Since the formation of PFA Scotland in the summer of 2007, we have worked tirelessly to make sure our members are kept abreast of the work we do on their behalf.

The main source of information comes by way of regular club visits, and commenting on these visits PFA Scotland’s Stuart Lovell said “these visits also allow us to promote the benefits of joining the Players Union, and provide those players who came from outwith the professional ranks or have recently moved to Scotland with the opportunityto become a member.”

Stuart continued “By the end of February our Club Visitation scheme will have allowed us to get round all 42 teams in the SPL and SFL.  This follows on from a similar arrangement in 2010/11.  Our membership levels have been increasing year on year – they went up 9% over the course of 2011-and we hope to see this trend continue.  Each player has received a membership pack with inserts explaining “what we do” along with information on Education Grants and our Business Partners.”

“As always, it is our aim to maintain regular contact with players across all levels of the game.  If there is any collective issues at your club which require attention, PFA Scotland would be happy to organise a visit at short notice.”

In the wake of the publication of FIFPro’s Eastern Europe Black Book, the Serbian FA has initiated a criminal investigation into statements made during the presentation of the book by the Serbian footballer Dragisa Pejovic.

This action has met with a furious reaction from FIFPro who have provided Pejovic with great support as he has explained the unpleasant experiences he has had during his career as a professional player.  These include non payment, violence, threats, blackmail and match fixing with Pejovic admitting that under enormous pressure from club management he had participated in manipulating matches.

Dragisa Pejovic is now an amateur;disillusioned he has left professional football behind.  He now has to live from benefits, because financially professional football gave him little wealth.

The investigation by the Serbian FA and furthermore moves by the disciplinary committee of the FA to consider suspending the player for life prompted Theo van Seggelen, secretary general of FIFPro to make the following comment:

“This is unheard of.  The player is now the victim.  The football association should be seriously addressing the abuses in Serbian football, because there are lots of those.  Players are not paid, players are extorted, players are abused, and players are forced to co-operate in match fixing.  That is what the Serbian association must address.

This reaction by the Serbian FA highlights just how dire the situation in Serbia and other countries in Eastern Europe is.  The position of the professional footballer under employment law is simply lousy.

Instead of getting to work on the accusations from Dragisa Pejovic and a number of other players in Serbia about the high level of abuse, chairman Tomislav Karadzic and his collegues in the football association prefer to protect the people who are really responsible. Unbelievable!”

Since hearing about the criminal investigation FIFPro has contacted Emine Bozkurt, Member of the European Parliament, and rapporteur on sport for the Committee of Justice, Civil Liberties and Home Affairs.  On this contact, van Seggelen said “I was very pleased with the reaction from Mrs Bozkurt, who told us that immediate contact will be made with the Serbian football association to inform them that an investigation will be started by the European Parliament.”

PFA Scotland president and member of FIFPro’s Eastern Europe Task Force, also said “This was one of the reasons we launched our Black Book in Brussels.  Football cannot fight this problem alone, we need the support of Governments, the European Commission and Parliament.  The activity around match fixing involves criminal behaviour, therefore we require the assistance of police forces throughout Europe to investigate these matters and bring the ring leaders to face criminal proceedings in a court of law.”

Van Seggelen concluded “FIFPro is fully behind Dragisa Pejovic and the Serbian players union (Nezavisnost).  They all have the good of Serbian football in mind, they have stuck out their necks and because of this are now facing enormous pressure in their own country.  That is why they deserve the complete support of all their collegues worldwide.”

PFA Scotland Chief Executive Fraser Wishart was at Murray Park this morning.

He had talks with both the Rangers players and Mr Paul Clark and other representatives of Duff and Phelps, the court appointed administrators to the Club.

“Sadly I have been through this situation too often at other clubs. There are of course similarities and when I met with the players today I was struck by how together the players were in the dressing room.”

“The players appreciated the honesty and candid nature with which Mr Clark answered all their questions, of which there were many. The most important and immediate thing for the club is Saturday’s match and further discussions will take place within the next week with regard to the players’position.”

“The players asked for a more formal meeting with the administrator involving PFA Scotland and its advisors. The discussions so far have been very constructive and the transparency and openess with which Mr Clark conducted the meeting will help with any review of the playing staff. Our members are positive that we can all work with the administrators to assist the club through this difficult time.”

“Of course our aim is to minimise any financial loss for our members but the players are also conscious that the club’s well being is also vital for all parties. The players are also thinking of the other workers at the club and the thousands of fans at this difficult time and would like to thank the fans for their continued messages of support.”

PFA Scotland would like to make member players aware of the following:

It has come to our attention that there are companies trading as PFA Cars and PFA Insurance.  We understand that some of our members have mistakenly thought that these companies were in some way connected to either the PFA or PFA Scotland.  To avoid any doubt, we want to make it clear that neither PFA Cars nor PFA Insurance have any connection with the Professional Footballers’ Assocation or indeed PFA Scotland.

If any players require a vehicle or car insurance then we are happy to recommend the following Official Business Partners;

Car Insurance

Mitchell Pengelly  Mercury West Associates 0845 872 0328

Vehicle Companies

Russell Smith  Phoenix Car Company 07810 051464

Jacqui Lee, Ann Marie, Simpson Paul Harkins  Mercedes West Of Scotland 0141 331 4600

At a press conference in Brussels on Tuesday 7th February 2012, FIFPro published its Black Book Eastern Europe.

The book was presented to guests on behalf of FIFPro by Task Force Eastern Europe spokesman Dejan Stefanovic, secretary general Theo van Seggelen and Dragisa Pejovic.

Pejovic is a former professional footballer who left the game after having a number of unpleasant experiences including non payment, abuse, racism, blackmail and bribery and he spoke briefly about this troubled period as a professional.

The experiences of Pejovic give an example of some of the difficulties that confront players in Eastern Europe.  The Black Book gives an overview of these problems based on the 3,357 players that cooperated in the study with the FIFPro Task Force Eastern Europe examing the following issues:

-Payment of salaries and bonuses

-Training

-Violence

-Bullying and harassement

-Match fixing

-Racism and discrimination

To download the Black Book and observe all the findings please follow this link: http://www.fifpro.org/img/uploads/file/FIFPro%20Black%20Book%20Eastern%20Europe%20WEB%20DOWNLOAD.pdf

There are also further conclusions and thoughts from FIFPro on the findings from the Black Book which are available by going to the FIFPro website:

www.fifpro.org

PFA Scotland would like to make players aware that the annual Careers Day will take place at Hampden Stadium on Wednesday 25th April 2012.

Following the success of last year it is envisaged that this year’s event will follow a similar format.  This format includes information sessions for apprentice players who still have contracts secured with their club, for apprentice players who are unlikely to have their contract renewed and for senior players looking for future career options.

The apprentice sessions will consist of a series of presentations with the format for senior players being access to specific timed workshops on relevant areas.

Further extensive details of the Careers Day and it’s content will be provided over the coming months prior to the event and this information will be made available through the website and our newsletter.

In the meantime should you have any queries please contact :

Jack Ross on 07540 636766 or jack@pfascotland.co.uk or

Craig Flannigan 07900 954919  or craig@pfascotland.co.uk

PFA Scotland is pleased to have represented Falkirk defender Murray Wallace as he completed his move to English League One side Huddersfield Town this afternoon.

As one of Scotland’s emerging talents Murray is delighted to have secured such an exciting move and to have had the benefit of PFA Scotland’s player representation service during the transfer.

Speaking shortly after putting pen to paper with the Yorkshire club Murray said “I am very excited at the prospect of joining such a progressive and ambitious club as Huddersfield.  I was extremely impressed by the manager and feel it is a move which will help greatly as I continue my development as a player.  I am also delighted that I have the opportunity to finish the season with Falkirk as undoubtedly Steven Pressley, the staff and players at the club have played a huge role in my progress and subsequent transfer.”

Murray added “the representation and advice I received from PFA Scotland and their lawyers Bridge Litigation, in particular Liam O’Donnell has been of great benefit throughout negotiations and I am grateful for their guidance.”

PFA Scotland Chief Executive Fraser Wishart commented “Once again the player representation service provided by PFA Scotland in partnership with our lawyers is shown to have been of great benefit to our member.

The mix provided by the knowledge of football regulations and the playing side from PFA Scotland added to the legal and professional negotiation skills of our lawyers is unrivalled.

There is a need for an open, transparent and professional service for our members.  More and more top players are showing interest in what we can offer which can only benefit the game and the union as all profits made are reinvested back into PFA Scotland for use in education and other projects.”

Players in the Greek second and third tier leagues have taken the decision to strike forcing the cancellation of the next round of fixtures.

This action is a consequence of the inability of the clubs to pay insurance contributions for the players.  The lack of funds to make these payments has been caused by the breakdown of a major sponsorship deal for the leagues, a result of concerns over the continued crowd violence which marred Greek football.

Commenting on the strike, Greek Union (PSAP) president Stelios Giannakopoulos formerly of Bolton Wanderers and an ex Greek international player said “We just finished our meeting and nobody is prepared to back down to find a solution.  Only when a solution is found will the players continue to play.  All the clubs have been informed in writing.

A further statement from PSAP read “we understand that the country is living in an unprecedented crisis, however this does not mean that among other things we have to tolerate playing while uninsured or partially insured for the duration of games.”

During the recent FIFPro tournament which took place in Santiago de Chile, players participated in a large scale FIFA/FIFPro study on the Players Perception of Playing Surfaces.

Over the past few years FIFPro and FIFA have worked closely to improve the quality of playing surfaces, with FIFPro stressing that professional players deserve to play on high quality surfaces which provide the best opportunity to perform well.  In a survey being compiled along with Lougborough University, 1250 players from around the world are being asked to offer their views on all aspects relating to various types of playing surfaces.

The FIFPro Tournament America for out of contract players provided the opportunity for 86 players to participate in the survey, and those players from countries such as Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Peru appeared to relish the chance to express their opinion on their preferred playing surfaces.

Tijs Tummers who is FIFPro’s Technical Committee secretary and was present in Chile said “this is not about being in favour or against articifial turf, although this issue is well reflected in some questions.  It is about getting to know in detail what players consider to be an ideal pitch.  There are also huge differences between natural grass pitches-what do players see as their preferred pitches?  The idea was also that artificial pitches should approach natural grass pitches as much as possible.  But which type of natural grass, with which characteristics?  This study should provide more clarity on this.”

In Zurich FIFA’s Playing Surfaces Project Manager Stuart Larman was also delighted with the participation of players during the FIFPro tournament.  Larman commented “the survey is very important as we seek to improve the playing surface quality for players throughout the world, whether thay play on natural grass or artificial turf.  The feedback that we receive will model our future research and recommendations in pitch preparation.  The wide range of responses at the America tournament will provide us with a unique insight of what players in South America regard as a good and bad playing surface.  FIFA thanks FIFPro and the Chilean players union Sifup for their great support and we hope that other FIFPro members in other parts of the world show the same commitment.”

FIFPro, the World Players Union has announced that it will present the FIFPro Black Book Eastern Europe at a press conference in Brussels on Tuesday 7th February 2012.

The compilation of the Black Book was undertaken by FIFPro Eastern Europe Task Force and is the culmination of several months hard work.  Thousands of footballers took part in the study and the findings offered in the report are extensive and catalogue a long list of abuses to players’ rights in Eastern Europe.

As a consequence of receiving many complaints and statements to both FIFPro and its Eastern European players’ unions in recent years FIFPro initiated this research and hopes by doing so that these instances of abuse and intimidation will cease to exist.

FIFPro has extended an invitation to all journalsits and media representatives interested in this topic to attend the press conference and receive a copy of the publication.  Those in attendance will also include the FIFPro Task Force members and representatives from Eastern European unions.

Details of the Press Conference are:

11.00am International Trade Union House, Boulevard Roi Albert II, Brussels, Belgium