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Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
WORRIED about the welfare of soccer players during and after their careers, the Footballers Union of Zimbabwe (Fuz) has challenged its members to subscribe to a pension scheme it established in 2014.
About 250 professional footballers have taken up the pension scheme aimed at assisting football players when they retire or are being treated for injuries and paying for expenses in the event that they die.
Fuz are advocating for players in the topflight and the four regional Division One leagues to contribute to the scheme, as part of investing for the future.
Former Zimbabwe international Thomas Sweswe, the Fuz secretary-general, said his organisation is concerned that most footballers don’t see the need to invest in the fund being administered by Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) listed Comarton Consultants (PVT) LTD.
The 250 footballers contributing to the fund are equivalent to 10 Premiership teams.
The 18-team Premiership clubs have about 450 players, that is if each side has 25 players.
The biggest pool of footballers is in the four regional Division One leagues. Each First Division league has 16 teams, which means there are about 400 players in each of the four leagues, translating to 1 600 footballers.
“The pension scheme is a good initiative for the players. This is open to all professional footballers, with focus being on the Premiership and First Division players. Those that play in Division Two and can afford the minimum subscription are free to register for the scheme. As Fuz, we’re worried about the low uptake of the pension scheme by the players because this initiative is meant to help them plan for their future. To be honest, life is tough for footballers after hanging their boots and hence the need to invest. We’ve seen in the past how footballers have found themselves in financial difficulties even though some of them would have made a lot of money during their playing days,” Sweswe said.
The scheme that Fuz members subscribe to has a retirement age of 40 years.
Sweswe said one becomes a member immediately after contributing the minimum subscription of $25. In the event that the member dies, the scheme will release a minimum of $6 000 to cover burial expenses.
“The scheme also covers ill health and retirement. If one’s career is cut short by injury, he/she will get 25 percent of his/her salary till death. For example, if their salary is $1 000, one will get $250 till death. For normal retirement, one gets a third of your savings as a lump sum and then the two thirds as monthly instalment till death.
“The message to footballers is simple; we all live the dream of securing our financial future from playing football, but only a minority actually do.
“The problem is players wait until the last contract before thinking about what to do after their involvement in the game ends.
“This is why we are encouraging every footballer to take up this scheme,” Sweswe said.
Fuz allayed fears of abuse of funds, saying safe investments are being made on the stock market.
Sweswe said an external audit of the pension fund is currently underway and the report will be made public.
He said they will continue their efforts to educate players and administrators about the benefits of the pension scheme.
@ZililoR
Online Reporter