Corruption, threats and late payments: Zooming on the dark side of football in Eastern Europe, FIFPro has published a book named Black Book Eastern Europe in which many players have recounted tales of corruption in European football
The story of Nikola Nikezic, former Le Havre player who was subjected to a harsh treatment upon joining FC Kuban is well-documented.
In 2010, he signed for FC Kuban from Le Havre and this was where the Montenegrin’s ordeal started. The forward was forced to train alone and when he asked to leave, FC Kuban refused. Then, the managers wanted him to cancel his contract on the spot. The manager
asked him to sign a document and threatened that he would never be able to leave Krasnodar (hometown of FC Kuban) or he would be disable which means his career would have finished.
The 30-year-old has never recovered from that ordeal.
However, Nikezic is not the only player who has gone through such ordeal. There are countless examples of players in Eastern Europe who have been forced to do their owners’ bidding. This is the main reason why many talented players were never really able
to kick start their promising careers.
FIFPro (Federation of Professional Footballers’ Associations) has published a book under the title of “Black Book Eastern Europe that was presented in Brussels on Tuesday to the members of the Eiropean Commission, European Parliament and Europol.
An anonymous survey of over 3,357 professional players playing in the first division sides of Eastern Europe where investigated by FIFPro.
The results of these investigations have been alarming to say the least. 12% of these players admit of being approached by someone to rig the result of the game deliberately. This rate rises to almost 34.3 % in http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Greece-c2908.
The situation becomes even more critical especially after the testimony of Yugoslavia-born left-back Dragisa Pejovic.
“The club’s management forced me to rig matches. They even threatened to break my legs and both arms if I did not do it,” says the 29-year-old.
One out of nine players in Eastern Europe’s top division experience acts of either violence or racism. The report says that 55.8 % of these cases arise through fans, 13.3 % due to the owners and 8.3 % due to the involvement of coaches.
41.4% of players never receive their wages on time. This happens to 94% players in http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Montenegro-c2959, 67.5 % players in Greece where the situation is getting critical day by day.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Red-Star-c40350 Belgrade
where he was banned by the owner.
“I asked why I did not receive my wages to the president. And I was suspended. In the media, to justify themselves, they told that I was polluting the atmosphere of the team,” says the28-year-old who is now on-loan at Panionios.
These confessions speak volumes about how bad things are in Eastern Europe. The conclusions made by the Black Book Eastern Europe will have far reaching repercussions in weeks and months ahead not just in Eastern Europe but beyond it.
This book is a real distress call to FIFA and UEFA who will be forced to act on these issues sooner rather than later for the good of the game, which ironically is the slogan of FIFA.
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