Maheta Molango: Players won’t be told what to do. It’s my mission to ensure their voices are heard
PFA chief executive Maheta Molango tells Henry Winter that players want more voice in running the game and he will help provide it

When players such as Harry Kane, Virgil van Dijk, Declan Rice, Kasper Schmeichel, César Azpilicueta, Harry Maguire, Fernandinho and Steph Houghton wrote a joint letter to Gianni Infantino last week, the Fifa president immediately made plans to fly to Manchester to talk to players and their union representatives.

The meeting with Infantino and his head of global football development, Arsène Wenger, was hosted by Maheta Molango, the Professional Footballers’ Association’s chief executive. Houghton, Lucy Bronze, Paul Pogba and Juan Mata joined Molango to voice players’ concerns about the increasingly crowded calendar.

What is very clear is that “the stars of the show”, as Molango calls the players, now want to set the agenda in football, and are actively taking the game to the leagues and authorities. The Premier League, EFL and FA are also being challenged to adopt what Molango calls a more “player-first” approach.

Since succeeding Gordon Taylor at the PFA on June 1 last year, Molango has been busy modernising the union, consulting players and assessing how best to ensure players shape the direction of the game domestically and internationally.

On Tuesday, the man who holds the record of fastest goal for Brighton & Hove Albion (19 seconds, against Reading on August 7, 2004) could be found in his office in the City of London, fuelled by coffee and croissants, planning his jousts with football’s established order.

Molango wants a team effort, all parties collaborating, but the strong-willed former Baker McKenzie lawyer wants the players to lead the way. “There needs to be a reset,” Molango insists. “It’s just not football, it’s society. This generation are not happy to be told what to do.

“If you don’t understand that you’ll have problems in football, newspapers, club or law firm. Society’s evolving. Employees irrespective of sector want to have a say because they’re well informed. They want to be part of an organisation that actually meets their values and their purpose. We’re at a crunch time in what direction of travel will be taken. We as the PFA, as players, want to be part of the discussion.”

Players have found their voice. James Milner and Kevin De Bruyne spoke out powerfully against the European Super League. Marcus Rashford ran rings around the prime minister on feeding the nation’s famished children. Jordan Henderson led a drive raising millions for the NHS.

Many players have also delivered for their clubs and countries, and now ask for either greater recompense or some respite from the “relentless” calendar. “There’s a frustration among the players because what we ask is nothing out of the normal,” Molango says. “We’re asking very basic stuff like, ‘Would you please when it comes to deciding the schedule take us into consideration’, ‘Would you please understand that we’re not machines that can just go travelling from country to country, playing 70 games a year’. If you play 70 games year after year, you struggle.”

OK, play less, be paid less?
”Then where does the money go?” Molango responds. “Footballers are an easy target. The PFA has been an easy target for a long time for a number of stakeholders and it needs to stop. Stakeholders use the PFA as an opportunity to divert attention from their own flaws.

“People of this level of engagement and commitment, the players, deserve respect. There is this perception that they are 11 guys running around in shorts and they’re ‘spoilt kids’ and that’s not the case.

“You’ve got 3.9 million people playing football in this country, and only 3,500 make it as professional. So even someone out of the squad in League Two is someone who has left 3.9 million people behind him to get there. He deserves more credit. There’s a lot of sacrifices, a lot of hard work.”

What about the Covidiots, the errant professionals? ”In any group you have the odd person who does not behave at the level you’d expect,” Molango says. “To then classify everyone as being that type is just wrong.

“Footballers have shown during the pandemic they really care and want to drive change: Rashford, Henderson, Maguire, Sterling. They deserve respect. I talk to Azpilicueta, he’s focused, he’s smart, he cares. This is my vision and mission to ensure their voices are heard.

“Eighteen months ago when most of us were at home [in lockdown], those guys were told, ‘Don’t worry, just go out there and play, you’re going to be fine, you’re fit and strong, play with no vaccine, no protection, no distancing’. And they did. Of course it also served their own interest in terms of the broadcasting deal. But let’s not forget that they did play. These guys are good leaders who bring hope to people.”

He talks about the dedication of Cristiano Ronaldo. “Cristiano is what he is because he has the drive,” Molango says. “He wins one title and what he thinks is ‘next title’. Yes, money has come. Yes, he’s got a good life but I’m 100 per cent convinced that money is the consequence and not a goal itself.

“You can replicate this with Henderson, Azpilicueta, Maguire and Pogba. They get to where they are because they are passionate about the game, they are ultra-competitors. There were probably more talented people than them when they were kids. The ones who make it to the top are the most dedicated, most resilient. They are role models.”

So Molango fights for them. “I worry a lot about the mental and physical health of players. I tell players that when football stops, your phone goes silent, irrespective of how many Champions Leagues or World Cups you’ve won. The system uses you. Players have problems with mental wellbeing but right now I’ve got only four people to look after them.”

Clubs should provide a financial safety net for players when they retire. “That should be paid by the people who have benefited from the performance of the player, who played for you, made you win titles and made you money,” he says. “We are great believers that money should go to the one who generates the value.”

Clubs should contribute more of their broadcast revenue to the PFA. “I would love that,” Molango says, “and that’s what I’ve been working on for the last six months for the clubs and the Premier League, the FA and EFL to see us as a solid, sophisticated, reliable partner and as an institution that solves issues. We all need to grow football in this country. The PFA is not here to scare anyone.”

So who is this eloquent advocate of player rights? Now 39, Molango has Congolese and Italian roots, was raised in Switzerland for 18 years, worked as a lawyer for Baker McKenzie in Madrid, ran Real Mallorca and fell in love with a Spaniard. Their children now attend the Lycée in London and the family speaks only French and Spanish at home.

Molango played briefly for Brighton, Lincoln City, Oldham Athletic and Wrexham and in Spain and Germany. “I’m a citizen of the world!” he smiles. “I wouldn’t be able to tell you where ‘home’ is. I’m the son of a black psychologist from the Congo and a white social worker from Italy.

“I’ve been a foreigner all my life but in my house it was never ‘we’re from the Congo’ or ‘we’re from Italy’. It was always ‘you’re going to be different because of the colour of your skin, your accent, your language but use this as an opportunity to shine. You’re going to stand out.’” The one mantra drilled into Molango by his parents? “No excuses.” Deliver.

So where to start? With a map. Molango’s father left the Democratic Republic of Congo to attend university in Perugia. “He then went to study psychology in Genoa and that’s where he met my mum,” Molango says. “She was studying international relationships.”

Their announcement that they were getting married prompted a mixed reaction. “The first resistance was more on the side of my father’s family,” Molango says. “It was not obvious for a black person to marry a white person. The fear of the unknown leads you to weird reactions. It’s about opening up your mind.

“My mum always tells stories about how she struggled at the beginning to integrate into my dad’s family. They struggled with this idea. My [maternal] grandparents’ reaction was good because they’d emigrated to Argentina so they had this experience of living abroad before coming back to Italy. They welcomed the situation.

“When I got married to my wife who is white, I didn’t see a difference between black/white. I am conceptually colour blind. I don’t see colour, I see what the person is bringing to the table.

“There are moments where I really feel very close to my African roots and the following day I just feel very close to my Italian roots. I’m passionate about the history of the country of my father, the Congo, and how they achieved independence through Patrice Lumumba, one of the great leaders of the African independence movement. But equally when I hear the Italian national anthem I feel very proud to be Italian.”

Growing up, Molango was transfixed by the “great struggles” between Arsenal’s Invincibles and Manchester United. “Thierry Henry was special,” Molango says. “I liked what Thierry achieved being a foreigner coming here imposing himself after a very difficult time at Juventus.

“I always had a lot of admiration for Gianluca Vialli, Roberto Mancini and [Attilio] Lombardo because my mum is from Genoa, so I grew up in the great years of Sampdoria reaching the Champions League final at Wembley [losing to Barcelona in 1992].”

Molango’s parents were “very strict and pushy” about education. “I got an offer from Atletico Madrid to play there [in 2003],” he recalls. “My father was against it. I was about to start my law studies in Geneva. He said, ‘You need to be a lawyer, an architect, a journalist. You need to have a profession, proper studies.’”

Molango loved football, and eventually accepted the offer from Mark McGhee’s Brighton in 2004. “My manager said, ‘Don’t pretend that you’re injured, don’t pretend you’ve been fouled if you’re not because you’re team-mates and fans will not respect you,’” Molango remembers.

“Overseas, you play a trick, and get this penalty which is not quite a penalty and everyone sees it as positive. Here it’s completely a different mentality. They don’t like cheating here. I love this country. I love that you can lose 4-0 and as long as you give your best the fans respect you. That’s not the case in some other countries.”

He still remains bemused by Brexit. “It’s difficult to understand how in a global world you can have this type of thinking,” Molango says. “I don’t know the details of how this decision was reached but as a citizen of the world I think that global problems require global solutions and nowadays name me one problem which is not global? We learn with Covid that borders are non-existent.”

Time in Molango’s company demands questions about assorted vexed issues.

Why haven’t the players spoken out about playing a World Cup in Qatar?
“We’re telling players to study and understand the local situation and then if you feel like voicing your opinion, voice it,” Molango says. “Be careful about giving lessons to others.”

Why aren’t more players vaccinated?
Molango queries figures of 16 per cent Premier League players and 25 per cent of EFL players unvaccinated. “I’m not exactly sure where this data is coming from,” he says. “How is this data gathered? As a unit we don’t have the exact data because of GDPR [General Data Protection Regulation] so again I get this feeling that footballers are being used [for target practice].

“Our stance is very clear as a union. We know how much damage Covid has caused to all of us on a personal level and on a financial level. We support the vaccination roll-out. Vaccination is a very important part to getting back some normality.

“We also need to acknowledge that some people have legitimate concerns, sometime it’s linked to a health condition. We’re working towards trying to address these concerns by having them sitting in front of people like Professor [Sir Jonathan] Van-Tam.”

The Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England addressed Premier League captains via Zoom. “It was very important to rebut some of the myths,” Molango says. “We did a similar meeting with all the EFL captains. Listen to the specialist, listen to the doctors, the same as you do when it comes to knee surgery.”

Will players walk off if racially abused?
Molango can see it happening. “The players want action, real action not just words. Fifa and Uefa need to do more. It’s unacceptable in the 21st Century that someone’s abused because she’s a woman, because he’s homosexual or because he’s black or Asian. How can this still be allowed?”

Freedom to come out
Molango addressed other issues. He admits that the men’s game is “still an environment where people still don’t feel comfortable coming out”. He adds: “I think that the dressing room maybe is not yet a place where people feel comfortable expressing their feelings. I agree we need to do better, we need to raise awareness. It’s a very personal decision. We don’t want to force anyone to do something that he or she doesn’t feel comfortable doing.”

The impact of dementia
He feels the PFA is finally becoming more engaged in the families’ campaigning to address the impact of dementia on former players. “I’ve learned so much from Dawn Astle, Rachel Walden, Penny Watson, Chris Sutton and John Stiles,” Molango says. “It’s been a tough conversation. The families felt let down by the PFA.

“Now we’ll have our own dementia strategy highly influenced by Dawn and Rachel. That’s why I’ve donated my brain for research — hopefully very far down the line! Every footballing stakeholder needs to contribute to what we hope will be a fund to support the families who are going through a difficult time. If someone has won the FA Cup for you or has played for this country, he deserves to be supported.”

And heading? ”Heading the ball is an important part of football but it’s important the players are aware so they can make an educated decision.”

Why hasn’t one of the PFA’s LS Lowry paintings been sold and the money spent on pressing issues such as more research into dementia?
”It’s not under our control,” Molango replies, pointing out that it is under the control of the PFA Charity. “No one in this building who belongs to the union can have any influence on what’s happening at the charity. It’s two separate entities.”

Why hasn’t the independent review into PFA governance during the Taylor era been published?
”On a personal level, I have little to lose by publishing it,” Molango says. So is it too painful a read for Taylor? “No, no, no, no, no, no,” Molango replies. “The members [players] said, ‘Guys, could you please stop talking about yourself and start focusing on our pressing issues.’ We need to move on.

“And this independent review has really allowed the PFA to be now the gold standard in terms of governance. We are really fit for purpose now. The time of the PFA being a one-man show — or perceived as a one-man show — is the past.

“Gordon has his own flaws, like many of us do, but I respect his legacy. I played in countries where there’s no standard contract. This contract [here] is a result of the hard work of the PFA. I played in countries where there’s no pension scheme. In this country if I’m a player I pay £150 per year and I get £6,000 contribution to pension scheme. Gordon was the leader of the organisation that achieved that.”

Taylor’s seven-figure salary was widely castigated. His successor earns a six-figure sum. “I’m comfortable with what I’m earning,” Molango replies. “It will be published so there will be no secret. I’m certainly not here for the money. I just want to give the players more of a voice.”