Players Union

The Players Union, also known as FPA (Football Players Association of Finland), is the players’ own union with the mission of being “On the side of the game and the player”.

Our vision for 2018 is that "The Players Union is a trustworthy promoter of the position of players and a trailblazer in the football family”.

Our key values are:

• Communality
• Trustworthiness
• Internationality
• Equality

The FPA’s strategy and vision for 2018

Where is Finnish football going? What is the role of the Players Union (FPA) in development? How can the FPA assist players in their daily lives? These are some of the questions that were addressed when the FPA’s key actors convened to create a vision of markers for the future. The board members’ and employees’ workshop prepared the FPA’s new vision for the next three-year period ending in 2018.

Chair Pekka Sihvola is satisfied with the vision and describes the process behind it: “We collected the views of active members as the foundation for the vision creation work. During the 2015 season, the FPA organised two meetings for contact persons, one of which was aimed exclusively at female players. At these events, we listened to the players and thought with them about daily life in Finnish football and how the Players Union could develop its operations.”

What does the vision mean? Chairman Sihvola explains the vision item by item.

The FPA is trustworthy... “ Trustworthiness is vital to us. According to surveys, players consider the Players Union as a trustworthy actor, and this will continue to be our unconditional goal in the future as well.”

...promoter of the position of players... “The union as a whole exists for the players, and everything we do must be guided by the goal of promoting the position of players as diversely and efficiently as possible.”

...and a trailblazer in the football family. “Finnish football can only rise through fertile cooperation between different stakeholders. We can influence our own activities the most, so that is something that we must manage well enough in order to show an example to others.”

“Our values—communality, trustworthiness, internationality and equality—must be communicated in everything we do,” says Sihvola, who has been involved in the FPA’s board since 2008.

In 2015, the Players Union prepared a vision for the third time in its history, and it is updated once every three years. The vision acts as a kind of dream, a foundation stone for day-to-day work and as a compass. The previous visions have aimed to increase the number of members and improve the appreciation for Finnish footballers.

Vision 2012 All players in the Finnish top leagues are members of the Players Union

Vision 2015 Players are respected role models on and off the pitch

Vision 2018 The FPA is a trustworthy promoter of the position of players and a trailblazer in the football family