adminRicky Zililo Senior Sports Reporter
FOOTBALLERS’ Union of Zimbabwe (Fuz) has taken a big stride in laying a foundation for players once they retire by setting up a pension fund which will start with their Premiership members. Worried about the lives of their members after hanging their boots, Fuz heeded calls raised by prominent soccer personalities like Delma Lupepe, Willard Khumalo and Tendai Madzorera during the burial of Nqobizitha Maenzanise at the beginning of the year.
Lupepe challenged stakeholders to help in establishing insurance for footballers which will provide for them after the end of their careers.
Fuz secretary-general Paul Gundani yesterday said the issue of players’ pension fund as well as insurance policy has always been their desire to start but they wanted to establish a register of their members first.
He said they have been to eight Premiership clubs — Highlanders, Harare City, Dynamos, Shabanie Mine, How Mine, Caps United, Chicken Inn and ZPC Kariba briefing their members about the pension scheme.
“What we realised is that very few footballers think about making savings when they are still active and when they retire they become destitute or even die as paupers. Calls have been made before to plan for life after action and some players are heeding our advice, some don’t. As an association we examined ways of making it better for our members once they retire and applied to the registrar of pensions to establish a pension fund. Through this fund, players will be forced to make monthly contributions and they will get to enjoy the fruits of their sweat in years to come.
“The ball is already rolling and some members last month had money deducted from their salaries for pension,” said Gundani.
The former national team star said they decided to have players wholly contributing to the fund for a year which is their first phase and after that they will approach clubs so that they subsidise their monthly deductions.
“This pension scheme also has a life policy say for example, if one passes on, we will release four months basic salary to his wife or next of kin to assist with burial arrangements with the dependants receiving monthly allowances for the following 12 months. If one’s career is cut short by injury, he will get an ill-health pension released on medical grounds. A third is paid in lump sum with two thirds buying that person monthly pension payment for 10 years.
“It is our hope that this will be a successful venture and in due course, we shall descend to our members in the lower divisions,” said Gundani.
Khumalo is on record encouraging footballers that are still active to start planning for their future.
“The issue of life after playing soccer is what we have been talking about and as former Highlanders players, we sat down and decided to get our funeral policy because we were realising that when one of us dies, there are a lot of challenges that surface in terms of giving them a decent send-off. The problem is that most of the guys don’t take such initiatives as getting insurance seriously and that is why you find that some former players die as paupers.
“There is a need to address this matter with the urgency it deserves and even educate those that are playing that yes, they are enjoying now but they have to know that it is not all that rosy after football. At least they (players still active) are blessed in that there are living legends like Douglas Mloyi who I know can offer advice for free on planning about life after playing,” Khumalo said.
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