Influence of Financial Behaviour on the Retirement Preparedness among Malaysian Professional Football Players

Financial planning especially for football players is important as these group are exposed to injury risk while playing and may interrupt the cashflow of the income. In this view, the study is performed to identify the levels of financial planning, financial behaviour and retirement preparedness among Malaysian professional football players and the influences on retirement preparedness. A quantitative and cross-sectional survey method was imposed in this study. The population was the professional football players in Malaysia registered with football clubs. A simple random sample was used to sample a minimum of 64 football players that plays in leagues. The respondents were obtained through registered members with the sport clubs and is a professional player. A total of 300 self-administered questionnaires were distributed at the clubs through the liasion officers and obtained 77 usable questionnaires. The result shows that financial planning was a significant factor on retirement preparedness together with EPF as the retirement income in the first model using hierarchical regressions. While in the second model including financial behaviour, the behaviour emerged as the most significant factor influencing retirement preparedness followed by financial planning. In addition, their EPF income intended for their retirement was also significant. Thus, it is important to do proper financial activities to result in future financial preparedness.