In my Morning Meeting comment column, which runs Tuesday to Saturdays on the City & Business pages of the Daily Express, I have long given up arguing the case that "professional sportsperson" is a contradiction in terms and that in any sane world people would not be paid for playing games.

I still can't get golf though - the sight of grown men chasing a small ball with a long stick around the countryside for money is nothing short of comic.

But I fail to understand why there is not the same outrage directed, at say, what soccer and pop stars are paid which can be well in excess of the salary of a top chief executive.

As nice a chap as I'm sure David Beckham is, he doesn't have the same responsibility on his shoulders of what can be tens of thousands of staff, hundreds of thousands of shareholders and millions of customers.

A successful boardroom helps generate the taxes that build our schools and hospitals as well as a rising share price which pumps up the valuation of pension fund managed on our behalf by institutional
investors.

City payments for failure for example when an executive is bounced out of a company clutching a fat cheque or, just as bad, when he or she is rewarded handsomely while underperforming are rightly condemned.

But brickbats can also fly in the direction of those that pick up big pay cheques for being good at their job. These people have earned their riches and would soon take their skills elsewhere in pursuit of better pay. I do make a distinction though between company executives' remuneration and City dealers whose eyewatering bonuses are best described as obscene.