FIFPro calls for players to be more involved in the governance of football following corruption allegations
Press release - Hoofddorp, Netherlands, June 2, 2014
FIFPro notes with concern the latest developments in the football world, especially mounting allegations against the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
More alarming claims surrounding the 2018/2022 World Cup bidding process, as exposed by The Sunday Times, and serious questions raised relating to potential match-fixing around the 2010 World Cup, which appeared in The New York Times, add further weight to FIFPro’s growing dissatisfaction.
Professional players are an indispensable stakeholder of the beautiful game. There would be no football without them. As such, collectively represented by FIFPro, we, the players, deserve strong and equal involvement and control over issues that affect us as workers and humans and those that are at the core of our game.
Whether it’s tackling the root causes of match-fixing, regulating the transfers of players or determining the suitability of major event venues like Qatar - the players must have a much greater say.
Presently, players and players’ interests are too often neglected or ignored in the decision-making process. This is a sad reflection on the game’s poor governance, which is clearly behind the times. It is unacceptable that administration of the game continues to be plagued by scandal after scandal.
FIFPro is the collective voice of the players and it is our responsibility to act.
Stronger and more democratic stakeholder involvement, including the players, is critical to align the game to respond to the challenges it is facing. It must be an incremental part of delivering a new and improved regulatory framework which safeguards football’s future, both on and off the field.
Equal participation of the players in governance would move their fundamental rights back at the center of decision making and provide needed checks-and-balances that would avert a host of crises and evils that plague the game. On the road to inclusive, transparent, responsive, democratic, accountable and healthy football governance, no voice is more important than FIFPro, the players.
Towards resolving past, present and future crises in football, FIFPro expects nothing less than fully transparent accounts of all investigations and rulings, including public disclosure of detailed findings of fact and all relevant information.
This is the people’s game. FIFPro, with the support of its 55 members unions and 65 thousand professional footballers worldwide, believes the people deserve better.
