Read on Twitter
I’m going global about Covid, world. I won’t shy away from the word ‘slum’ - don’t like it but can’t find alternatives in English. Many professional footballers around the world come from backgrounds whose mere existence should be a constant source of worry to humanity. /1
Grew up in slums, shanty towns, favelas, or equivalents. To our shame, throughout most of last century and on, football, boxing and crime are, for many, the only way out of poverty. A handful might make it in any given generation. A small proportion of them are huge earners. /2
They are invariably scrutinised for ‘what they give back’ to a system/society that has given them nothing. Because they *were* once very poor, the expectation is that they should therefore take on the issue of poverty as their own battle. And many do. 3/
All over the world footballers, ex-footballers and football clubs have undertaken some of he most important social projects - whether grass root or at higher echelons of political life. Playing years are limited, a time when they are bought and sold, judged like race horses . 4/
It is unbecoming of a society that laps up their talent as if its only purpose was to entertain us, to demand a response from them as individuals which we demand from no-one else. We don’t know anything about these men, what they do or don’t do with their money. 5/
Clubs - especially PL clubs -are plc’a with a duty of care to their staff and sophisticated marketing know-how. If player fee reductions are negotiated with all, so be it. Good on them. But it should not be up to the talent, as individuals, to take on that duty. 6/6
