The FIFPro Employment Global Report entitled; Working Conditions in Professional Football, is the largest collection of data collated about working conditions in football. It brings to the forefront 2 main crucial realities;

1. Working conditions for the vast majority of professional players around the world are grim and at times shocking.
2. The situation in Malta is among the worse.

There is a wide public perception that a professional football player leads a privileged life making huge amounts of money. A mere perception, which can be largely attributed to the public image of the few professional footballers who have made it to the top leagues. This study shows that only 2% of football players are in fact in the top tier, with the remainder of professional players facing modest pay, remarkably short careers, and huge uncertainties due to late payment and short contracts.

In Malta the survey was filled in, by 112 anonymous respondents, mainly hailing from the premier league during the 2015/2016 season.

Almost half of the respondents, reported not being satisfied with medical support in local football. The recent failings during the Yessous Camilleri case among others, shows ample evidence of this. Proper Health and Safety measures are necessary in any working environment, especially in one where the job involves great physical exertion and where the future employment is completely dependent on physical fitness. Why medical support is seen as a luxury and not a necessity in part in Maltese football is beyond comprehension.

16% of respondents have reported to having been approached for match fixing, a rate which is higher than the average elsewhere. One questions why Maltese players are approached by match fixers at a more frequent rate than in other parts of the world, and the answer perhaps lies in the next shocking statistic.

A stunning 79% of respondents from Malta have reported late payment within the last 2 seasons (presumably the rate would be higher if the player were asked to report late payment throughout their whole career). In comparison the global rate of late payment is 49%, with Europe at 35%. In a nutshell, 8 out of every 10 players in Malta have suffered late payments.

A full-time professional player in Malta has only one remedy in case of non-payment, i.e. to wait for 3 months. If the player is still not paid after 3 months, he has then to give 15 days notice to the club to pay the salaries due, write to the MFA Complaints Board and then eventually he will be given a release from any contractual obligations. A part-time professional player, however, is not even given this remedy and has to suffer this situation as the is left completely unprotected under Malta's Football Regulations offer little safeguards as a Maltese player is still considered a commodity (property) of a Maltese club.

The life of an unpaid player, with meagre protection and with a career that offers only short con-tracts for a very small life span is far from glamorous. In fact players sometimes face great financial difficulties. This is a rife environment that match fixers look for. Seeking out the vulnerable and the desperate to agree to do something which would have otherwise been a definite no. What many fail to realise is that there is a direct correlation between low salaries and late payments to match fixing rates. Just like there is a direct correlation between high crime rates and widespread poverty in any economy around the world.

MFPA is vociferous in its call to end match fixing, and it calls on all other counterparts fighting against match fixing, to look and tackle the root of the problem. Whilst educating players, and creating sanctions is a step in the right direction, this is a reactive approach. What would in actual fact prove to be the biggest deterrent against match fixing, would be to have a working environment, whereby players have the basic rights of employment fulfilled. The first step is ensuring players are paid on time. When this fails, players need to have effective measures empowering them to take what is owed to them without further delays.

The 2016 FIFPro Employment Global Report provides tangible data showing the true picture of the life of a player. In a local context, this data provides hard statistical evidence of what the MFPA has been fighting for since its inception. If the relevant entities do not see these results and use them to guide their policies, then the fight against match fixing and the protection of the game, is mere rhetoric. Effective change only comes from effective measures.

Global Employment Report
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