Pretty interesting article regarding transfer fees
http://www.football365.com/news/two-million-is-not...
Being ex UNICEF I agree with his sentiment.
However it is possible to assign a value to footballers when the results your football team achieves directly impacts your revenue from winnings, and your revenue from commercial partnerships.
Football is a business, and yes the money in it is insane, but while we're all buying the merchandise, going to the games, and arguing on forums about it I don't see this changing any time soon.
The reality is that the problem is broader than football, than other sports codes and heck even the geo-political landscape we live in.
I could go on about this for days but it's a much better discussion over a pint in a pub than writing up a full philosophical dissertation only to have Smith reply with "TL;DR".