On the evening of August 6 (CEST), FIFPro officially published a statement in response to an earlier FIFA announcement reaffirming support for President Infantino. Related link: [FIFA: Supports President Infantino, Will No Longer Tolerate Attacks Undermining Due Process]

FIFPro Official Statement:

While FIFA's Forward Fast Expansion (FFE) program no longer exists, the abuses of power that prompted it remain. The urgent need is governance reform, not concealment. The withdrawal of the FFE plan was inevitable, but withdrawing a proposal does not resolve the underlying problems it exposed.

A plan that would have fundamentally altered ownership and governance of FIFA's World Cup, commercializing a tournament built by generations of players, was developed in secret, discussed behind closed doors, and nearly finalized before the FIFA Council, member associations, players, and recognized football stakeholders were even aware of its existence. This is more than a governance failure; it represents a serious abuse of power by FIFA's president.

The Rabat Statement Only Confirms the Problem

We note with deep concern FIFA's internal report following the meeting in Rabat, Morocco. Rather than confronting what occurred, the report reaffirms FIFA leadership's support and downplays fundamental governance and constitutional deficiencies as mere "process and communication" issues requiring "improvement."

Most tellingly, FIFA insists that despite acknowledging "errors," all actions were "fully in compliance with FIFA regulations." If true, this is not a defense but an indictment of FIFA's current governance system. A system that allows a project of this scale to proceed behind closed doors, hidden from those affected, until it is exposed, must be reformed—not protected.

We also note FIFA's warning that it "will no longer tolerate any attacks on its integrity." Let us be clear: scrutinizing football's governing body is not an attack—it is the responsibility of everyone who supports the sport.

Any attempt to characterize legitimate, good-faith oversight as disloyalty only deepens concerns raised by this incident. An internal review reported only to a bypassed Council cannot address these issues. Players, their representatives, and professional football stakeholders must be involved.

No institution can restore public trust in a president who has undermined the conditions on which that trust thrives. Trust cannot be demanded, authority cannot be easily established, and legitimacy cannot simply be declared. All three must be earned, and all three can be lost.

FIFPro's Demands

The Memorandum of Understanding signed several weeks ago represented genuine progress, but the FFE incident demonstrates that it alone is insufficient to protect players or the game from unilateral abuses of power.

Regardless of how the current crisis is resolved, the football world now requires structural safeguards to prevent such incidents from recurring. FIFPro believes these measures must include, at minimum:

· Integration of a global social dialogue platform as a genuine, permanent, and structural component of FIFA governance—not a mechanism that can be arbitrarily bypassed.

· Legally binding consultation with professional football stakeholders on major decisions, including international match calendars, tournament expansion, and other matters that fundamentally affect the professional game.

· Voting rights for professional football stakeholders on the FIFA Council and formal recognition of FIFPro's status as the global representative of professional footballers.

· Governance and structural reforms that make it impossible for any single individual to make unilateral decisions affecting the game.

Next Steps

FIFPro has today sent a letter to FIFA leadership outlining the above demands, making clear that this incident is far from an isolated management error but concerns how the world's premier football governing body functions and exercises its authority.

The letter was jointly signed by FIFPro's president and the presidents of its regional divisions: FIFPro Africa, FIFPro Asia/Oceania, FIFPro Europe, FIFPro South America, and FIFPro North/Central America.

While the FFE withdrawal prevented an irreversible decision, it has not restored the trust that led to the proposal in the first place. That trust has now been fundamentally undermined, and carefully worded statements, internal reviews, or promises of improved processes cannot restore it.

Merely announcing governance and structural reforms that should always have been in place cannot restore this trust either. These reforms are now necessary, but they represent accountability for the future, not absolution for the past.

Players did not instigate this crisis, and they will insist that football emerges from it with stronger institutions, better safeguards, and leadership worthy of the trust this sport demands.

Переведено ИИ.

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