September 15: FIFPRO and FIFPRO Europe have demanded a review of FIFA’s governance so that “no office can act unilaterally again.”
Players’ unions highlighted FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s attempt to sell the world governing body’s commercial rights to the new FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) without any formal consultation.
They called for an independent review of FIFA’s executive decision-making structures and the integration of football’s stakeholders – “the players, clubs and leagues that create the value of the game” – in that decision-making.
To make their points and renew calls for seats at the decision-making table, they referred to data from a new report compiled by FIFPRO Europe, Player IQ and Football Benchmark, which shows that European-based players accounted for a staggering 94% of the total value of players at the 2026 World Cup this summer.
The analysis, titled “Protecting the global player workforce”, shows that the European market is the biggest contributor of players to FIFA’s competition and even more so by value, a value Infantino had pegged at around $20 billion in his sales pitch.
“Every single award in the last five editions of the FIFA World Cup – Ballon d’Or, Golden Boot, Best Young Player, Golden Glove – was won by a player with a European employment contract, and of the 856 players employed in the European market at the 2026 World Cup, 451 are of non-European nationality, generating 33% of the value of the tournament, a total test of the player not closed: system,” the statement said from FIFPRO.
They go further to point out that the global nature of European club football is not limited to players, with 40% of Europe’s Big-Five clubs having majority ownership from outside Europe, “further proof that the European labor market is a global gateway that must be responsibly governed, not sold behind closed doors”.
The subtext is, of course, that the closed-door deal was attempted with a private equity business linked to Infantino’s new friend, US President Donald Trump. Thrive Capital is run by Joshua Kushner, the brother of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. If the deal had gone through the world’s largest and most diverse sport would have had potentially controlling influence from the US first family.
FIFPRO says FIFA’s flagship competition depends on the value created by the professional football ecosystem, not FIFA. The $2.25 billion FIFA Forward Enterprise program can only happen with this ecosystem. Players create the product, but are trained and paid by clubs and within national leagues. FIFA can use them practically for free.
“Safeguarding this interconnected ecosystem is essential to protect global development and the solidarity system that depends on it. Recognizing how this value is created, and maintaining the conditions that support it, is critical to the future growth, investment and solidarity of the global game as a whole. Sixty percent of the value of the 2026 World Cup players is already concentrated among just 20 European employers,” they say.
The unions also note that World Cup revenue returned as prize money “has fallen from an estimated 10.5% in 2006 to 7.7% in 2026, even as tournament revenue has multiplied. Players receive only a fraction of this return, while participating federations rely on this as FIFA’s only performance-based revenue stream.”
FIFPRO argues that players, clubs, labor markets and national federations are funding FIFA, a crucial argument regarding the balance of power that FIFA and Infantino have refused to acknowledge or respect.
“The governance gap that allowed the global ecosystem to be put at risk continues to exist,” says FIFPRO.
“FIFPRO and FIFPRO Europe are calling for an independent review of the executive decision-making function of the FIFA Council, so that no single office can again act unilaterally, and for the formal integration of professional football’s stakeholders – the players, clubs and leagues that create the value of the game – in this decision-making, together with the member associations.
“It is a shared opportunity for the global football community to strengthen the governance of football, so that it reflects and serves everyone who sustains and depends on the game,” the statement concluded.
Contact the writer of this story at paul.nicholson@insideworldfootball.com
