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Andrew Quinlivan, St Brendan’s College, centre, is awarded third place in the NewsBrands Ireland Press Pass Awards Sports category, pictured with Brian McCrory, president of Irish League of Credit Unions, Claire O’Sullivan, member of the judging panel. Vincent Crowley, chairman, NewsBrands Ireland, and Minister Damien English.
 

 
THE average Premier League footballer in England earns in a week what a doctor working for the National Health Service there earns in a year. The great Premier League stars can earn double and sometimes treble a doctor’s salary in the same time period. These are just two of the facts that emerge from talented Killarney student Andrew Quinlivan’s critique of the beautiful game.
Andrew, a transition year student from St Brendan’s College, achieved third place in the Sports category of the prestigious Press Pass awards.
Praising his entry, the judges noted: “He tells us that doctors save lives whereas footballers can save us from boredom - and don’t always succeed. Andrew’s work is as cutting as a good striker should be and well worthy of this recognition.”
Andrew received his award from the Minister for Skills, Research and Innovation, Damien English TD, last week at a ceremony in the Convention Centre in Dublin.
Press Pass is a transition-year initiative that focuses on newspapers in education.
“A specially created workbook goes out to all participating schools around Ireland in November each year and then we deliver newspapers free of charge over a two-week period. We had 7,500 students take part this year,” said spokeswoman Anne-Marie Lenihan.
“The students then prepare entries for the journalism competition in four written categories (news, features, opinion and sport) and a photojournalism category. The schools put forward the best three to the national competition which is judged by a panel of journalists and editors from NewsBrands titles, chaired by Professor John Horgan.”
Below you can read Andrew Quinlivan’s prizewinning entry:

THE PRICE OF PLAYING SOCCER

By Andrew Quinlivan

AS I type this, West Ham’s Andy Carroll has been ruled out of playing soccer for up to six weeks with a hamstring injury. And by the end of February, Andy will have earned himself almost half a million pounds for...oh, yeah, not doing his job.
It’s a regular occurrence these days that soccer players are offered lucrative contracts, and it’s also a regular occurrence for them to get injured. While many of these players stay fit and try to dazzle us with their feet, one thing is for certain: their piggy bank will be heavier come next week.
Back in the 1950s a top England player would have earned a total of £1,677 in wages, in a year. Fast- forward to 2016, where almost two grand means nothing to players, where they can afford to let it fall out of their pocket, pay day is coming up. Football is changing and it’s changing for the worse.
The average doctor in the UK earns between £75,000- £100,000 a year. Soccer players earn around that in a week without bonuses. Doesn’t really make sense if you ask me. Doctors save us from illnesses. Soccer players save us from boredom. And they don’t always do that.
These players are receiving exorbitant amounts of cash for kicking a ball. Isn’t life so easy for them? Meanwhile the rest of the world almost breaks their back trying to scrape together a few grand before December catches up with them.
And these players don’t notice the rest of the world. In their eyes, they’re the best thing since sliced bread. They’ve been blessed by the powers above to grace their quick feet on the pitch. And as a reward? Money. Lots of it. Much more than necessary, in fact. Are the players going to cut their salary though? They wouldn’t dream of it!
What is even harder to swallow is the fact that players sometimes demand more money. “Sorry boss, but the £90,000 a week won’t do”. So they mean to tell us that they deserve added cash for scoring a few goals? Logic.
These deluded players can afford to sit out a couple of games and still make the same amount of money as they would have if they actually did their job. The sickening thing is, some do. “I feel I’ve got a stomach bug, I don’t think I should play tomorrow. Sure I’ll still get paid.” Take Mr Andy Carroll for instance. He can’t play for 90 minutes without “pulling a muscle.” He’s not the only one. Liverpool’s Daniel Sturridge has missed more games than he has played for them, and there was once a man called Abou Diaby who spent most of his eight years at Arsenal on the treatment table.
Yes, as I type this, West Ham’s Andy Carroll has been ruled out of playing soccer for up to six weeks with a hamstring injury. It won’t bother him in the slightest. Because his piggy bank is getting heavier and heavier, and we can’t do anything about that. I guess that’s just the price of playing soccer.