reported 'chaos' on board. 'I just wanted to play a joke on my pal who's afraid of flying,' said Rezaei. 'It was banter. I'm not proud of what I did.'



Real Madrid's Antonio Cassano - fined £80,000 for 'referee abuse' - has been censored for telling a TV chat show about having 'rude sex' before matches. President Ramón Calderón says Cassano, on loan at Sampdoria, is an 'unacceptable person'. In 2006 former Roma team-mate Abel Balbo called Cassano 'a nice but dreadful boy'. 'He's a joker. Sometimes we even had to stop him from crapping in the beds of his team-mates. Crapping, yes. Like an animal.'