Madrid, May 29 (EFE).- The world soccer players’ union, Fifpro, will next week modify its statutes to change the way it is governed as part of a campaign to ensure “maximum transparency”, its current president David Aganzo told EFE.
The process will culminate in elections in November.
Following executive committee meetings on June 3 and 4, the Extraordinary Assembly will vote on the bylaw change on June 5, at Fifpro headquarters in Amsterdam. After that, the executive board will adjourn to form a transitional committee, with the four or five most relevant countries, until the election of a new president in November.
“I would rather lose a year of my mandate and have maximum transparency, so that the unions have the power, than stay one more year with disputes,” Aganzo said in an interview with EFE.
“We have found ourselves with an ambiguous Fifpro, which had two entities – the financial and the association – that have nothing to do with each other, and we have tried to make a constituent process and have some common sense,” Aganzo said to explain bringing the elections forward by a year and to justify the changes that will be made to the association he has presided over since November 2021 which brings together more than 60 national players’ unions from all continents.
“It’s been a tough process and I think we’ve achieved it. We want a change in governance, that the union has the power and that the economic part can be managed, because Fifpro is the union of the unions, the one that protects, and what I have seen is that the unions help Fifpro, when it is Fifpro that should be helping the unions,” he said.
Also responsible for the Spanish Footballers’ Association (Afe) since the end of 2017, Aganzo insisted that he is determined to “do things logically” and revealed that both Fifa and Uefa have conveyed to him “that Fifpro was an opaque union.”
“I come here out of solidarity, to do things right, we are founders of Fifpro, but I don’t think the Fifpro that was founded 60 years ago has anything to do with the concept of ‘either you give me the money or I leave’, which is what is happening. Every continent or union has a reality, unfortunately. Many of the countries that are within Fifpro depend 100% on the money they are given and there are many people within Fifpro who use it to manage those countries,” he said.
Aganzo also argued the union must have a critical stance with all the organizations when the collective of soccer players that it represents is disadvantaged.
“We have to be critical to the same extent, not because we have some kind of relationship or interest. My union has to know that the freedom of soccer players is not questioned by interests, each one of us has to have our share. I cannot defend everything Fifa, Uefa or the leagues say. If you stand in front of (Fifa president Gianni) Infantino you have to do exactly the same with (Uefa president Aleksander) Ceferin, because they do exactly the same thing, they make policies for them financially,” he stressed.
In his opinion, “Fifpro has been very forceful in the conversation with Fifa, but because of Afe’s experience”, since “there is no other union in the world that has three collective bargaining agreements at the same time”.
David Aganzo wanted to emphasize that what they are “very proud” of during his presidency at Fifpro “is the working conditions of the players in the Australia and New Zealand 2023 World Cup,” in which Spain won the title against England (1-0), with a goal by Olga Carmona.
The Madrid native said he would like to “assess” his future role in the union, but reiterated that he does not want to be in an association that intends to “manage countries that are going to take advantage”.
“If unions like those in England and Spain were not in the association, Fifpro would lose a lot of money. I am not capable of threatening anyone to give me their vote,” he concluded. EFE
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