PFA Co-President Jackson Irvine was the latest guest on FIFPRO’s Footballers Unfiltered, hosted by former Manchester City and England goalkeeper Joe Hart.
Irvine spoke about the importance of player unions and the power of the collective player voice throughout the episode, which was the first in Season Two of the podcast series.
“Don’t underestimate the power of the unions and the help that’s there for you,” Irvine said.
“When it comes to things like education, mental health support, player safety, find out who your player representatives are and someone will be there to support you. The primary objective of any union is to support us as workers.”
Watch the full episode here
The Socceroos and St Pauli midfielder’s role with player unions stretches beyond his current position as Co-President of the PFA alongside Matilda Tameka Yallop, serving as part of FIFPRO’s Global Player Council.
“It’s two roles that I’m very proud of,” he said.
“I’ve always been a strong believer in unions and player associations being able to help improve the game. You can only be part of those conversations when you get involved.”
Irvine spoke about numerous player-centric issues the PFA are currently addressing including mental health and player workload.
“Modern problems are becoming more and more spoken about and increasingly relevant when it comes to things like lack of mental health support. We’ve seen through our studies and data that when [mental health support] is on offer to players, it is overwhelmingly used when they’re aware it exists,” he said.
“Player safety is a constant issue we’re trying to address on and off the pitch when it comes to social media, and obviously player workload is one of the biggest and most talked about issues in the game at the moment.”
The 75-time Socceroo also reflected on his early days in the national team, which coincided with Australian players putting pressure on Football Australia to deliver equal pay for the men’s and women’s national teams, which was eventually signed in 2019.
“It was my second call up for the national team and this was when we were pushing hardest for the gender equality agreement. The players all agreed to do a media blackout for that [October international] window,” he said.
“I remember the amount of pressure you can apply as players when you’re together and when you have a clear vision of something that you want to achieve. The fire was lit within me after that. If you want to make real change within a workplace, you can bring people together and make it happen.”
Irvine was joined by FIFPRO Asia/Oceania Secretary General Shoko Tsuji as a guest on the episode of the series, which enables current and former footballers to have open conversations about the hidden side of the profession.
Previous guests from the first season include fellow Australian Josh Cavallo, Italian football legend Giorgio Chiellini, English footballer Molly Batrip and more.
The full episode is also available wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
