The generation of money. Disgusted by the players' greed, Ion Țiriac destroys modern tennis: “We used to play at Wimbledon for 2 pounds a day. Now, if you lose, you get 100,000”
Ion Țiriac (86 years old) was left with a bitter taste after seeing the far too exaggerated financial claims of today's tennis players. The former Romanian tennis player launched an unprecedented attack on athletes whose appearances in the circuit have become a luxury.
Ion Țiriac, former Romanian tennis player and businessman Photo/Adevărul Archives
Moreover, Țiriac drew a parallel between the prizes he and Ilie Năstase collected in the past, and the eccentric sums of money that are, today, in the accounts of performance athletes.
“Stop letting sports be sports. Period!”
The Romanian billionaire admitted that precisely for this reason he would have chosen to get rid of the ATP tournament in Madrid, sold for the handsome sum of 400 million euros.
“Stop letting sport be sport. Point. Sports are over! This is an entertainment industry, a show that people demand, new sports are created, those that are in the ring, only fights, sports that demand, excites it.
We played at Wimbledon for two weeks with two pounds a day, from which you had to sleep, eat, and pay for your scooter, the train or whatever you used to get to London. Now if you lose in the first round at Wimbledon you get £100,000.
With 100 thousand pounds, you can buy an apartment in Bucharest tomorrow morning just because you were beaten in the first round at Wimbledon. One reason we sold the Madrid tournament was this demand from players from morning to night that the prizes are not big enough!”admitted Ion Țiriac, according to iamsport.ro.
“No matter what you give an athlete, it's not enough!”
Ion Țiriac spoke openly about the evolution of money in sports. The former great player and businessman claims that the rush to win has become an inevitable part of modern tennis and warns that athletes' financial thirst seems to know no bounds.
“I was among the three or four who created the first ATP. I've said since then: “No matter how much you give an athlete, it's not enough.” Of course, if the market can give it, it's absolutely normal! If you think a Wimbledon makes £300m, if not £500m net a year, the players can also demand that the prize money is not £50m, it's £100m!”said the former Romanian tennis player.
