Hundreds of players kept as "football slaves" in Romania will soon be free to leave their clubs, according to Katie Gornall of the BBC. About 300 "trapped" players at 14 insolvent clubs can now "take legal action to cancel their contracts over unpaid wages." Players were previously "considered assets of any club in administration." But campaigning from the Romanian players' union, AFAN, "has led to the country's insolvency law being changed." British footballer Rhema Obed revealed he is still owed more than £40,000 ($57,612) "in wages from a seven-month spell with Rapid Bucharest" at the start of the '13-14 season. Obed said, "For the first three months, I was delaying my rent and using my savings and my girlfriend's wages. That's how I got by." Obed, then 22, took his case to FIFA and won the ruling in Oct. '14, "but he was frozen out by the club having played only three games." From Friday, players who have not been paid for three months "can file an application with the Romanian Football Federation and will be free to leave in two to four weeks." AFAN President Emilian Hulubei, who led the campaign for a change in the law, welcomed the decision but said that he feared clubs would still "try to cheat the players with bad practice" (BBC, 4/22).
