With all of the bribery and game-fixing going on in soccer throughout the world it’s hard to believe teams and players have time for anything else. Well they do, but it’s also another black mark on the sport as the top two divisions in Spain are going on strike over money issues, meaning the season-opening weekend on Aug. 20-21 is off.

The pre-season got underway with no problems and the Spanish Super Cup was played between Barcelona and Real Madrid. It ended in a 5-4 aggregate win for Barcelona and a mild on-field brawl. But the players have agreed to strike over money issues. While Spain has dominated world soccer over the past several years by winning the European Championship in 2008 and the World Cup in 2010, the nation’s league is in a mess.

It’s been reported that half of the teams in Spain’s first (Primera Division) and second divisions have already entered bankruptcy proceedings. This includes Granada, Real Betis, and Rayo Vallecano, the three teams that were promoted into the Primera Division for this season. Most of the country’s smaller clubs are in huge debt and trying to protect themselves from creditors.

It’s not really surprising though considering that the Primera Division is nothing more than a two-horse race between last season’s champions Barcelona and runners up Real Madrid. Barcelona has won the title the last three years by an average of 24 points over the third place team. Meaning, other than Real, there’s nobody else in sight.

Most fans realize the top two Spanish clubs are out to make as much money as possible and the best way to do this is by winning the European Champions League. The rest of the Spanish clubs don’t have the money to compete and that suits Barcelona and Real just fine as it basically guarantees them passage to the Champions League each season.

Smaller teams are finding it hard to lure corporate backers, while Barcelona recently signed the richest five-year shirt sponsorship agreement in soccer history with the Qatar Foundation, estimated to be worth about $240 million. In addition, each club makes its own television broadcasting deals instead of evenly sharing the loot. This means the majority of the cash is scooped up by Barcelona and Real and they’ve developed their own TV stations.

The problem in Spain it’s not an “all for one and one for all” situation, it’s more like “every man for himself.” This sees most teams falling by the wayside as the rich get richer. Of course, there soon won’t be anybody left to play and fans are going to get tired of watching the haves paying the have-nots.

With all of these clubs going belly-up, the players are demanding that more money is set aside for them to make sure they get paid if their teams go bankrupt. The players want to make sure they get paid and the government is looking for millions in unpaid taxes. The league might have to give in to some of the demands and it’s believed the television rights system will change in 2014 when current deals expire to share the profits more evenly.

But even though they’re sinking like stones, some of these financially-struggling clubs are still spending ridiculous amounts of money buying players because Spanish laws have loopholes that can be exploited. It’s an ongoing problem that might be relieved temporarily by a strike, but it’s not going to be solved that way.

Soccer has shown once again how out of touch the sport really is with reality. News stories broke on Aug. 8 that reported Spanish club Real Madrid has signed a seven-year-old Argentinean boy, who lives in Madrid, and he’ll start training in a youth academy on Sept. 6.

The boy, named Leonel Angel Coira is a fan of fellow countryman Lionel Messi, who plays for Madrid’s arch enemy Barcelona. Messi himself was signed as a 13 year old and debuted for the senior La Liga club when he was just 16. He’s now regarded as one of the best players in the world, at least at club level. He often struggles while playing for his country, but has been named the world player of the year twice.

As with most youngsters, Coira has dreams, which are to meet Messi, play with Madrid in Spain’s first division and to represent Argentina in the World Cup. He may just live them all out, but we’re not going to know if they come true for at least 10 more years.

But the trend of signing players this young is very disturbing. And the worst part of the transaction is that Real Madrid basically signed the boy because their cross-town rivals Atletico Madrid were interested in him. It was more a case of signing him before rival teams got a hold of him.

There’s nothing wrong with trying to develop your own players, but they should be brought in at a reasonable age, not as young as seven. However, in soccer, everything is ruled by the almighty dollar. If teams can lure youngsters into their youth systems they can be developed a lot cheaper than buying them when they’re older and established players.

Therefore teams are taking players on no matter how old they are to save millions of dollars in transfer fees down the road. In fact, if a player such as Coira turns out to be as good as Messi he could actually be sold for millions. Considering that Coira’s family doesn’t receive any money other than transportation fees, teams can make a killing by selling players after they sign them to pro contracts at the legal age.

Madrid saw the youngster in action and invited him to play with a team of Under-9 players. They then became anxious to sign him when word got out that Atletico was also interested. Naturally, Coira opted for Real as they’re one of the most popular teams in the world, with Cristiano Ronaldo their top player .

Coira’s father Miguel, said he trusts the club and knows they’ll take care of his son. But while many fans are opposed to teams signing players at such an early age, it turns out that Real has signed boys younger than Coira in the past, but a club spokesman wouldn’t say how young. He admitted that the team will sign kids at any age as long as they show excellent talent and stand out from their peers.

Signing young children isn’t anything new in soccer as most teams have youth academies. Barcelona runs an academy where dozens of youngsters from the age of 11 train and live. Of course, the majority of them never make it as pro players and some become tired of the whole routine after a year or two.

At the moment, Coira is signed for a year and if both parties are happy it can be extended for another year and so on. When a player reaches 16 years of age he can be signed to a pro contract. Coira’s older brother plays for Real Valladolid in Spain’s second division.

Things could turn out fine for Coira and his current dreams could come true, but at the age of seven he could very well dream about something completely different by the time he’s eight.

Sports fans have argued for years over which specific sport pays its players the highest wages. That debate has been put to rest somewhat in the internet age as annual reports are typically released showing who makes exactly how much money. A new report was released in mid-April by sporting Intelligence and there may be a few surprises to some people.

According to the report, NBA basketball players make the most money on average, but Spanish soccer teams Barcelona and Real Madrid pay their players the best. Last year, players from the New York Yankees were the highest paid on average. The average wage of an NBA player is $4.79 million a year or $92, 199 a week.

The average wage at Barcelona is just over $7.9 million a year ($157,038 per week) while Madrid’s players make about $7.35 million yearly ($146,038). Yankees players are the third-biggest money makers at  about $6.75 million a year ($134,122).

The study included 14 different sports leagues around the world in seven different sports. There was a total of 272 franchises involved in the studies. The biggest surprise to most people was the fact that the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket league came in second place behind the NBA when it comes to the top paid league.

Most North Americans have never heard of the league and probably wouldn’t know what a cricket bat was if hit over the head by one. But they make so much money because the league is only six weeks long. Therefore, millions of dollars can be made in a month and a half.

But even though the NBA is the best paid league, only four teams are in the top 12 best paid teams. These are the LA Lakers, Denver Nuggets, and Utah Jazz. However, there are 10 NBA teams in the top 30. Six of the top 12 clubs are soccer teams and there are two baseball franchises, the Yankees and Boston Red Sox. What’s surprising is that even though the IPL ranks behind the NBA as best paid league there are no IPL teams in the top 12. In fact, there are only four in the top 50 and these are ranked at 26, 29, 40, and 44. The Royal Challengers Bangalore are the best paid IPL team at $86,667 per player.

The English Premier League is still the top-paid soccer league with five clubs in the top 30. These are Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool, and Arsenal.

However, let’s put this report in perspective though. Some leagues have salary caps and some don’t. In addition, when you see athletes such as boxer Manny Pacquiao earning about $15 million for a fight, it’s hard to rate anybody else as being higher paid. In fact, that would make a good idea for another survey, to compare team sports to individual sports such as boxing, tennis, and golf.