It certainly is dangerous that there are only a few clubs left in Europe that can afford to pay millions. At the end of the day however, the spectators decide the rates of pay - by watching the games and consuming the goods and services advertised on sports TV programmes.

Merkel frames elite football’s wage inflation as a market outcome with potentially harmful competitive effects. The “danger” is that only a small number of wealthy clubs can sustain multimillion-euro salaries, concentrating talent and success and weakening competitive balance across leagues and countries. Yet she also shifts responsibility away from clubs alone: pay levels ultimately reflect consumer demand. By watching matches, subscribing to broadcasts, and buying advertised products, spectators generate the television and sponsorship revenues that finance salaries. The quote thus combines a warning about inequality in sport with a characteristically economic, demand-driven explanation of how modern sports finance works.