Scottish footballers have revealed how they were left penniless after dream foreign transfers turned into nightmares.
Stevie Mallan and Alan Martin were delighted to be heading abroad after securing lucrative deals to play overseas. But their moves fell apart and they were left badly out of pocket when their new employers failed to pay them.
With nowhere left to turn, they went to trade union the Professional Footballers’ Association Scotland, which helped recover hundreds of thousands of pounds. Stevie had headed to the Turkish top flight where he faced off against the likes of World Cup winner and former Real Madrid star Mesut Ozil, while Alan had agreed to go to the Philippines.
Stevie was left fearing he’d have to pay medics in Turkey to carry out a potentially career-ending operation and Alan had to become a delivery driver to pay the bills. Glasgow-born midfielder Stevie, 26, came through the ranks at St Mirren before moving south to join English Championship side Barnsley in 2017.
He returned to Scotland with Hibs before securing a loan move to Turkish top flight side Yeni Malatyaspor in 2021. As well as ex-Arsenal playmaker Ozil, the league boasted former Atletico Madrid, Monaco, Chelsea and Manchester United striker Radamel Falcao, who was with Galatasaray, and winger Arda Turan, who played for Atletico and Barcelona.
A successful loan move and a bumper contract offer convinced Stevie to return to the Turkish side permanently for the 2021-2022 season. Stevie, who won nine caps for Scotland under-21s, said: “I joined in the July and my first wage was October. So I missed out on July’s wages, August’s wages and September’s wages.
"Then I never saw anything after October. Turkish contracts are paid over 10 months. So for two months of the year, you don’t get anything. Out of the 10 months, in the first year, I got one. They blamed the TV company, saying it hadn’t paid clubs.
"A few times we didn’t train because we weren’t getting payments. They owed everybody money. They kept saying, ‘We’ll pay you, we’ll pay you’.
"I needed an operation on my back and the couple of days for that was terrible. I turned up at 6am. It was private in Istanbul. I had to wait until 6pm because the club wouldn’t pay for the operation. I was in for two days post-operation.
“When I was leaving the hospital staff asked how I was paying. It was 8000 or 10,000 Euros. Eventually the club paid it. If we won, our bonuses were paid cash in hand and on time. That’s what saw me through till the end of the season and paid for my shopping and my car.”
Stevie cut his deal short and signed for English side Salford City, which is owned by Manchester United legends Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville, Phil Neville, Paul Scholes and David Beckham.
Glasgow-born Alan, previously on the books of Motherwell and Leeds, played for Ayr United, Hamilton Accies, Dumbarton and Queen of the South. He convinced Scottish League Two side Edinburgh City to tear up his contract in January 2020, so he could make a lucrative free transfer move to the Philippines.
But Global Football Club, which was in the midst of a takeover, went bust, with Alan never leaving Scotland, despite having signed a contract. The 33-year-old, capped 10 times for Scotland under-21s, said: “The Edinburgh manager and chairman were great with me and I can’t thank them enough for releasing me.
“I signed the contract with Global FC and was told I was going to be moving in February. I told my family, said my goodbyes to everyone. I got my wife and the kids all packed up and was trying to find schools. Then there was a delay. Then the coronavirus lockdown came in.
"We still hadn’t been to the Philippines. They were blaming Covid and the country being so close to China. They were saying there were no flights when there were flights available. They were sending us false payments from Western Union accounts, saying they were pending and hadn’t come through yet.”
With a wife and kids to support and a mortgage to pay, Alan did a lorry driving course. He added: “I was out in the lorries driving for Argos and DHL to try and keep money coming in. This went on for months and months. I can’t thank lawyer John Paul Mowbray, Fraser Wishart and PFA Scotland enough.
“I got a percentage of what I was owed and I wasn’t expecting anything. That wouldn’t have come without the help of the PFA. I’m delighted.”
When restrictions eased, Alan initially moved to Gibraltar, signing for Bruno’s Magpies, who featured in Europa Conference League qualifiers, and then on to St Joseph’s. PFA Scotland took the cases to the Disputes Resolution Chamber at FIFA, world football’s governing body, for breach of contract and non-payment of salary.
Both cases were successful. Alan has received his money while Stevie is still waiting for his payout.
Former defender Fraser Wishart is secretary of PFA Scotland and is also on the European board of FIFPro, the world footballers’ union. The ex-Motherwell, Rangers, and Hearts player explained: “If they hadn’t come to the union, they probably wouldn’t have got their money.
“Alan Martin’s case is really unusual because the club just went bust, disappeared. FIFPro negotiated with FIFA and FIFA puts money aside into, we call it, ‘The Fifa Fund’, and it’s entirely for this purpose.
“While Alan didn’t get all of his money. He got a chunk of it, and that’s from a club and a company that just disappeared. This is the difference we make. We have this specialist service and they wouldn’t have got their money otherwise.
“Our specialist football lawyer took this on, took this to the DRC at FIFA, and we won the cases. This is a free service that we put forward. The players are delighted. These are obviously two unique cases.”
Yeni Malatyaspor, FIFPro and FIFA were approached for comment.
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