More money in the game. More insecurity in the profession. Player unions meet in Manchester to discuss state of the game

• Professional club football generates record revenues and the most commercial World Cup in history gets underway
• Precarious working conditions and insecurity remain a persistent challenge for professional players across the game
• FIFPRO and the PFA convened player union leaders from across all FIFPRO Divisions to build a joint understanding of the financial landscape

The 2026 FIFA World Cup, expanding to 48 teams for the first time and generating revenues that dwarf any previous edition, arrives at a revealing moment for the economics of professional football.

Across club football, revenues have grown substantially over the past 15 years, driven by broadcast deals, commercial partnerships and the globalisation of the sport. Yet the conditions experienced by the majority of professional players tell a different story: persistent precariousness, growing attempts to impose artificial salary restrictions, and a player share of revenues that continues to lag the growth of the industry they power.

It was against this backdrop that FIFPRO Player IQ and the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) brought together player union leaders from across FIFPRO Divisions for a two-day meeting in Manchester.

The leadership gathering was designed not to reach immediate decisions, but to build a shared understanding of the financial pressures reshaping players working conditions, at club and international level, and to identify coordinated next steps for player unions to strengthen their position.

Growing revenues, tightening restrictions and a profession under pressure

Club football has undergone a fundamental economic transformation over the past decade and a half. Broadcast revenues across national leagues and UEFA competitions have scaled to record levels that were unimaginable when the current generation of players entered the profession. Commercial revenues have followed. While shifting market dynamics increase pressure on national markets and financial polarisation grows the aggregate financial scale of elite club football is, by any measure, at an all-time high.

Yet this growth has coincided with an intensifying regulatory drive to constrain what clubs can spend on players. The evolution from Financial Fair Play to UEFA’s Squad Cost Ratio and the emergence of domestic financial regulation in England and elsewhere represents a sustained effort to artificially restrict player wages as the primary target.

Workshop participants examined how these mechanisms are designed, what constitutes sound financial management required for a sustainable industry and when legitimate cost controls become undue restrictions to camouflage bad management and irresponsible behaviour.

Alongside the regulatory picture, the workshop addressed the persistent insecurity that defines the working conditions of the vast majority of professional players: short contract cycles, wage structures heavily concentrated at the top of the pyramid, and limited protections for those outside elite competitions.

The PFA presented its own experience responding to salary cap proposals in English football, drawing on recent developments, collective bargaining strategy and player mobilisation as a case study in what a holistic union response can achieve.

"The PFA, working alongside FIFPRO and every player union at this workshop and beyond, has a responsibility to our members to make sure we understand where the industry is heading and to be ready," said Professional Footballers’ Association Chief Executive Maheta Molango.

"Revenues in football have never been higher, and yet we continue to see attempts to artificially restrict what players can earn, while the issues and insecurity that most professionals live with every day go unaddressed. We are here to learn together, to stand together, and to make sure that the growth of this game is reflected in the conditions of the players who make it possible."

The most commercial World Cup ever 

In parallel to the club game the 2026 FIFA World Cup represents a landmark in the commercial development of international football. An expanded 48-team format, a record number of host cities across three countries, and broadcast and sponsorship revenues that set a new benchmark for the sport – it is, by design, the most commercially ambitious edition in the tournament’s history.

Case studies presented at the workshop illustrated what determined union negotiation can achieve within a system that offers no guaranteed standards and remains highly heterogeneous across national federations. A Nordic union and an Asia-Pacific union offered examples of best practice: structured agreements that secure a meaningful and transparent player share of tournament prize money, negotiated through collective bargaining frameworks that took years to build.

"Every World Cup cycle, the tournament gets bigger, the revenues grow, and the commercial case for international football becomes stronger. But in most countries, players’ share of that growth has not followed," said FIFPRO Secretary General Alex Phillips.

"The system as it stands is structurally weighted against players — and the only way to change that is through stronger, better-prepared unions, negotiating from a position of knowledge and solidarity. That is exactly what this union leadership meeting is about."

A shared understanding as the foundation for collective action

The FIFPRO Player IQ x PFA Masterclass Workshop at the PFA offices in Manchester brought together union leaders from all five FIFPRO Divisions alongside external experts.

While the meeting created space for open discussion rather than predetermined conclusions participants from across all FIFPRO Divisions brought their own national and regional contexts to the table and agreed on collective commitment: to deepen collaboration across unions and divisions, to sharpen the tools available to negotiate on behalf of players, and to strengthen the body of shared knowledge that underpins effective action.

Player unions are closely following the financial transformation of the game and advocate for a model that works for players and for football, ready to act as trusted partners of both. As revenues grow, as regulations tighten, and as the World Cup expands into new territory, the unions committed in Manchester to working more closely together across both the club and national team game, through this cycle and the ones that follow.