Money can't tarnish sporting moment

Some people believe football is a matter of life and death ... I can assure you it is much, much more important than that." Whether or not you agree with the sentiments of Bill Shankly, the former Liverpool FC manager, it is clear that his attitude towards the world's most popular sport was shared this weekend.

The scenes from the Etihad Stadium, home to Manchester City Football club, were a manifestation of this view. As City won England's top division of football for the first time in 44 years the cameras showed thousands of fans storming the pitch, oblivious to the pleas over the stadium announcement system and the attempts at restraint by the stewards. The image of these supporters flowing onto the field was reflective of a release of the tension which had built up over those many years of heartache and a season of utter turbulence.

The camera cut to an epitomisation of this collective feeling regularly throughout the match, which itself served as a microcosm for the club's entire season. As City went behind despite having an extra player on the field we saw one of the most ardent fans turning around and lashing his seat with the team scarf. But as his heroes scored two goals in the final four minutes of extra time to claim the Premier League title, we saw that same figure again, this time with streaming joy streaming down his face, pandemonium in the stands around him.

The passion these people have for their team is immense. It's frankly unparalleled here in New Zealand. The fans rushing the pitch were clamouring to touch the players they adored, kissing their heads as security guards marched them off down the tunnel. There are fans who spend vast sums of hard earned money travelling to all 38 games, home and away for years on end. I listen to the BBC 606 Football Phone-in podcast and I hear grown men and women crying on national radio, such is their fervour for their team.

It's on that same programme which I heard fans of other teams expressing a contrary view after City won the title: that it was an encapsulation of all that is wrong with professional sport today; that money buys titles and greed is all that motivates players.

It seems hard to argue with this when one considers that Manchester City paid £38 million for just one of their strikers, Sergio Aguero, while a number of players are reportedly earning over £200,000 each week. Aguero's team mate at City and Argentinian compatriot, Carlos Tevez, even decided earlier this season that he didn't like living in Manchester any more and wanted to move back to his home country. So what did he do? Despite being paid more than eight times in a week what most New Zealanders earn in a year, Tevez decided to forget his contract and go to Argentina to play golf for a few months.

It's that sort of attitude which gets die hard fans furious and rightly so. Interestingly though, for my generation it doesn't seem so shocking; there isn't such a reaction of repulsion upon hearing these stories, and it's because that's the world of sport that we've grown up with. We weren't around in the days when the English Premier League and the culture of commercial football funded by the TV revenues of Sky were a pipe dream. No, that's now the reality and the expectation for us.

And coming from this generation that does not have such an impulsive distaste for the state of the game today, I must say that I don't blame these players for taking the money offered to them. It was the comments of an emotional Vincent Kompany, Manchester City's captain, in the aftermath of that fateful final match of the season which really captured my opinion on this issue. "It's not us just coming here for the money, we've dreamed of this all our lives, when we were kids, when we had nothing and had no money. Nothing," said Kompany.

Whether we agree with Kompany and his colleagues or not, commercialisation seems inevitable. UEFA's Fair Play rules to be implemented soon will be an interesting development to monitor as an attempt to limit the losses football clubs in Europe can make.

Regardless, there was something beautiful about the raw ecstasy of the moment I felt that warm celebratory atmosphere overcome the coldness of the morning at 4am over here, on the opposite side of the world. Bill Shankly's belief that it's more than life and death is plain to see in those moments - the riches of professional football will never supersede the intricacies of the beautiful game.

James Penn is deputy head boy at Wanganui High School and was a member of the New Zealand team that competed in the World School Debating Championships.