Over 40% of the world’s professional footballers have experienced delayed payment of wages, according to a wide-ranging survey published by global players’ union FIFPro on Tuesday, November 29, AFP reports.
In the survey, carried out by the University of Manchester, 41% of the 13,876 players who responded had been forced to wait for their salaries over the past two seasons.
“It’s a wake-up call for clubs and governing bodies,” FIFPro General-Secretary Theo van Seggelen told reporters during a recent briefing in London. “We cannot accept it any longer.”
The FIFPro Global Employment Report 2016 also found nine percent of players had suffered from violence and seven percent had been been approached to fix matches.
FIFPro hopes the survey, which is the biggest of its kind, will shed light on the problems faced by players playing outside glamorous championships such as England’s Premier League or Spain’s LaLiga.
The median net monthly income of players surveyed was $1,000 to $2,000, with 60 percent of respondents earning under $2,000 per month.
FIFPro has used the example of Nigeria international Michael Uchebo, who has not been paid by Portuguese top-flight club Boavista since April, to illustrate its findings on late payments.
The 26-year-old striker has been prevented from playing since the end of last season and, according to FIFPro, risks eviction from his house.
