The International Federation of Professional Football Players (FIFPro) yesterday released a list of 55 names as its nominees that includes 9 Barcelona players, who will be voted on by over 50,000 professional football players from around the world as this year’s ‘World XI’.

For the first time this year, FIFPro and FIFA have joined forces to honour the best eleven players of the year with the first ‘FIFA/FIFPro World XI’ award that will be presented at the ‘2009 FIFA World Player Gala’ to be held in Zurich, Switzerland on December 21.

As usual FIFA will present its own awards (separate from FIFPro) to the best male and female player of the year chosen by national team coaches and captains.

Continue reading »

The International Federation of Professional Football Players (FIFPro) today announced on its website that voting for this year’s ‘World XI’ has begun with some sixty thousand professional players from around the world already receiving their ballots and will begin submitting the names of players they deem worthy of making it into the short-list.

On November 20th, when the trade union holds its congress in Budapest, FIFPro will reveal a list of 55 nominees, among whom could be several Barcelona players – possibly the same protagonists as in the recently released Ballon d’Or list. The final eleven will be voted in during the congress.

Continue reading »

The International Union of professional players (FIFPro) said that it “has never requested the dissolution of the contract of Lionel Messi with Barcelona” although it is in discussion with the European Commission and FIFA on the implementation of the agreement signed in 2001, which sets the duration of contracts to (a maximum of) five years, reports Spanish news agency EFE.

“FIFPro has issued an official declaration clarifying the news that appeared in the Spanish media stating that it had requested the dissolution of the new contract between Messi and Barcelona. FIFPro, however, has only limited itself, upon request, to make a critical note of this new contract,” it pointed out on the syndicate’s bulletin @ http://www.fifpro.org/index.php?mod=one&id=17262&PHPSESSID=40d308526290caa1fcbb9d246b19ed97

Continue reading »

The complaint of the FIFPro (International union of Professional Football Players) to FIFA and the European Commission about Lionel Messi’s contract with FC Barcelona makes no sense, according to Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo today. The contractual relationship between the Argentine crack and the club is governed by Spanish laws that allow clubs to decide the duration, without limit, of a contract, but that it must be for a fixed period and allows for a clause to rescind the contract with the amount to be paid estimated by both the club and the player. The criticism of Philippe Piat,  of FIFPro, is pointless, not least because the player could, if he does not agree with his contract, rescind it and lodge a complaint, which is not the case here.

Juan de Dios Crespo, one of the world’s leading experts on sports laws says, Piat’s action showed a great ignorance of his own Union’s agreement with FIFA, which was approved by the European Commission. Crespo added that the five-year limit rule is for those countries that lack a proper legislation, because the law is never the same for cases in Argentina, Brazil or Spain.

Continue reading »

According to French paper L’Equipe, Philippe Piat, President of the European section of the International Federation of Professional Players (FIFPro) announced yesterday that the union intends to file a complaint with the European Commission and FIFA about the new contract that Lionel Messi signed with FC Barcelona.

Barcelona however is calm about this criticism as the matter is yet to be made official, though as a precaution, its legal services is reviewing the details of the contract. According to the paper, Piat based his complaint on the length of the contract and the buyout clause, which was increased from €150 million to €250 million, which according to him “does not correspond with the spirit of the texts of FIFA”. Piat then reminded reporters that FIFA requires that “contracts should only last between one and five years”.

It must also be noted that despite Piat’s complaint, Messi was all smiles when he renewed the contract a few days ago. And what is strange about all this, where was he when Cristiano Ronaldo’s contract with Real Madrid, which expires in 2015 and has a buyout clause of €1 billion, was announced.