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Sanjeevan Balasingham appointed to FIFPro Asia

Sanjeevan Balasingham has been appointed as General Secretary of FIFPro Asia. His background in football is extensive and was the Director of Legal Services of the Asian Football Confederation and has been a leading executive with the AFC for 7 years. He will work closely with Brendan Schwab, Chairman of FIFPro Asia and will be based in the Professional Footballers Association office in Melbourne, Australia.

The PFA will be hosting the FIFPro Asia Mini-Congress on 20 and 21 October 2007. Delegates from FIFPro, AFC, and Asian/Oceania countries including Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China and Singapore will congregate for a two day congress to ensure further development in the player voice continues in the Asia region.

Australia signs new player partnership agreement

Football Federation Australia today signed a new partnership agreement with the Australian Professional Footballers’ Association, the exclusive representative body of Australia’s elite professional footballers, including the Qantas Socceroos and Hyundai A-League players.

This new agreement features three (3) main components:

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the FFA & PFA which outlines mutual recognition and respect for each party’s roles and a commitment to work together to protect, promote and develop football in Australia. Among several initiatives, the MOU emphasises the importance of addressing the unique aspects the career path of a professional footballer, and commits FFA and the PFA to enhancing existing programs such as My Football Career and the PFA Education Fund to assist players in developing both as people and players and preparing for life after football.

A Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) that covers the Qantas Socceroos for the vital 2007 AFC Asian Cup and up to the completion of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. This new CBA details payments to players for matches and tournaments, commercial and licensing agreements between the FFA and players, community and game development initiatives and provides players with a world class high performance environment when representing their country.

A commitment to constructing a CBA for Hyundai A-League players by the end of October 2007. Together with the MOU, this commitment also immediately provides improved benefits to A-League players on matters such as injury payments and career education.

“This new agreement recognises the importance that all players, at the Qantas Socceroos and Hyundai A-League levels, play in the ongoing growth and development of football and recognises and addresses the issues that were of most importance to the players,” said FFA Chief Executive Officer Ben Buckley.

“Importantly it is a fair and appropriate level of remuneration for the players given the financial plans of FFA and in addition to the organisation’s priority of making investments in the areas of junior and youth development. I would like to thank the players and the PFA for the manner in which the negotiations for this agreement were held. All talks were constructive, positive and recognised the varying needs of each party for the next 4 years,” concluded Buckley

PFA Executive Chairman Brendan Schwab said the negotiations were conducted in a positive spirit which recognises that the game and the players must work together to not only entrench football’s major developments of recent years, but build an even stronger platform for the future.

“Our new agreement with FFA sees Australian players provided with benefits that are increasingly competitive at international and national level,” Schwab said. Equally, the agreement helps ensure FFA will continue to grow its investment in areas of critical importance to the long term well being of the game, including elite player development and engagement with Asia.

“The PFA is very pleased with the professionalism and openness FFA brought to the table. We are also very impressed by the support for the negotiations we have received from the players, especially the Socceroos, who deeply appreciate the honour of representing Australia and the importance of the A-League career path to the long term development of the game,” Schwab added.

Indian players get changes to standard contract

All India Football Federation has assured players it will meet their demands to change its standard contract. "The Federation has agreed to make changes in the contract to ensure equal bargaining power for both clubs and players," footballer Bhaichung Bhutia, president of the Football Players' Association of India, told media. The announcement came after an FPAI delegation, including Bhutia, FPAI CEO Sumit Mukherjee and current player Deepak Mondal, met with AIFF General Secretary Alberto Colaco and conveyed their apprehensions about the contract, particularly clauses that appear to reflect European, not Indian conditions.

One of the other demands of the FPAI was a corpus for retired footballers. The players' body wants the AIFF to have a benevolent fund with an initial amount of Rs 10 million with a member of FPAI on the trustee board. "The Federation has agreed to consider this proposal for the benefit of all players of yesteryears," Bhutia said. The other points of contention were individual contracts signed by players, which may directly compete with club sponsors and regulations to deal with footballers' injuries. The FPAI said the players should have the right to sign individual endorsements and should not be forced to endorse products of the club's sponsors. This provision deals mainly with the boots and gloves as they are considered to be performance-enhancing items of the kit.

On the injury front, FPAI wants the clubs to make medical insurance of players compulsory. According to the present contract, the club can deduct a player's salary if he is injured for more than six weeks. The FPAI requested medical insurance to ensure that no player will suffer a loss.

A-League players agree to salary cap until 2010

Australia's A-League salary cap will stay in place until at least 2010 after the players' union confirmed it was not a major issue in the negotiations for a collective bargaining agreement, which for the first time would embrace players playing both at home and abroad. Professional Footballers Association Chief Executive Brendan Schwab is negotiating with Football Federation Australia officials on a first "whole of the game" agreement, which he hopes will cover the period leading up to the next World Cup, in 2010, Michael Cockerill reported for the Brisbane Times.

"We don't propose to revisit the salary cap between now and 2010, because we believe it is at a reasonable level, and there are other fundamental issues to address. I think it's fair to say the PFA has historically been very responsible in developing the game, and we see a 'whole of the game' agreement as an unprecedented opportunity to give the game a real period of stability. We are competing against other sports who have much more money than we do, but we are determined to make sure football remains the sport of choice for most of our elite athletes. To do that, we have to produce a model which protects the game commercially, but at the same time fairly remunerates its players. We've been working very hard on that model, and while we intend to make sure players get a fair share of the revenue, there are other major cultural issues at stake. Things like career development opportunities, paying players when they are injured, removing short-term deals which effectively make players casual employees, are at the heart of what we want to achieve. We've talked to all the senior Socceroos, and one thing comes through clearly - if they return to Australia, they want to be sure they're coming home to a professional environment," Schwab said.

Players' body acts on contract and transfer reforms

The Professional Footballer's Association is discussing a wide range of player workplace issues with the Football Federation Australia, players' agents and players' commercial advisors. With a mandate from FIFPro to assist in the establishment of players' organisations throughout the Asian Football Confederation, many of the topics can be expected to be soon raised in Asia's football federations, associations and leagues.

Pertinant issues include the regulations and commercial terms for the Asian Champions League (regarding the contracting of players, prize money and any salary cap treatment), the reform of the activities of players' agents in England following the comprehensive review of agents activities in England by The Football Association; and the need for close communications between all professional football stakeholders and their representatives.

As a member of FIFPro the PFA is in agreement with the world football body FIFA's commitment to social dialogue throughout the football world and the concept of parity in the constitution of football’s arbitral bodies. The minimum requirements for contracts for European footballers agreed between FIFPro and UEFA and referred to in the December Memorandum of Understanding between FIFA and FIFPro are likely to be widely distributed and discussed in Asia.

In Australia, the PFA is focussed on securing a new collective bargaining agreement with Football Federation Australia for the Socceroos and to introduce one for the A-League's third season. FFA is believed to have "agreed to open negotiations in March."

Matters the PFA believes should be covered by such an agreement includes

• injury payments;
• insurance for players from loss of football earnings, both from causes within and beyond the game;
• clauses in the standard player contract that seek to limit or exclude the liability of FFA or a club to a player, and prevent the player from seeking redress in court;
• security for player payments in the event of a change in the ownership or licensing arrangements between FFA and a club;
• the terms of the contract regarding the national team commitments of players, which go beyond the FIFA Regulations;
• minimum wage and minimum match payment;
• clubs being free to offer “training contracts” to players which are beyond the scope of the regulations;
• regulatory requirements of FFA, including the “ridiculous” regulations regarding the position of players to be replaced;
• short-term contracts, their compliance with FIFA regulations and their relationship with transfer windows;
• code of conduct;
• image rights; and
• if a second tier is to be established, the terms of employment of players and the governing regulatory framework.

The PFA also believes the Australian operation of the transfer system requires close review and is taking the issue up both with FFA and FIFA (through FIFPro). A key priority in the negotiations will be to secure adequate funding for the education, hardship and retirement programs for players.