Fifa and Uefa, the governing bodies of world and European football, should share their rising television revenues with players’ unions to aid footballers whose clubs encounter financial difficulties, according to a senior official from global players’ union FIFPro.
Joaquim Evangelista, a FIFPro board member and head of the Portuguese Professional Footballers Association, told the Reuters news agency that his body has been inundated with requests from players under financial and legal strain over the past year.
Evangelista added that resources needed to be directed to the players rather than just clubs and football federations.
“Fifa and Uefa should stop the rhetoric and support players concretely,” he said. “We deal with the biggest problems in football: human dramas. So those who benefit the most from players (Fifa and Uefa) should also show solidarity. A percentage of television rights revenues should go to help players through the unions.”
The sale of broadcasting rights for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil has generated an estimated $437m (€328.6m) in revenue.