What sport teaches us about business - you can’t buy loyalty

Is it necessary to pay a senior banker a million-pound bonus? Does it deliver better results to pay a footballer more than £100,000 a week.

Manchester City is a fascinating organisation at the moment; a grand "project" reaching for the stars, and aiming to knock neighbouring Manchester United "off their perch" (to paraphrase a famous quote from United boss Sir Alex Ferguson).

The respective tales of two of City's players reveals a lot about loyalty.

Take Carlos Tevez and Mario Balotelli. Both are hugely-skilled footballers, capable of winning matches almost on their own. Both are also highly-emotional characters.

But there is a difference. One has been effectively banned and vilified by his club. The other is indulged and played in games where his level of maturity is repeatedly found wanting.

The Tevez case is beautifully complicated. He has refused to play (whether you believe he did it during a game is another thing) because he feels that he has been personally disrespected by his manager. And his manager, meanwhile, feels he has been personally disrespected by the player.

For a while, no fine in the world would have got Tevez back on to a football pitch wearing sky blue. Though this period of self exclusion appears to be coming to an end, the irony is that he is one of those players who cannot pretend to try, whilst plotting to leave. He is reluctant to play for money. He has too much self respect.

Ballotelli is different, but the same. In two recent games against Liverpool, he played a total of 32 minutes, being sent off in one, and sulking off in the other.

Against Tottenham Hotspur, he stamped on a player and got away with it. He was unable to control himself and therefore unable to deliver what was required to succeed. His manager continues to indulge him, but that will not last.

No amount of money (money which, if reports are to be believed, Balotelli frequently gives away on the streets of Manchester) can buy his self control. He doesn’t have enough respect for himself or for others.

So what do we learn? That loyalty is a matter of respect not money. Respect of employer by employee; of employee by employer; and self respect on all sides.

The debate around remuneration and motivation in the business world rumbles on, in the City of London, at Manchester City, and in sport.

Our football story should be a useful example. Vast amounts of money do not create high performance and loyalty. Only mutual respect and shared values do that.