Around 60 per cent of players in the Airtricity League have second jobs because earnings in Irish football remain so low and contracts so short, a major survey by the international footballers' trade union, Fifpro has found.
In a study organised in conjunction with the University of Manchester, the organisation surveyed around a fifth of its 65,000 members, some 13,870 players, with the PFAI gathering responses to 23 questions from 176 players in the two divisions of the league here as part of the project.
The results confirm that players in Ireland endure low rates of pay, some of the shortest contract in any of the leagues surveyed and little or nothing by way of paid holidays.
Average take home pay in the League of Ireland remains low despite the economic recovery, the survey shows, although problems with getting paid have eased as clubs become more stable. Just the top one per cent of players surveyed by the PFAI had a monthly take home pay in the €3,775 to €7,550 range with more than half earning between €565 and €1,880 per month. Just over a fifth of players in the league earn less than €280 per month and three fifths have a second job with many obliged to work in sectors like taxi driving so as to be able to train and play games as required by their clubs.
The survey is not all bad news from an Irish perspective with players here having significantly above average education levels and, it seems, relatively few problems with their employers but just 4.6 per cent of Irish players get the paid holidays that workers in other sectors are entitled to – one of the lowest figures recorded – while the average contract length is, at 11.5 months, half the international average and the second shortest in any of the more than 50 countries surveyed – with only Brazil’s players, at 10.7 months, faring worse.
Overall, the survey which involved players from leagues across Africa, Europe and the Americas but excluded the elite European leagues in England, Germany and Spain, found working pay and conditions to be far poorer than is generally perceived with many players complaining of physical abuse and bullying, intimidation over contracts or transfers and, in a remarkable number of cases, physical violence by supporters or staff at their clubs.
Players in Africa and Eastern Europe tend, the survey shows, to have the hardest time of things with two thirds of players in Egypt, for instance, having suffered harassment at some stage in their career and 45 per cent of respondents in Montenegro not having a written contract but problems persist on both fronts to a lesser extent in Ireland with 6.6 per cent reporting the lack a written contract – the third highest figure for Europe – while 13 per cent say they have suffered harassment by their manager, fans or other players on at least one occasion.
Despite the problems, players in Ireland are at the higher end of the table for general satisfaction with their lot. The happiest are, perhaps predicatably, in the Nordic countries although a remarkable 43 per cent of Danish league players report having been transferred between clubs against their will.
“That players are often pressured to join a club not of their choosing is now a hard fact, an undeniable reality which is at the heart of a dysfunctional transfer system in urgent need of reform,” says Theo van Seggelin, Fifpro’s General Secretary. “The findings show that players are too often at the mercy of clubs who exploit the system to bully them into submission.
“Like most of us, players should be able to feel secure in their workplace. They should be given adequate rest, be well cared for by medical staff, and expect protection against violence from fans and club management. Sadly, we found this is not always the case.
One popular misconception is that all players are wealthy individuals, leading privileged lives. The data we have uncovered destroys that myth once and for all.”
