Minimum wage rule for players long overdue
What you need to know:
- Players of a team were assaulted by goons just because they asked for their pay from the employer.
- Players need to earn all they can within this short time so that they can prepare for retirement as early as fitness dictates.
A few weeks ago, one young footballer was arraigned in court and charged with neglect of his son. Apparently this young fellow sired a child but was unable to support the baby due to lack of money.
The bill ran to some half a million shillings and the player was to serve four months in gaol for the offense. It was shocking when he admitted that he could not meet his obligations because he was earning peanuts.
In another case, players of a team were assaulted by goons just because they asked for their pay from the employer; others have had their landlords locking them out for not paying rent. We can pretend that it is these lads own mistake when such thing happen but we know better.
Football is a game that takes up your teenage years and your twenties. The moment you reach 30 years you are already a Methuselah thinking of retirement.
Players need to earn all they can within this short time so that they can prepare for retirement as early as fitness dictates.
In Kenya, it seems this never occurs. We just do not know how much the Kenyan footballer earns; what insurance package they have; how they are planning for their retirement and many other things. Some of the players earn less than a bartender and struggle to make ends meet throughout their careers. When they hang up their boots, the shock that awaits them wastes many a good lad.
Long time ago, most of the players in the top clubs in Kenyan were employed by parastatals and football was just a hobby.
They depended on their jobs and even after retiring they went on with their jobs. That does not happen anymore and most of the talented youth we see kicking the ball in our stadiums are struggling as they depend solely on their sport that does not pay them as is required. That talent becomes almost a curse to many of them.
PLAYERS LOOK RELAXED
When we look at our neighbours in Tanzania, we wonder just where the difference comes from. Clubs like Simba, Yanga and Azam can shock you with their organisation. The players look relaxed and seem well paid as compared to players in Kenyan teams.
We pretend that our economy is the strongest in the region but that is just hot air if that strength cannot be seen trickling down to the people that matter. The training facilities of the Tanzanian clubs makes one think he is in some developed country and not in the Third World.
Khartoum clubs are also so large and well organised as compared to ours. El Merreikh’s club house is something to marvel at and the players’ residences and their investments is very well planned.
Do we really want to become anything better than what we are? Is there anything that can be done differently to look into our player’s welfare?
Of course all that is possible. There are many ways we can make it better. There would be no need to talk about youth programs and talent search when we know so well that we are in the end just going to waste some child’s life.
The Kenya Premier league is where we must begin from. There has to be a minimum wage paid to a player in all the clubs.
Where there is no proper trade union, the plight of the workers is usually ignored and in the end, everybody suffers. If we pay our players well, then even the clubs will gain more since a satisfied worker does his thing better than the enslaved one.
The policy of employing players must be scrutinised properly by the ministry of sports to see just how much our lads earn for such a short career!
This must be done as a matter of urgency since it has been ignored for a very long time. People are suffering!
