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Footballers Union of Zimbabwe should encourage their members to invest their earnings wisely while they are still playing the beautiful game. Most of our footballers have died with nothing to show for those days when fans cheered them during their playing days. Some sort of pension fund has to be set up for the players while they are in active service. Most of them spend their money on alcohol, women and drive around in flashy cars but when they retire they are seen begging for money to survive.
Most of these footballers earn way more than the formally employed and there is no reason why they should live in poverty when they have retired. Take for example a player earning $800 at a club with winning bonuses pegged at $150 per week, they can pocket well over $1 000 in a month if their teams win all their league matches.
Instead of investing, these youngsters spend the money as if there is no tomorrow with investments the last thing on their minds.
Responsible authorities, be it the Zimbabwe Football Association, Premier Soccer League, FUZ and the clubs have a huge part to play in ensuring that when these players retire, they have something to fall back on.
While we respect the dead for them to rest in peace, it is an open secret that most of our football stars have not had it easy during their last days on earth, this is despite them having played for big clubs locally and outside the country. Most of them die without even owning houses or having proper families so there is a need for all stakeholders in the game to ensure that this is corrected.
It is not only footballers who die paupers but what makes their case take centre stage is because they are usually in the spotlight. Football is a mass sport watched by thousands at various stadia all over the country and beyond our borders. These footballers are also idolised by many young people that may be persuaded to copy their lifestyles.
The little that they are getting in the form of salaries, winning bonuses and for winning cup competitions, there is a need for the earnings to be put to good use for a better tomorrow.
We were encouraged by the wise words of former Matabeleland South Governor and Bulawayo Senator Angeline Masuku when she urged football administrators and former players to stop being cry-babies and take the initiative to better their lives.
Speaking at the funeral service of the late Highlanders and Warriors midfielder Willard Mashinkila Khumalo at Macdonald Hall on Thursday, Cde Masuku told mourners that it served no purpose to keep on complaining while providing no solutions.
While some people might have interpreted her wise words to have been directed at the late Khumalo, we believe Cde Masuku was generalising her talk and all those with ears should not take her words for granted. She was spot-on. It is high time that all those in gainful employment should take advantage of the little they would be getting to prepare for their tomorrow. It is worse for sportspersons because their careers are short.
While it would be easy and palatable to blame footballers and any other sportspeople for being irresponsible, the administrators of the game should not be absolved of any blame, they are equally responsible. They should come up with ways of teaching their employees to practise the culture of saving.
In most cases these are the same administrators who draft suspicious contracts for the footballers and by the end of the day fail to honour those contracts. How many times have we read about players going for years without being paid their signing on fees? When the same players fall on hard times, it is the same administrators who go on to label them irresponsible people. A majority of the administrators are only good at speechifying at funerals of the players while they neglected them while they were still alive.
We call upon FUZ to have teeth and defend its members. These sportspersons are professionals and they should be treated as such. The days of playing just for the love of the game are over.
Online Reporter