I'm with you on footballers and their agents who make money out of the transfer market. Listening to the debate on radio today, there are pros and cons, one assumes they are paid at the market rate, although there was some debate on who sets the market rate. I assume they are paying top wack in tax, plus corporation tax if based in UK and contributing VAT. These CEOs are responsible for the strategic direction of companies and a good CEO v bad CEO can have a massive impact on prosperity of workers, suppliers and their employees. Then there are those CEOs that may have built their business from scratch, taken all financial risk and investment and reap the benefits of that. As with much there is balance and reasonableness. I have more of a problem with golden goodbyes when failing CEO get rewarded for failure or as a lever to get rid of them.
Is headline grabbing and an interesting debate, but these high paid people are the exception and ought to be exceptional people to warrant their salaries, but important to keep perspective.