Football Stakeholders
The professional football industry is comprised of several key stakeholders: football associations, confederations, clubs, leagues and players. While associations are members of FIFA and their respective regional confederation, leagues, clubs and players are represented by important regional and global organisations.
FIFA assembles all of these crucial stakeholders via the Football Stakeholders Committee. This 23-member committee advises and assists the FIFA Council on all matters related to football, particularly the structure of the game as well as on technical matters. The committee provides a voice to representatives from confederations, associations, leagues, clubs and players associations. All regions of the world are represented on this committee, with 12 members from Europe, three from North America, four from South America, two from Africa and two from Asia/Oceania. The Football Stakeholders Committee meets several times each year and is tasked with making recommendations on a variety of important topics for the football community, including reform of the transfer system.
The establishment of the Football Stakeholders Committee was an important step for FIFA, as it continues to make tremendous strides in ensuring stronger dialogue and collaborative decision-making among these stakeholder organisations. This inclusivity and collaboration is positively contributing to a brighter football future. The Stakeholders Committee includes representatives from several global and regional football stakeholder organisations. Here, we provide an overview of the main stakeholder groups: ECA, FIFPRO and WLF.
ECA
The European Club Association, based in Switzerland, is the regional organisation that represents professional European football clubs. Established in 2008, the main objective of the ECA is to safeguard and promote the interests of its member clubs and provide a platform to share knowledge, information and services on European club football matters.
The governance model of the ECA includes the Executive Board, Working Groups, Committees & Expert Panels and the ECA Administration.
The Executive Board is composed of 24 full members, as well as four Subdivision representatives, a diversity representative, an independent board member and an honorary chairman. It is led by its current Chairman (Andrea Agnelli from Juventus in Italy) and four Vice Chairmen (Pedro López Jiménez from Real Madrid in Spain, Edwin Van der Sar from Ajax in the Netherlands, Dariusz Mioduski from Legia Warszawa in Poland and Aki Riihilahti from HJK Helsinki in Finland).
Working Groups have always been an integral part of the ECA’s organisational structure. The five working groups of Competitions, Finance, Institutional Relations, Marketing and Youth were established to provide advice and support to the Executive Board and to ECA representatives participating in committees or working groups at UEFA, FIFA and European level. These groups also help increase membership engagement and communication on important issues, challenges and opportunities.
The ECA’s Committees and Expert Panels provide the opportunity for specialists to report and provide recommendations to the Executive Board on relevant topics regarding the overall management of a football club. There are two ECA Committees: Women’s Football and EU Social Dialogue. There are three ECA Expert Panels, Financial Fair Play, Legal Advisory and Statutory Affairs.
From an administration perspective, the organisation is led by its General Secretary, Charlie Marshall.
Today, ECA has 109 ordinary member clubs from throughout Europe. All Ordinary Members must be from top men’s division of a UEFA national association, and the precise number of Ordinary Member Clubs is established at the beginning of each ECA Membership cycle. For ECA Founding Members and clubs in the top division of a UEFA national association, which do not qualify as an Ordinary Member, the ECA allows them to apply as Associated Members.
The ECA also focuses on knowledge and research, through its Club Management Programme, Club Management Guide and the regular publication of research studies with valuable information related to professional football.
FIFA and ECA signed a Memorandum of Understanding in 2008, and the two entities consistently have thorough dialogue on club football matters.
For more information about ECA, please visit https://www.ecaeurope.com.
FIFPRO
The Fédération Internationale des Associations de Footballeurs Professionels (FIFPRO), based in the Netherlands, is the global organisation that represents the interests of over 65,000 male and female professional football players.
Established in 1965, today FIFPRO has 63 national member player associations from four divisions: FIFPRO Africa (ten national player associations), FIFPRO Americas (15 national player associations), FIFPRO Asia/Oceania (eight national player associations), and FIFPRO Europe (30 national player associations).
The governance model of FIFPRO is led by its President (Philippe Piat - France) and three Vice Presidents (Geremi Njitap – Cameroon, Francis Awaritefe – Australia and Fernando Revilla – Peru). FIFPRO also has an Executive Board, which includes the President, Vice Presidents and 9 additional members. FIFPRO negotiates international rule changes for the benefit of football players, works with sports medicine experts to study important health issues and offers online education and support as footballers explore their next career paths.
In January 2020, FIFPRO unveiled a new Global Player Council, which will, per FIFPRO, “Allow active players to comment on, discuss and influence global regulations, trends and the strategic development of football worldwide. It will also provide the opportunity for council members to drive initiatives linked to player health and personal development, among other matters off the pitch.” FIFPRO will organise at least two annual meetings for the members of their Global Player Council to discuss key topics and issues relevant for professional players.
FIFA and FIFPRO continue to collaborate on a variety of important initiatives, including:
· Formation and implementation of National Dispute Resolution Chambers (NDRCs) around the world
· Establishment of the FIFA Fund for Football Players to provide financial support to players who have not been paid and have no chance of duly receiving the wages as agreed from their clubs
· Further supporting and strengthening the women’s game during the COVID-19 pandemic, with ongoing discussions planned to cover many topics including player conditions, competitions and the women’s international match calendar.
For more information about FIFPRO, please visit https://fifpro.org/en.
WLF
The World Leagues Forum (WLF), also based in Switzerland, is the global organization that represents professional football leagues. Established in 2016, WLF today consists of 42 member leagues. The mission of the WLF is to represent its members on a global level with the various political and sporting bodies governing football and to foster cooperation between them.
The governance model of the WLF includes the Management Group, Steering Group, Members and the General Secretary. The Management Group is comprised of the President (Enrique Bonilla, President of LigaMX in Mexico) and two Vice Chairmen (Christian Seifert, CEO of the Bundesliga in Germany and Don Garber, Commissioner of MLS in the USA).
The Steering Group includes 12 member leagues: Liga Profesional de Fútbol (Argentina), Premier League (England), Ligue de Football Professionnel (France), DFL (Germany), Serie A (Italy), JLeague (Japan), LigaMX (Mexico), Russian Premier Liga (Russia), Saudi Pro League (Saudi Arabia), Premier Soccer League (South Africa), La Liga (Spain) and Major League Soccer (USA).
The WLF's 42 members include 6 leagues in Africa, 9 leagues in the Americas, 7 leagues from Asia/Oceania and 20 leagues from Europe. From an administration perspective, the organisation is led by its General Secretary, Jerome Perlemuter.
FIFA and WLF signed a cooperation agreement in 2019 that commits to working together on the development of professional football, and the program includes training sessions and bespoke support to national football bodies to share best practices and improve standards and structures of professional football, as well as the organisation of conferences and seminars to support emerging football countries.
For more information about WLF, please visit: https://www.worldleaguesforum.com/en
