Players' union never been as important with league's hybrid model, says PFA NI's Michael Carvill

The PFA NI was officially launched last week as the organisation will lead the way in contractual advice, legal support, personal development and player wellbeing, with a significant emphasis on players' mental health.

Carvill, from PFA NI's management committee, alluded to the fact that the increasing number of full-time teams in Northern Ireland is adding pressure on players to maintain a high level of performance or else they might find themselves unemployed.

Furthermore, with the summer transfer window set to open and teams managing their squads in terms of arrivals and departures, Carvill added that the PFA NI can help players secure clubs elsewhere if they are released.

"This league has always been full-time, the only difference now is clubs are bringing players in the morning and they're sacrificing employment," he said.

"That's a concern because in the past when you had your career outside football the environment was built to support that because everyone did it.

"We're still in a hybrid model which is difficult because if a player loses his job outside of football, and then his playing contract comes to an end or they have a bad injury, then you're going to have someone who doesn't have employment in either case and they will struggle to support their family.

"Everyone wants to be the best player they can but it's impossible for everyone to do that and play at the highest level for as long as they can.

"Circumstances change in everyone's life, but if they come out of that environment at say 21 or 22 and they haven't got a job we can sit down and see what their options are and hopefully get them back into the game as well.

"The PFA can do things like put together an out of contract transfer list, put on training camps for those players, get friendlies organised for scouts to come along and try to grow the opportunities to continue playing.

"Sometimes it can be embarrassing for players to come out of contract, it's also mentally challenging and you feel everyone is talking about you.

"Clubs put up that a player has been released but for a player that can be difficult to deal with because it is rejection in essence.

"It might sound nice being released but for a player it's anything but because they feel they've let people down and the sacrifice that they have made for the club comes to an end.

"That's the nature of the beast, but we're trying to make sure that if a player needs help, needs to speak to someone they can and they don't bring it into their family households to create a bigger problem away from the game."

Carvill, who was a trainee at Charlton Athletic before coming home and representing the likes of Linfield, Crusaders and Dungannon Swifts, confessed he had some doubts as to whether or not he could get the PFA NI project off the ground.

"I started this as part of my Masters degree," he explained.

"I always wanted to do it but like anything in life you sometimes lack that bit of self-belief.

"I'm quite awkward though and the more people who maybe said it wouldn't work it drove me on to make it work.

"The penny dropped when we went round the changing rooms and the players opened up and spoke about the issues and problems.

"I was also happy for the managers and coaches to stay in the meeting as they are nearly all ex-players so they're not naive to the problems.

"Hopefully the message came across that it's needed and long overdue, but to do it we want it to be done properly because it's very easy to shoot something down when you don't have a strong structure in place.”