Anderson helping struggling pros take a step in the right direction
There are loads who are destitute
VIV ANDERSON is so full of drive and vitality that train guards refuse to believe him when he produces his senior rail card.
Sadly, that makes the 62-year-old something of an exception among his fellow retired professionals – a fact made abundantly clear to the former Manchester United star earlier this year.
“This is a true story,” Anderson begins. “About nine months ago, I go to the shop for some sugar and am standing at the back of a queue of four or five people. At the front is a man with tracksuit bottoms, a pair of flip-flops and a vest.
“He orders a litre of wine. But he cannot pick the bottle up, so the man at the counter puts it in the bag for him.
“Then the man turns slowly around and I realise it is a player I had once played against. He does not realise I am there but hobbles out and somebody takes him away in a car.
“Nobody but me recognises him and he is clearly destitute – things had got to that level. And if you pick up the paper there are loads of them.”
For 14 months now, through his PlayOnPro organisation, Anderson has tried to help look after some of the former footballers struggling in similarly unfortunate circumstances. And his statistics are alarming.
Anderson says: “Seventy-five per cent of former players get divorced within three years of hanging up their boots. If you are earning £40,000 a week today, chances are within five years you will be bankrupt.
“Players get themselves into schemes through no fault of their own and are struggling. If you get bad advice, even on today’s money, you can get yourself into trouble. We just encourage them to try to reinvent themselves by going on courses or helping at academies around the world.
“If I can get them signed up for a Masters tournament, for example, it gives them something to look forward to and who knows where it will go from there.”
As well as organising events for an invite-only membership which has grown to 350, there are longer-term opportunities for retired sportsmen and women to continue to cash in on their playing days. One potential avenue for that comes through a new initiative set up with Redstrike, run by former Manchester United International managing director Mike Farnan.
Redstrike runs soccer schools around the world and is encouraging Anderson’s clients to head up academies, from short-term placements up to two-year agreements. Football is the main thrust for PlayOnPro but among the diverse clientele in different situations are cricketer Stuart Broad, ex-badminton player Gail Emms and a number of rugby players and boxers.
Anderson runs his business from a neat set of offices near Hale in leafy Cheshire – genuine former footballer country. As we finish talking, Shaun Goater, one of Anderson’s clients, pops in for a cup of tea.
When Anderson poses on his front steps for photos, he is hallooed by a figure from an upstairs window across the road – former Manchester United security officer Ned Kelly, who has just moved in.
It is a comfortable and very respectable life for a player who struggled against some of the worst prejudices in the game’s history as he came through the ranks at Nottingham Forest to win the European Cup twice and become the first black man to represent England at senior level. Much of that Anderson owes to the late Brian Clough.
“Very early on we went to Carlisle when I was 18 or 19 and Cloughie asked me to warm up,” he recalls. “I sat down again about five minutes later. ‘I told you to warm up’, Cloughie said. I told him they had been throwing fruit at me.
“He said, ‘I don’t care, I told you to go and warm up – only this time get me two pears and a banana!’
“Afterwards, he pulled me over and said, ‘If you let people in a stadium dictate to you, you are no good to me. I will pick somebody else because I can rely on him not to be affected by what people say or do’.
“If Cloughie had not dealt with the issue early on, there is a danger I would never have made it.
“It is common knowledge that Cyrille Regis got bullets in the post – at least all I got was bananas and pears.”