Agreement between the International Football Federation and Fifpro, the world footballers’ union: here’s the news
Two epochal victories: admission to the table with FIFA for transfer and health issues and the ban on players not in the squad, under penalty of compensation equal to the total salary for the players and sanctions up to the stop of the transfer market for the clubs. But also the awareness that the calendar issue is not closed and that we must continue to negotiate with the Pfa, the English players’ association, which intends to continue with its legal actions on the matter until the issue is clarified. It is the new agreement between Fifa and Fifpro (announced by Gianni Infantino during the press conference on the eve of the start of the World Cup) seen from the side of the players, one destined to change the relationship between the government of world football and its athletes, a starting point however and not a point of arrival of football reforms. An agreement announced by FIFA president Gianni Infantino, during the press conference on the eve of the start of the World Cup: “We have signed a memorandum of understanding with FIFPRO to regulate the status and transfers of players”, the words of the number one of the international football federation.
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The agreement provides for the creation of a platform for global social dialogue in football. FIFA will sit together with Fifpro, the players association, the EFC, the clubs association, and the WLA, the championships association. For the first time, FIFA refrains from making unilateral decisions on key issues such as the transfer system, player welfare and health and safety standards. Instead, they will be the result of a dialogue with the “social partners” of football, the consequence of agreements reached unanimously with players, clubs and leagues. And they will be by statute. The new article one of the RSTP, the regulation governing the status and transfer of players, now says that “these rules reflect a common agreement between the representatives of the employees (players and their associations) and their employers (clubs and leagues). They are based and developed through a process of social dialogue coordinated by FIFA, which cannot change them except in agreement with employers and workers”.
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The other great victory effectively establishes a stop to players who train alone or are taken out of the squad and forced to leave. This behavior becomes abuse and a valid reason to break the contract for just cause. In particular, clubs are now prohibited from preventing a player from training with the rest of the team as punishment, withholding his passport or evicting him from a house he lives in provided by the club. These behaviors lead to compensation that the club must pay to a player, equal to at least the full payment of the remainder of the salary stipulated in the contract. In addition, a player can claim damages and, in the case of particularly bad behavior for the club, also receive a payment of an additional six months’ wages. For clubs, this translates into progressive sanctions, ranging from a warning and a fine at the first sanction, including a limit of five purchases per transfer session (plus a fine) at the second and becoming a transfer stop at the third. Until now, clubs were only punished after the fourth infringement.
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Among the other victories for the players is the participation, for those who earn up to 150,000 euros a year (80% of footballers and 92% of female footballers) at the cost of a transfer, pocketing 5% of the fee. And the fact that a foreign player, in the event of a delay in paying his salary, can ask for an interest rate of 8% per year (previously it was 5%). However, the issue of the calendar remains, over which FIFA continues to have a position of absolute control. One of the clauses for this agreement with Fifpro was the withdrawal of all legal actions in the various courts, which the PFA, the English association, refuses to do for the moment. Although this agreement is a milestone in relations with the government of world football, the calendar remains a fundamental issue that needs further discussion. And although there is the will and the hope to reach an agreement, that remains an open question.
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