By Mark Meadows
MILAN, Dec 4 - AC Milan midfielder Clarence
Seedorf is on a mission to clean up football's damaged image.
The Dutch international thinks Italian soccer can cut down
on fan violence by making stadiums more family friendly and is
the founder of a charity which uses sport to improve children's
education in poorer parts of the world.
He is also concerned about helping players who end up in the
headlines for the wrong reasons and has set up a management
company, of which he is the first client, to try to improve the
services offered to footballers.
"Football is not just what you do on the field," Seedorf
told Reuters at his home. "I want to help. I don't feel it like
a weight on my shoulders. It is something I want to do."
Seedorf, born in the poor South American state of Suriname
before moving to the Netherlands, would seem the ideal
footballer to get the message across.
The 31-year-old is also the only man to have won European
Cups with three different clubs -- Ajax, Real Madrid and Milan.
Milan's game at Atalanta last month was abandoned after fans
tried to smash a fence next to the pitch in an ageing stadium,
the latest in a series of hooligan incidents in Italy.
At Milan's Champions League 1-1 draw at Benfica's
ultra-modern Stadium of Light last week, Seedorf saw where Italy
had gone wrong and that new grounds attract calmer fans.
"In Lisbon, it was a great stadium, very public-friendly.
Simple things make a difference. That's what we need here in
Italy. We need to build new stadiums. Outside of Italy people
are addressing these issues," he said.
Football's ills, he says, extend to millionaire players,
hauled around clubs by money-making agents and sometimes trapped
in a world of excess with little thought for their careers after
soccer.
Seedorf felt action was needed and so founded his own
all-encompassing management firm, ON International, a year ago.
FIRST CLIENT
The agency is also an entertainment and investment
management company which is trying to offer a range of services
Seedorf believes are unavailable elsewhere.
As the first client in his own company, Seedorf entrusted ON
International to help negotiate a new contract keeping him at
Milan until 2011. The firm also ran a media campaign to improve
a tarnished image in the Netherlands, which helped him to regain
his place in the Dutch national team.
"Without players there is no football but they need to have
more awareness of what they can build, what their reach is, what
responsibilities they have. For sure you start working on the
younger players, it is easier to educate them," Seedorf said.
"I am aware of my own position and my responsibilities to
youngsters watching us. You are a role model. But without a
structure there is too much to focus on.
"You perform better if you are freer from some of the issues
and you focus more on your main goal -- playing great football.
In most sports with elite performance they don't just have
agents, they have structures which help them grow as a person."
GRAND PLAN
ON International's other clients include Milan and Italy
defender Daniele Bonera with more high-profile names to come.
"Players don't trust most of the people around them. I
wanted my face as the first client for people to understand that
it is serious and transparent," Seedorf said. "We will work on
it long term and it will absolutely make a difference in
football."
His foundation, Champions for Children, is another part of
Seedorf's grand plan.
"I'm on a mission partly to make a difference in the world
for the better, starting with the kids. They are the future. In
most places in the world there are no structures. There's no
personnel to be able to educate like in the West," he said.
"We are using sport especially football to educate moral
values...dignity and self-respect that will make a difference in
the long term."
Schemes funded by the charity include the construction of a
Kenyan school and a sports centre in Brazil while there are
plans for projects in Djibouti and South Africa. Seedorf is most
proud of helping to start a football league in his native
Suriname involving 640 children from ages nine to 15.
"We've created a competition for them to be off the streets.
But they have to go to school to be part of it," he said.
"We want a manual and then apply it elsewhere in the world.
We want a legacy, to leave something there for generations."
(Editing by Clare Fallon)