Ryan Giggs claims Premier League players deserve their
£100,000-a-week pay packets.
In an interview with ITV News at Ten, due to be
broadcast tonight, the Welsh star said players were right to take
advantage of the money on offer in what he says is "the best league
in the world."
“There is plenty of money in the game but the majority of the
players deserve that," he said.
"There are a number of players that perhaps 20 years ago
wouldn’t have got paid the money that they’re getting now, but
that’s the way football is now.
The average player is getting a lot of money – if that’s right,
I don’t know. But good luck to them – the money is in the game, why
not earn it while they’ve got the chance?
"But 20 years ago that wouldn’t have happened. It was probably
only the top, top players, the elite players who would be earning
good money.”
“Footballers make the front pages and the back pages – it’s big
news, they’re like pop stars. The game has gone massive, the game
has gone huge and a lot of things are for the good
.
"The fitness of players is better than it’s ever been. The
Premier League is the best league in the world, the most watched
league in the world.”
For all his riches, however, the United veteran has been humbled
by his recent visit to Sierra Leone with Unicef to raise HIV
awareness.
“You see what true bravery is," he said. "You hear all the time
that a footballer is brave going into a tackle or going up for a
header. That’s not bravery.
"What I’ve seen today – a 21-year-old lad who was telling me
that he’s positive for HIV and what he wants to do about it, that
he wants to educate other people, that he wants to help stop it
happening to other young men and to other young women – that’s
bravery.”
Giggs - whose grandparents are from Sierra Leone - believes
privileged Premier League stars have a duty to put their fame to
good use.
He added: “The highest cases of new HIV are amongst young
people. Young people watch football, young people support
Manchester United, so maybe some of the people who I’ve come across
who don’t believe in HIV or don’t want to listen to their teachers
– maybe they’ll listen to me because maybe they think that I’m a
hero or they’ve seen me on the TV so they’re thinking ‘he must be
telling the truth’.
“They’re scared of [HIV], scared of what they don’t know, and
that’s partly why I’m here to try and educate, to try and raise
awareness, but they face many problems believing that [HIV] doesn’t
exist.”