Joe Hart: "Every footballer can benefit from player union support"

About the author
Since retiring from club football in 2024, Joe Hart has become a prominent figure in football media, working as a commentator, pundit and a host of the new Mind Over Everything docuseries. On the 60th anniversary of FIFPRO, the former England goalkeeper reflects on the first two seasons of Footballers Unfiltered – the FIFPRO series that examines the rarely heard side of the profession and how unions are providing support to players.

By Joe Hart

The life of a footballer seems idealistic, and in a lot of ways, it is a dream come true for those who get to live it. But it’s not the problem-free utopia that it’s so often made out to be. At the end of the day, we are all just human beings trying to navigate our way through life.

That’s part of what I’ve loved most about working on Footballers Unfiltered: players with different lives and experiences coming together to learn and relate in a human-to-human conversation.

At the beginning, when I saw the topics lined up, I panicked slightly. I had no personal experience and no blueprint to direct the discussion. But every single guest we had was there with the intention of helping others. They were on the show with me and a union representative not to complain but to raise awareness and find solutions. No matter how far removed you might feel from a certain topic in football, there’s always a connection there, whether it’s through your own experiences or that of a team-mate. I’ve learned so much from my time on the show.

I couldn’t pinpoint a favourite moment, but I was really moved by Josh Cavallo, who at the time in October 2021 was the only current openly gay male top-flight professional footballer. I loved how he spoke, his strength, and his desire to be there for anyone who feels just a little bit uncomfortable in their environment – which is probably most of us at some point. I loved his story so much: coming out to his team-mates and receiving such a positive response to build his confidence and go on to establish a network of support for other people to feel freedom to be who they really are.

It made me imagine how powerful it would be to have been one of his team-mates in that dressing room, to witness someone having the bravery to come out as gay in the world of men’s football, and to support them in a way that will hopefully help end the stigma in the game.

Every single episode brought a realisation of the unique problems that arise in the footballing world. I was shocked to learn that players could be banned simply for being approached for match-fixing and not reporting it in time; I’ve never suffered from disordered eating, but I really understood how the pressure of weighing a certain amount and following a specific diet could fundamentally affect your relationship with food; and although I have children of my own, my eyes were really opened to the struggles that women face with their best years as a player overlapping with the time they want to start a family.

It’s all things that I’d heard snippets of before, but never really had the chance to delve into and realise how complex each scenario can be. It was humbling to be part of the conversation as they told their stories to help others, and I feel like the whole team – in front and behind the camera – can be proud of the platform we’ve created for players to share their messages.

I never want to say that I was lucky because I worked for everything I had in my career. While I might have been in the right place at the right time, I earned everything I achieved. But I don’t think I quite realised, playing at the level that I did, how crucial player unions are to the wider football community. I personally never found myself in a position where I felt I needed to seek extra support, but now through my work with FIFPRO I wish I had more of an awareness of the help that was available to me and the people around me.

It’s always good to have that clarity, not just for the players themselves, but for the people around them. We get so wrapped up in our training and our performance that sometimes, especially in my experience of the men’s game, we don’t leave a lot of time for anything else, and our families perhaps notice the knock-on effect of this pressure more than we do. It’s a huge asset for them to know they can reach out to their player union and perhaps gain a bit of insight about parts of work life that don’t need to be as difficult as they currently are.

Every single player can benefit from that sort of support, no matter what level they play at – whether it's financially, emotionally, or physically. Player unions offer reactive assistance when it’s needed, like in the case of many of the guests on the podcast, but they also offer the prospect of an educated conversation, and sometimes that’s all you need to find balance and be a better player and person as a result.

Learning about the game from this perspective has really helped me stay on the path that I set myself when I began my media career. As a former player I remember what it was like to be in the shoes of the players that I am discussing on air, and I always want to bring that context to the game. You will never hear me bemoaning in my commentary that ‘the game is gone’ or that someone isn’t trying hard enough – because I know exactly the pressure that the players are under and I always want to incorporate that human element into any insight that I share as a media personality.

I’m not here to make excuses for anyone, no-one needs me for that, but I am hopefully helping those outside of football understand the unique situation that players find themselves in. I’ve learned that player unions help footballers navigate their careers not just as positions on the pitch, but as human-beings going through life.