A Premier League player is being forced to pay
£15,000 every three months in protection money to a London gang,
according to a BBC investigation.
BBC World Service's 'World Football' programme claims
footballers are becoming easy prey for organised gangs.
A member of a south London gang told the BBC that one Premier
League player had grown up with gang members and now had to pay
them protection money or risk being attacked and having his career
ended.
The gang member said: "The people above me have ordered this
person that he has to pay them a certain amount of money every
couple of months.
"That's just in case, so no one can touch you for three or four
years but you are still paying that money every three months to
keep yourself safe.
"It's £15,000 every two or three months, that may not seem a lot
to a Premier League footballer but it's a lot of money."
The gang member said hiring private security would not protect
the player, adding: "We know where your family, friends and the
people close to you live and your security isn't going to protect
them all the time."
The Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) said the claims
underline the need for clubs to be aware of security issues
surrounding players and their families.
PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor said "Football reflects
society and sometimes society can be not very pleasant.
"If these threats are a reality it's a terrible intimidating
thing for the player concerned.
"Clubs and players are a lot more conscious [about security], we
have made them aware of this, and there's a strong need for private
security to go alongside the police."
Another criminal from Merseyside claimed players filmed in
lap-dancing clubs and brothels had paid blackmail demands of up to
£100,000 to prevent the pictures being sold to newspapers.
David Beckham's former bodyguard Paul Hughes, who runs Benchmark
Security, said he had heard of players being involved in protection
money demands.
Hughes told the BBC: "I believe it has already happened, it's an
ongoing thing in the north east from what I have been told.
"Most of your players are up-and-coming lads from the council
estates and have still got all these contacts with people from when
they were hanging around with their mates on street corners.
"When these other people see the money they have got they are
contacting them."
Hughes said players and their families were easy
targets. He added: "They are so easy it's ridiculous and I
think the clubs and the FA need to do a lot more to protect them
and their families."
Hughes is confident players will be well protected at the World
Cup in South Africa but warned that their families may not be.
He said: "I think the players are going to be so well looked
after following the Togo incident.
"But I think the targets are more their family and friends over
there in their own place, with their own little villas and their
own drivers. That could affect the players, knowing the families
are a potential target."