FIFPRO Europe Board meets Commissioner Micallef and EU policymakers in Brussels to advance player priorities and future of European football

• FIFPRO Europe's Board, led by President David Terrier, met Commissioner Micallef in Brussels, followed by a Board meeting the next day on key industry issues
• Talks built on Europe's role as football's largest employment and value-creation market reinforcing the European Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee and the new Global Social Dialogue Platform at FIFA level
• The Board advanced work on the implementation of the new RSTP, player workload, working time, women’s football working conditions, financial sustainability, piracy and player data/AI, renewing its call for transparent, collective governance

A FIFPRO Europe delegation, led by President David Terrier, held working meetings in Brussels this week with European Commissioner for Intergenerational Fairness, Youth, Culture and Sport Glenn Micallef, ahead of a full FIFPRO Europe Board meeting the following day to advance the industry's most pressing policy issues, at a critical juncture for the European football industry.

The meetings follow the successful negotiation between FIFA and FIFPRO – to which FIFPRO Europe contributed significantly – that produced a new Memorandum of Understanding and created the first Global Social Dialogue Platform (GSDP) in the history of the professional football sector. 

Football’s largest employment market, collective governance and the EU

Building on this achievement, and on the standard-setting work of the European Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee (EUSSD) for professional football, where FIFPRO Europe is the sole recognised players' representative, the delegation and the Commissioner discussed how Europe – home to the world's largest football employment market – can continue to lead on collective governance.

Discussions drew on FIFPRO Europe's public policy position paper, A Competitive European Football Industry, and the latest independent analysis of the value European football contributes to the global game. That analysis found that European-based players accounted for 94% of total player value at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, that 856 players employed within the European market featured at the tournament, and that 60% of player value at the tournament was concentrated among just 20 releasing employers, all of them European. Every individual award across the last five FIFA World Cups was won by a player holding a European contract. 

The delegation and the Commissioner agreed that these figures underline Europe's role as the sport's principal employment and value-creation hub, and the need to facilitate high-level discussions to underline the sectors cultural and economic contributions to European society and the need to comply with the EU rule of law. The talks come as the Commissioner prepares an envisaged Communication on Sport, expected to follow a strong report on sport recently adopted by the European Parliament, which itself highlighted the need for player workload safeguards and greater transparency in International Match Calendar (IMC) decision-making. 

Future of European Football in a Global Context

The focus of the discussion was on the future of European football in a global context, and future cooperation between the EUSSD and the newly created Global Social Dialogue Platform – exploring how the EU's long-standing social dialogue structure in professional football and its new global counterpart can reinforce one another.

"Today's discussions showed what that future can look like when Europe's players, its political institutions and the wider football industry stakeholders work together," said David Terrier, President of FIFPRO Europe. "The European Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee and soon hopefully the new Global Social Dialogue Platform with FIFA, proves that negotiation delivers. Now we need the same principle – collective, transparent governance – applied to global football governance. Unilateral advances are not sustainable, not in global politics, not for Europe and neither for the football industry."

That evening, Commissioner Micallef and members of his team joined the full FIFPRO Europe Board for dinner, an occasion to build on the day's discussions ahead of the Board's own meeting the following day.

FIFPRO Europe Board Advances Player Priorities

The following day, the FIFPRO Europe Board convened in Brussels for its own meeting, addressing the sector's most significant policy items: the implementation of the newly agreed RSTP, player workload safeguards in connection to working time in the European football sector, where FIFPRO Europe continues to pursue a negotiated, proportionate framework through social dialogue; financial sustainability and the distribution of revenue generated by the game; the fight against broadcast piracy, an area in which FIFPRO Europe has joined the Live Content Coalition; the use of player data and artificial intelligence, including the illegal use of player data ; and women’s football working conditions.

The Board noted that recent developments, including the FIFA Forward Enterprise proposal and its subsequent withdrawal, have shown that more must be done to equip football governance for a modern era, and to guard against decisions taken unilaterally, without the sport's principal actors and players at the table. FIFPRO Europe reiterated its call for an independent review of FIFA Council executive decision-making, and for the formal integration of players, clubs and leagues into that decision-making alongside Member Associations.

The Board leaves Brussels having reaffirmed a strong and constructive working relationship between FIFPRO Europe, football stakeholders across Europe and the European Commission, and looks forward to continued cooperation as the European Commission’s Communication on Sport, and the sector's own governance reforms at global level take shape in the months ahead.