Company Announcement - Throughout the day on Tuesday, December 1, the best football competitions in the world held the second meeting of the World Leagues Forum in Paris (France) with the aim of exchanging positions, reach points of agreement, to maintain its unity and increase their influence within the world football scene. In this meeting, in which LaLiga´s delegation was headed by Javier Tebas, arose the decision to create the World Association of Football Leagues, which will begin its journey from January 2016.
In Paris, 23 of the top football leagues in the world were represented, including representatives from the five continents, in a meeting which had the participation of James Johnson on behalf of FIFA. Members of the EPFL (Association of European Professional Football Leagues) participated in the meeting with the European leagues of Spain (LaLiga), England (Premier League), Germany (Bundesliga), France, Netherlands, Russia, Portugal, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Scotland and Greece. The remaining Leagues present at the meeting were the United States (MLS), Mexico, Costa Rica, Ecuador (Quito League), Panama, Honduras, Colombia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Japan, Australia, South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria.
Concern about the situation in the FIFA was one of the key points of the forum, attended by four of the five candidates to chair the governing body of world football, who presented their respective programs to representatives of world leagues. Prince Ali bin alHussein, Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim AlKhalifa, Mr. Jerome Champagne and South African Mr. Tokyo Sexwale had the opportunity to exchange positions with the leaders of professional competitions on the role of the leagues in the future government of world football.
For Javier Tebas, president of LaLiga, who spoke before the rest of the leagues about the Integrity actions being carried out by the Spanish body, the meeting marks the beginning of a new body with influence in world football, "These meetings show how important are the Leagues, which are not internationally recognized by the institutions of world of football. That the candidates for president of FIFA have come here, but one, is very important and reinforces the idea that the leagues are the real protagonists of the football industry", said Tebas.
For his part, the president of the French League, Frederic Thiriez, joined these words saying that "the decision was taken to rebuild the institutions of FIFA and world football because FIFA crisis is a disaster for every day’s football. Somehow we are victims. It's now or never".
In the same vein Enrique Bonilla, president of the First Division of Mexico, noted that from the leagues "football is generated week-to-week and a decision making power in international institutions is needed", he expressed.
Representatives of the world's leagues addressed the joint work plan to be developed by all competitions over the coming months and established the working group for the establishment of the new association. This group, chaired by Frederic Thiriez, is composed by Henry Bonilla, president of the First Division of Mexico, Don Garber, MLS Commissioner (United States), Mitsuri Murai, president of the J League (Japan) and Christian Seifert, Bundesliga CEO.