Michael Devlin: Scottish football must start putting the person before the player

About the author
Michael Devlin is a former Scottish international who played for clubs such as Hamilton Academical, Aberdeen and Livingston. Devlin took an active role as Chair of PFA Scotland throughout his playing career and has now taken a full-time position as Project Lead since retiring from football in 2025.

By Michael Devlin

I’m not sure I was ready to retire as a player, but I was certainly prepared for it.

Letting go of something you love so much that has become a huge part of your identity is always going to be challenging emotionally. However, career-wise, I knew I had something else to step into, and I was ready to start my full-time role as Project Lead with the PFA.

The importance of a player union was instilled in me from the very beginning of my football career, with one of the older players at the club being an avid ambassador for the work they do. My parents reinforced this notion at home, emphasising my family’s own personal experiences of how valuable trade unions could be.

When I was 21, despite a certain degree of imposter syndrome, I put myself forward to be on the management committee of PFA Scotland, and my involvement has evolved over the years to the point I took up the position of Chair within the organisation.

Our chief executive, Fraser Wishart, has been a huge influence for me and he gave me a lot of freedom on particular projects, allowing me to look into areas of research that are specific to Scottish football, and identifying where PFA Scotland could best dedicate its time and resources.

I was allowed to incorporate my experiences as a current player into my work, and discover the issues within the Scottish game that I was most passionate about, such as mental health and well-being support for players; comprehensive medical care for players across the country; and developing educational workshops around topics such as gender based violence and misogyny. When Fraser brought up the possibility of a full-time role once I had hung up my boots, I knew it was the right opportunity for me.

I don't miss playing. It comes with extraordinary highs that I’ve been fortunate enough to enjoy over the years, which I think a lot of players find difficult to replicate after their careers are over. However, those highs are volatile, and often sharply contrasted with equally extreme lows. It was these that dominated the last few years of my career, taking a real impact on my mental health.

My work with the PFA helped redirect my focus and develop passions off the pitch. I wake up in the morning with a purpose. I feel a real sense of achievement through not only my own work but the direction that we, as an organisation, are taking.

It’s crucial for players to develop their education outside of the game. It’s not just about being prepared for life after football; there is plenty of research to show that extracurricular interests can aid our performance. Football is an intense environment and sometimes shifting our focus in a different direction can give us a better perspective. It doesn’t have to be a degree, or a role within the PFA itself like I have chosen, but there’s a brilliant team here that can support you to develop other passions that can go on to become opportunities.

I would never discourage any young player from pursuing their dream, and of course football comes with an incredible amount of dedication. However, their dreams shouldn’t come at the detriment of their development as human beings.

I’m a huge believer that the player should always come second to the person, and that we have responsibilities to both society and ourselves to remember that. Football is important – I’m not taking away from that – but it’s something that we do, not who we are. I think clubs should help instil this message in their players as they progress through their careers.

The game has the power to bring a lot of happiness, but it can also detract from our wellbeing – especially mental health – and when that happens, we need something to fall back on.

Partly due to my own experiences and partly because of what I’ve observed with the PFA, mental health support is a focal point for me going forward. We have a wonderful service already available through our partners at Sporting Chance, but there is still a lack of awareness and support at club level.

I would love to see players offered proactive and comprehensive medical and psychological support across the board directly from their employers – from academy level all the way up to the senior pros. Physical, tactical and technical investment are all prominent throughout the game from a very young age, but until we start to place mental health as one of these fundamental pillars of care, we’re always going to fall behind.

As a footballer I experienced first-hand how these issues can affect us as people, and as Chair of PFA Scotland I gained insight into the factors that can cause them to arise. In my new role as Project Lead, I want to address issues head on and help drive the changes that are needed to continuously improve Scottish football for our members.

I’ve always known what my principles were, and I like to think they power a strong moral compass which has guided me to speak openly about issues as a player. PFA Scotland, and especially Fraser, helped me tap into this part of myself and turn it into transferrable skills that opened up a natural evolution for my career.

Football has given me some incredible moments that will live with me for the rest of my life, but I know I have so many more to look forward to. Your journey might not look like mine; the important thing is that you can always see further down the road than the last kick of the ball.