Professional football
For the players
FIFA has a commitment to protect the most important actors in football: the players. Since football is not always able to provide them with protection in areas where they need it, FIFA took bold steps in 2020 to ensure that a safety net is in place so that they can focus on what is important: playing the beautiful game.
A global fund for player salary protection
FIFA and world players’ union FIFPRO reached an agreement to establish the FIFA Fund for Football Players (FIFA FFP), which aims to provide financial support to players who have not been paid and have no chance of duly receiving the wages agreed with their clubs.
FIFA set aside USD 16 million for the fund, which will be distributed over three years up to 2022 and includes an amount for the retroactive protection of players’ salaries for the period between July 2015 and June 2020.
The agreement envisages the establishment of a monitoring committee composed of FIFA and FIFPRO representatives to process, assess and act on applications for grants from the FIFA FFP. While these grants will not cover the full amount of salaries owed to players, the fund will provide an important safety net.
Football Stakeholders Committee transfer reform
The FIFA Football Stakeholders Committee took further steps to reform the transfer system with the establishment of a new system for training rewards and, as of July 2020, the introduction of limits on player loans to ensure that they have a valid sporting purpose for youth development.
The committee endorsed the establishment of a fund to partly finance the payment of training compensation. The fund will be financed by an additional 1% levy on transfer fees. The modernised system will encourage and reward the training efforts of clubs and, as payments become automated via the new FIFA Clearing House, will ensure that training compensation is paid, which has often not been the case.
Following approval on the principle, a consultation process was started with stakeholders to agree on concrete parameters for the categorisation of clubs and calculation of training costs before the proposal is submitted to the FIFA Council with a view to coming into force in 2022.