Footballers in Gabon are being treated as slaves through the systematic late payment of salaries, the head of the country's players union told AFP. Remy Ebanega's outburst came in the wake of a damning Fifpro report which revealed that 95.6 percent of players from teams in Gabon have been paid late at some point.
"It's slavery," said Ebanega, a former Gabon international and current president of the players union. "If it's not slavery what is it? When someone works for you for eleven months and then you just don't pay them - this is the reality in 90 percent of the clubs here. "The club presidents have so much influence on the players, and the players are in turn afraid to speak out."