82% of Brazilian players have monthly income less than 252 USD

(Baonghean.vn) - More than 80% of Brazil's professional soccer players are living on less than $252 per month, slightly higher than the country's minimum wage, according to data released on February 24 by the Brazilian Soccer Confederation - CBF.

Most teams competing in Brazil's top flight - the national football championship - were unable to pay their players' salaries in 2015.

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It is a story not uncommon in a country where even the biggest clubs are weighed down by unpaid debts.

The minimum monthly wage in Brazil in 2015 was 880 reais (US$221.50), and 82.4% of soccer players earned less than 1,000 reais per month.

The CBF analyzed the earnings of 28,203 active players. Only one player earned more than 500,000 reais ($125,850) a month, the average salary for a top player in Europe, the Middle East and now China. The increasingly low pay for playing in the domestic league explains why hundreds of the country’s players choose to play abroad each year.

According to a report by the CIES Football Observatory in October 2015, Brazil has 1,784 players playing abroad, 800 more than the second-largest player exporter, Argentina.

Last year, several matches in Brazil's national soccer league had to be suspended after players protested their working conditions by standing still immediately after the referee blew the whistle to start the match.

"Players are being mistreated by clubs. They are not paid on time and are unfairly judged in football courts," said the international players' union FIFPro.

Thanh Hien

(According to Bloomberg)