FIFA offers peace talks to player unions, leagues on legal threats about congested game schedules
FIFA offered peace talks to the global networks of player unions and domestic leagues on Friday after they threatened legal action about soccer's congested interna‐ tional calendar.
FIFPRO and the World Leagues Association aired long‐held frus‐ trations at FIFA adding new and bigger events — including a re‐ vamped 32‐team Club World Cup next year and a 48‐team men's World Cup in 2026 — without fully consulting their members, they claimed.
The 2024‐25 schedule in Euro‐ pean soccer also will be squeezed by UEFA expanding its three main club competitions, including a Champions League format with 36 teams. UEFA club events will occupy 10 midweeks of fixtures dates, including two new ones in January, instead of the current six.
FIFA defended its role in man‐ aging the international calendar in writing to both soccer organi‐ zations, offering to "identify suit‐ able dates and locations" for a meeting, in a letter seen by The Associated Press.
All parties should meet in Lon‐ don on the sidelines of the Cham‐ pions League final on June 1 at Wembley Stadium. Real Madrid plays Borussia Dortmund in a marquee game typically attended by FIFA president Gianni Infan‐ tino.
A meeting is possible in the pause between club seasons, later in June into mid‐July, FIFA in‐ terim secretary general Mattias Grafström wrote in the letter.
Grafström pushed back on claims FIFA prioritized its busi‐ ness interests over the well‐being of players and domestic leagues, and questioned if FIFPRO and World Leagues had threatened legal action against other compe‐ tition organizers.
FIFA was responsible, Graf‐ ström wrote, for "a fractional amount of the total elite club games around the world," and had a duty to reinvest its billions of dollars of revenue in develop‐ ing the game in 211 member fed‐ erations.
Key FIFA decisions and projects in recent years have emerged since May 2021 when it shut down the Football Stakeholders Committee that included union and league officials, plus repre‐ sentative of clubs and national federations.
That panel was created four years earlier to debate and pre‐ pare changes to soccer regula‐ tions and competitions.