December 2 – The world’s leading football leagues gathered in Paris yesterday and have agreed to form a permanent new world association to lobby for their interests with the game’s governing bodies.
This was the second time the leagues have met (23 attended this meeting) and included representatives from all continents.
Discussion was focused on issues the leagues have at FIFA level with an agreement to “pursue an integrated approach by creating a permanent association to formally work with FIFA on issues that impact professional football”.
A working group chaired by Frederic Thiriez (pictured), President of France’s LFP has been tasked with structuring the association by January 2016. Also in this group are Enrique Bonilla, President of Liga MX (Mexico), Don Garber, Commissioner of MLS (US), Mitsuri Murai, Chairman of the J League (Japan), and Christian Seifert, CEO of DFL (Germany).
The Paris meeting also heard from four of the five candidates for the FIFA presidency – Prince Ali bin Al Hussein, Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, Jerome Champagne and Tokyo Sexwale.
They presented their views on the future roles of the professional leagues and their clubs in the governance of FIFA, in the past often a major issue with various scheduling and club vs country conflicts, not least in the rescheduling of the 2022 World Cup to a winter time slot. A decision which European leagues felt was made without taking all their considerations into account.
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