The Annual Meeting of the World Leagues Forum (WLF), was held this week in New York City with 27 professional football leagues attending, hosted by Major League Soccer. On behalf of the Eredivisie, Jacco Swart (CEO Eredivisie CV) was one of the attendees.
The WLF is the world association of professional football leagues. It includes 32 Leagues from around the World (listed below). Its purpose is to improve governance structures in world football, address the issues of professional football and foster cooperation between its members.
During a positive working session with FIFA representatives, including Victor Montagliani, Vice President of FIFA, President of Concacaf and Chairman of the FIFA Football Stakeholders Committee, the leagues supported the constructive steps taken by FIFA to include the leagues in the governance of world football.
The leagues welcomed the recent agreement between the WLF and the other stakeholders on the amendment of FIFA’s regulation on overdue payables in football.
Looking to the future, the WLF stressed its commitment to work on improving the regulation of football in the field of transfers and intermediaries. An internal consultation will be conducted in the coming months across leagues with the aim of suggesting improvements to the regulatory framework of professional football. The conclusions will be brought to the Task Force set up by the FIFA’s Football Stakeholders Committee.
Leagues also discussed the issue of the proposed expansion of the FIFA Club World Cup. The strongly held view of the World Leagues Forum is that this would be detrimental to all stakeholders in the game. The leagues will be making this point in their feedback to FIFA in the coming weeks.
The WLF will also continue to enhance cooperation between its members in order to help all leagues develop.
Full list of World Leagues Forum Members
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Asian Football Confederation (AFC): J. League (Japan), Qatar Stars League (Qatar), Saudi Professional League (Saudi Arabia) and Malaysia LLP (Malaysia).
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Confederation of African Football (CAF): Ligue de Football Professionnel (Algeria), Premier Soccer League (South Africa), Kenyan Premier League (Kenya), Nigeria Professional Football League (Nigeria) and Ligue de Football Guineenne (Guinea).
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Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF): Major League Soccer (USA), Liga MX (Mexico), Liga Nacional de Fútbol Professional Honduras (Honduras) and Unafut Costa Rica (Costa Rica).
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South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL): Dimayor (Colombia) and Liga Boliviana de Fútbol (Bolivia).
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Union of European Football Associations (UEFA): Eredivisie (The Netherlands), Premier League (England), Serie A (Italy), Bundesliga (Germany), Ligue de Football Professionnel (France), Pro League (Belgium), Divisionsforeningen (Denmark), Foreningen Svensk Elitfotboll (Sweden), Liga Portuguesa de Futbol Professional (Portugal), Swiss Football League (Switzerland), Scottisch Professionnal Football League (Scotland), Ekstraklasa (Poland), Super Liga Srbije (Serbia), Ukranian Premier League (Ukraine), Israeli Professional Football Leagues (Israel), Liga Profesionista de Fotbal (Romania).
