World Leagues Push FIFA for Talks on International Calendar

The World Leagues Association (WLA), now representing more than 40 professional leagues across the globe, has once again called on FIFA to open its doors and allow genuine stakeholder participation in decisions about the international match calendar and major competition formats.

Despite repeated attempts, the WLA — along with global players’ union FIFPRO — continues to be denied a seat at FIFA’s decision-making table. Their exclusion has become a growing point of tension, especially as FIFA pushes ahead with expanded tournaments and a busier global schedule without formal input from leagues or players.
Speaking after the WLA’s annual meeting in Athens last week, Premier League CEO and WLA chair Richard Masters warned that the traditional balance between domestic and international football is being “put under threat” by FIFA’s aggressive expansion.

“We cannot take football’s global popularity, its fans and its players for granted by fracturing this balance through an overloaded international calendar,” Masters said. “All our members are united in believing that domestic leagues must be protected.”
Earlier this year, the WLA and FIFPRO submitted a joint proposal to FIFA outlining a new governance model for world football — one that would establish shared decision-making principles and give leagues and players a voice in shaping the international calendar. FIFA, however, has ignored the proposal.

The WLA highlights that its member leagues are home to more than 4,000 clubs and 130,000 professional players. It also recognises FIFPRO as the only legitimate global representative of players. Yet while clubs — represented through the newly renamed European Football Clubs body — have a seat at FIFA’s table, leagues and players do not.
It is a glaring contradiction: the clubs are included, but the leagues they play in and the players who populate them are sidelined. Meanwhile FIFA, driven by Gianni Infantino’s close alignment with ECA chairman Nasser Al-Khelaifi following this summer’s expanded Club World Cup in the United States, continues to push forward with sweeping reforms.

In Athens, WLA members addressed the pressures on the existing football ecosystem through workshops covering the transfer system, player welfare and challenges to the domestic game. Unlike FIFA, the WLA adopted an inclusive approach, inviting representatives from European Leagues, FIFPRO, UEFA, FIFA, EFC and IFAB to join discussions.
“Football needs strong national leagues to provide the foundations,” the WLA said in its concluding statement. “Dialogue with FIFA is now crucial, and involving the leagues in future decisions on the international calendar is in the best interests of the entire sport.”