FIFPRO
Under the world’s largest umbrella federation
FIFPRO is an international umbrella federation for football players’ associations, representing over 65,000 professional footballers around the world. The Football Players Association of Finland was granted full membership of FIFPRO in 2001. As a member of the FPA, you are automatically also a member of FIFPRO.
FIFPRO’s representatives are full members at all negotiating tables in international football, and the decisions are also directly reflected in Finnish football. The international football federation FIFA and the Union of European Football Associations UEFA continuously make decisions on the sport, and the third negotiating party in these matters is FIFPRO, which directly supervises the benefits of players.
“We are a small football country, even in Europe, but still very active in FIFPRO. The wage level of our players is clearly below the average European level, but we have managed to get the basics in order, largely thanks to the support of FIFPRO. International agreements are comprehensive, and we are subject to common international agreements. We might not always win matches like the bigger football countries, but we can provide our own input to the world of football through technology and other intellectual expertise. The Finnish Red Button system to combat match fixing, for example, has met with a favourable reception throughout the world of football, and it might be our major input to the international world of football,” says Markus Juhola, Executive Director of the Players Union.
