Footballers at risk of financial and mental health problems

That many of those footballers will have similar worries to those which the vast majority of working people are experiencing amid the coronavirus pandemic, does not fit the narrative.

But go down the football pyramid and that is the reality. Footballers can experience tough and unprecedented financial times...and do.

Ex-Barnsley and Huddersfield Town defender Adi Moses is someone who can vouch for that.

Moses is a director and financial consultant for his own Barnsley-based company called Onside Financial Management – which provides advice to footballers.

It is advice which has also been forged by personal experience from which he successfully came out the other side.

“I think there is a bit of a misconception that footballers are earning thousands and thousands a week. You get down to the lower leagues and it is not like that,” Moses told The Yorkshire Post.

“I experienced it at Huddersfield when I was there in 2002-03, we went into administration and in the space of six months, all we had was a couple of cheques for 600 quid.

“It was tough. As soon as those wages stopped, you are relying on savings.

“One of the reasons I went into the career I am in is because I was always a saver and I used to listen to the senior pros who used to say: ‘build your pension up, try and get your money into your house, this is the best money you will ever earn in your life’ And it is true.

“But if somebody says to you that you are going to get no pay for six months or £1,200 in two £600 cheques, that is tough.

“There is no certainty as to how long this current situation will go on for.

“It is all right saying it is going to be three months. But what if it is four, five or six months with no pay? I was quite lucky as I had a partner who was working. Some footballers don’t have and are reliant on their sole income.”

The hefty pay packets of those in the Premier League and – to a lesser extent – the Championship will cushion the blow of any pay cuts or deferrals, but beneath that, it is a different story.

With wages for many players down the ladder being incentivised by way of wage bonus and appearance money, football’s shutdown will bite particularly hard.

Moses added: “From my experience, for the Premier League boys, it is a drop in the ocean if they have looked after themselves.’

“If you haven’t been stupid, it doesn’t take a financial advisor to say that they should have at least put some of that to one side for a rainy day.

“It is the ones in League One, League Two and the Conference who it affects. They are the ones who have rung to say they have been asked to take a pay cut and: ‘what do we do?

“You take the games away and you may take away appearance money and bonuses. I don’t know how every club works nowadays, but down the lower leagues, some of the contracts will be incentive-based and if you are winning every week, you are picking up a good bonus.

“If you are playing every week, your appearance money is supplementing your wages. This is your incentive not to rest on your laurels. But if there’s no games, there is none of that – just basic pay.

“And if you strip out so much of the basic pay – a deferment or cut or whatever – that is going to impact a hell of a lot on anyone’s income.

“Some lads will plan ahead and have money in the bank, but some don’t and just live for today.

“The Premier League and top half of the Championship is a different world. In League One, League Two and the Conference, many clubs live month to month and once you take some of that (income away), it is going to have a massive knock-on effect.”

For creatures of habit which footballers certainly are, the fact that the structure of their daily lives has effectively been taken away will also have an additional negative impact upon their mental well-being amid these testing times.

A survey by global players’ union Fifpro revealed this week that the number of footballers reporting symptoms of depression has doubled since the sport shut down due to Covid-19.

Anxiety symptoms have also risen amid significant concerns about the long-term impact that coronavirus may have on the football community.

Fifpro’s study of 1,602 professional players, conducted between March 22 and April 14, discovered that 22 per cent of 468 female players and 13 per cent of 1,134 male players reported symptoms consistent with a diagnosis of depression.

It also found that 18 per cent of the women and 16 per cent of men reported markers of generalised anxiety.

Moses said: “Footballers like routine and are creatures of habit and are used to training every day and are now told to do that on their own. Even for the most regimented lads, they still want to be out on the field with their mates kicking a ball. All that and the banter has been taken away.

“Then somebody throws in: ‘I want you to take a wage cut or a deferment as there are no games.’

“It is worrying. The lower you come down, it is the real world.

“They are human beings with worries and cares like everyone else – especially when you throw in wage cuts and deferments. Some will also have partners who don’t work and kids at home.

“It is quite easy to think: ‘they are all right Jack’. But many footballers will have worries like anyone else.”

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