People of the Union puts the spotlight on individuals across FIFPRO’s member associations who are dedicated to improving the wellbeing of professional footballers.
Roberto Silva Pro is the president of Peruvian player union SAFAP. The former striker, who was capped by Peru at international level, talks about his daily work, the challenges he faces and his motivations.
FIFPRO: Tell us about yourself: what is your current role and what is your background?
Roberto Silva Pro: I could answer that I am the president of the Peruvian footballers' union but I like to answer that here there is a board of directors and an administrative team. The board of directors, which is elected by the players, is chaired by me. My work is executive and the administrative part is more the responsibility of Fernando Revilla [FIFPRO Association Board member] than mine, although we are both in the office all the time on a day-to-day basis. We sort things out between all of us.
I am the visible face of the union for the people, so my functions are more political – be it work meetings, visits to clubs, press releases. We go to meetings with Fernando because there are always more opportunities to achieve things when we get together with the clubs. We also defend ourselves better in pairs.
Regarding my training, I am an economist by profession, graduated from the Universidad del Pacífico here in Peru. I also have a master's degree in business administration and another from the Johan Cruyff Institute in international football business. They opened a branch here and I was in the first class 11 years ago.
What do you most enjoy about the work you do at the union?
That I can contribute something to sport in my country, in particular football. I consider myself more of a sportsman than a footballer.
What issue affecting player welfare are you most passionate about?
I dream of top-level football and sport in Peru, but we are a third-world country. So it is very difficult. And therein lies the frustration of pretending to have first-world football in a third-world country. But I am moved by the dream of believing that one day it is possible to get things right. And here I am referring to functioning, formality, infrastructure, values. Here there is an issue of social responsibility that also seems to me to be very, very powerful and that is little exploited. When I took over the union eight years ago, I put it on the table because I believe that footballers have the capacity to exert a positive influence. Another thing is whether we do it well. We footballers are watched by children and young people who aspire to be like you or to do what you do. We have to take that responsibility. When I see bad examples, it hurts me because they go against the power we have.
Can you share one of your proudest moments working as a union representative?
When I took over the union, our situation was a bit more conflictive and confrontational. We were fighting for rights and demanding things. So relations were broken with the majority of stakeholders, clubs and the federation. The first instruction I gave when I took over was to start rebuilding bridges, relationships. Like everything in life, leadership takes a long time to build credibility. But if we lay the first stone today and if we are consistent with our actions and what we say, things will end up working. Eight years later, I have the feeling that this has been achieved and it is something that makes me feel satisfied.
Today the union is an institution that has a shield and a sword in its hand and that, if it has to go to war, it will go to war. But the relationship with almost all stakeholders in the world of football is correct and respectful. The union has credibility. I materialise it in results. I took over in 2016 and since 2009 we had been fighting for the democratisation of the assembly of the Peruvian Football Federation (FPF), which was made up of professional and amateur football. The amateur had a majority. This led to a conflict that even caused Peruvian internationals to resign from the national team.
Thanks to the building of bridges, today we have a voice and a vote in the assembly. Seven out of 67 members are footballers. This achievement meant that we were able to have a representative elected by us on the FPF board of directors. It means that today we have a person inside the board fighting for the interests of the footballers. It doesn't mean that you are going to win everything you want, but you have the right to defend and argue from the footballer's point of view. For example, in order to get their licence to participate each year, clubs today cannot have debts to different stakeholders. One of them is the players. They need us as a union to issue a ‘letter of non-debt’. In other words, if they don't settle the debts with us or how they are going to pay them, the club does not get the licence to compete the following year.
If you could change something in football, what would it be?
In Peruvian football, one of the big problems we have is that football in particular, as a sector, invites people to participate who are not interested in the game and for many it ends up being a means or a platform for things that are not football. For example, politicians. People who use football as a political platform, a media platform or – and it's harsh what I'm going to say, but the head of the money laundering investigation prosecutor's office said it – for money laundering. She included football among the sectors where it is easiest to launder money, along with casinos, hotels and popular concerts.
So football unfortunately invites people to get involved who don't necessarily like football. And that's a huge problem because when we want to sit down and see how we can grow the industry, they are looking the other way. And there are more than a few of those people. If I could make sure that the people who are going to be part of this world were interested in football, the possibility of growing it in terms of infrastructure, player development, would be much, much greater.
Is there anyone in the union world or in sports in general who inspires you?
I haven't thought about whether there is anyone in particular, but because of the relationship we have had and because of our proximity, there are unions that inspire us when we see how they have done things or how they have progressed. For example, the Spanish association AFE is a reference. They have a percentage of the television rights and a series of services that we were looking at and do not have. The Argentinean union is an example of the services they have for footballers. The Uruguayan one was an important reference for us when it came to fight for the internal structure, how to have a voice and a vote in an assembly.
We like to look at what one or the other achieves, how they achieve it, what characteristics their proposals have. Everything that can help us. Now Chile, for example, is fighting for the same thing we are fighting for, that their third division doesn't become a kind of U-23 league. They want to put minutes and age requirements in a professional league and they are fighting for that not to happen. And we have the same fight here. So yes, we are always looking at our team-mates with whom we have been building a closer and closer relationship.
What is your best football memory?
I have many memories but there is one goal, one of the first goals I scored in professional football, perhaps the first in an official match, which I scored in 1998 against Sport Boys playing for Alianza Lima. We won 3-1 and it was a scissor kick. It was a very nice goal and Fox Sports television chose it for the best goals of the week. And for me, who was just starting my sporting career, it was a very nice thing. When I think of good feelings, good memories, that goal always comes back to my mind. When you're young, you're in the dream of playing the sport you love and it's like materialising a struggle of so many years in that goal. When you're in a full stadium, playing for a major Peruvian club and you can score a goal like that, it's a feeling that sticks in my mind because it represents the love you have for the sport.
What motivates you on a daily basis?
Feeling that I am moving forward. I'm a believer in the long-term and in football change takes a long time to happen. Every year, you feel like you've gone three years forward and the next year you've gone two years back. And then you fight to get those two back and win one more. And you win those three but the sector makes you go back two because as the law is made, so is the trap.
Or new things appear, for example, the problem of gambling. You think you are building, but they make you go backwards. What motivates me every day to get up and come to the office is to see what little steps we are taking, where we are going and how we are pulling this kind of stitching: what thread you are pulling, who you are talking to, what relationship you are building. And you have a lot because it's not just the decision-makers in the clubs. You have political levels, governmental levels or internal administrative levels. With the players themselves! Some leave, others arrive, you have to build new relationships. That's the hardest thing for us: to be close to 1,000 footballers who are scattered around the country and for them to feel that they have a union that is like a big brother, but for them to see you like that you have to be close. And physically you can't handle them all. That gives us a headache: how to make them see us as close.
