World football governing body FIFA is launching a fund to support players who have not been paid by their clubs, a FIFA statement said on Tuesday.
“The 16-million-dollar fund will start from July 1 and run to 2022 in an agreement reached with the FIFPRO, the world players’ union.
“A share of 5 million dollars from the fund is set aside for the retroactive protection of players’ salaries between July 2015 and June 2020,’’ it noted.
The statement said that there had been “a proliferation of cases’’ of unpaid players’ salaries around the world.
In 2019, FIFA revised its disciplinary code to deal with incidents of clubs closing down and reforming as new clubs to avoid paying outstanding salaries.
According to FIFPRO president Philippe Piat, over 50 clubs in 20 countries have shut in the last five years, plunging hundreds of footballers into uncertainty and hardship.
