Misagh Bahadoran has been away from pro football for a couple of years.
But earlier this year, the 33-year-old winger decided to return to the club he helped build — Global FC.
What he did not expect, though, was how the once-proud team was now in shambles.
Yes, a lot has changed since Dan Palami sold the team back in 2017.
“I’ve been playing football for fifteen years, but I haven’t been in this kind of situation in my life,” he said during last Thursday’s episode of The CPT Crossover, presented by SMART Sports and Chooks-to-Go and supported by LGR Sportswear.
For the past few months, Global has been in the headlines but for the wrong reasons.
Issues emerged within the team, which is now based in Makati, including the fact that it has not paid its players and staff for the longest time.
Some of the players and staff who took to social media about it included Manchester United youth team product John Cofie and graphic designer Saya Jaruda.
“They talked to us but they haven’t been paying players since January. So we didn’t get paid or anything,” said Bahadoran, who steered Global to the 2014 UFL FA Cup and 2016 league championship. “Some players, they flew here, staying here, and they have no salary and quarantine happened.
“The players didn’t have money to eat. So some players started to share something for them to be able to survive. The situation is really bad.”
Global began signing players as early as January.
According to Bahadoran, they were promised signing bonuses and, of course, monthly salaries. But as he put it, “A club that doesn’t pay three thousand to the graphic designer, so how can you pay for the bonuses?”
Even after the 10-day grace period for settlement had passed, Bahadoran and Global were left in limbo.
All of a sudden, the owner of the club Mazinyi Management left their group chat, saying that Mark Jarvis was still the owner of the team.
“[Danish Atari] just removed his number from the group chat. He’s not answering any players.
“As players, we like to speak up for this kind of players to understand this kind of situation. These people come in and they don’t make something like that to other players around the world. You cannot just come, give promises, join the team, sign a contract, then you do this and that. Because in football, when you wanna sign something, you’re planning for one year. You cut everything. You maybe sell your houses or rent it to someone else,” rued Bahadoran, who has 55 appearances for the Azkals under his name.
Bahadoran could not help but feel sad as Global fell to the lowest of lows. It was just three years ago when it was competing in the prestigious Champions League — two years since it was in the AFC Cup.
“They say football players die two times. One is when they stop playing then the other one is when you really die.
“So when I stop because of injuries and a lot of things, I told myself that I need to move on because injuries after injuries came by. After that, I tried to play again because. I just want to help Global because of the history of Global. I thought it’s possible to bring the history of Global. Global has one of the strongest histories after Ceres. But suddenly, of course, situations change,” shared Bahadoran, who even signed the lowest contract of his life just to help the squad regain its lost glory.
“Players have to survive also, like they have better offer[s] for them in Thailand or other countries. The owners left us and that’s just really sad. That’s the only thing I can’t forget in my football career — to see Global become like this.”
