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LIKE a suicide bomber who does not care about the consequences of detonating a bomb in a crowded place full of innocent people, veteran Premiership footballer Thabani Goredema did just that this week.
He did not care that he is out of contract and may have ruffled feathers even at his prospective employers in the near future.
He took a dig at club administrators, coaches and agents for fleecing players off their signing on fees and other earnings. According to Goredema, it is a situation that has left many of them to regret taking the game as a profession.
It is common practice to see a majority of players regretting their choice of soccer as a career in the first two years of retirement.
Their resentment stems from the fact that they would not have prepared for retirement and immediately face the stuck reality of possible poverty despite having been popular on the field of play.
The freebies disappear the moment they stop playing and even the fans slow down on supporting them in kind.
Goredema is a guy whose very first touch at Barbourfields or Rufaro Stadium attracted raucous response from fans. Every step outside was met by idolizing fans who could dip into their pockets just to appease their idol.
But with the player no longer at their favourite club, the obligation stops and the more the player gets ignored in his overtures for favours the angrier he becomes.
Rejection has caused him to be dejected and vulnerable to drug and substance abuse under the guise of getting ‘cool’ to relieve stress.
Goredema, who at 38 is no longer attractive in professional football where he has played for almost 20 years, this week came out blaming managers, coaches and administrators for throwing players into abject poverty.
Goredema said the majority of local football players have nothing to show for their toil because all that they work hard for, is swindled from them by club administrators and unscrupulous managers.
“Right now, the young boys who are playing cannot sign a contract without paying someone. Either the coach or the manager is getting a piece of the player’s signing-on fee. That is not how football should operate. I have played 18 years in the Premier League and this has happened now and again. You sign for let’s say for US$10 000 you never get that money. The money is shared by those in administration and the player just gets peanuts, if any at all.
“This problem has become a national issue. Players all over the country have endured this problem. Coaches and managers are all involved in this fraud of robbing players of their money. No matter which club you go to, these players pay to get contracts yet teams and coaches are paid in the process. I’m trying to fix things for the next generation. I am 38 and almost done with football but the next generation can’t fall into this same trap like some of us,” said an emotional Goredema.
He pointed out that players were retiring poor with a good number still staying with their parents or even grandparents.
He challenged society not to judge players and accuse them of not handling fame and money well as most of the dollars meant for them are intercepted by unscrupulous managers, coaches and club administrators.
Clubs and society at large have a responsibility to ensure the players have support systems that prepare them for life after, among those ideas should be provident funds, annuities and investment in real estate.
Some cunning agents and managers are said to take as much as 50 percent of earnings or signing-on fees.
This leaves the players frustrated and with little in their pockets to invest. There is need to educate players and prepare them for the future, where besides coaching and football administration, they can be analysts, referees and commentators.
Goredema’s misgivings were raised after Hwange Football Club paid over 16 players their 2021 ‘signing-on fees’ in local and foreign currency on Monday with figures most players did not understand how they were arrived at.
He bemoaned a situation where some of his teammates were paid in cash last year after only a few months’ stay at the Colliery, while him and others who had been with the club through the Division One campaign and Covid-19 era were ignored only to be paid now when the value of the signing-on fees had diminished.
The fate of retiring players, most of whom lack other skills to survive off the field, is something the football industry in Zimbabwe has to attend to.
Authorities should come hard on those that milk players and also craft a framework that has programmes that educate players for the future.
Goredema’s call might be too late for his own cause, but it should be useful to get things right for the next generation of players.
The Footballers’ Union of Zimbabwe needs to explore all possible avenues to have this issue addressed fully at all levels.
Peter Tanyanyiwa
Online Reporter