Football boots. Photo by Tom and Steve (CC License)
According to FIFPro boss, Theo Van Seggelen, more than a third of Europe’s professional footballers are not receiving their salaries in full.
This, pretty much, opens up a can of worms. It creates a situation in which players are desperate, more than ever, for income and will be a lot more inclined to fix games. By the way, cash is the most important thing for a footballer because in the current system most clubs don’t do anything in order to educate him or promise him a future outside football.
Players who are not getting paid are a clear and present danger to the credibility of the professional game.
Van Seggelen has also criticized irresponsible club owners who, he says, are refusing to respect contracts and paying scant regard to the current economic climate.
This is all going on in a murky world of professional football. A world in which transparency is perceived as a sign of weakness and the disconnection from their local communities is nothing to worry about.
Crisis + irresponsible club owners + unpaid salaries + no transparency = crime and and the degeneration of the professional football scene.
It’s a dangerous formula.
The authorities must now act swiftly to prevent the deepening of the crisis and introduce real measures and regulations that will stop unsustainable salaries, get clubs to work in a transparent way and get reconnected back to the soul of the game.
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