FIFPro marks 50 years of existence in 2015. Since its formation, on December 15th 1965, by the representative associations of the french football players, from Scotland, England, Italy and Netherlands, the world union of professional footballers has been an unique institution in world-wide football.

FIFPro’s first congress took place on November 1966, in Great Britain, before the Soccer World Cup, a competition in which Portugal succeeded on third place.

FIFPro, gathering associations of representative classes from 58 countries of all corners of the globe, amonst them Portugal, promotes and defends the common and individual interests of the players, not distinguishing nationalities, religion, political views and race, being against all forms of exploration and «doping».

In this context, FIFPro has been developing multiple actions in defending professional footballers, highlighting its intervention in “Bosman Case” (20 years ago), in the International Regulation of Transfers and in the European Social Dialogue, as well as in professional formations domains, social security, tax, employment relationship, doping and sports medicine.

In this way, the relevant role that FIFPro currently takes on  in football world, allows it to be an active voice in a lot of international bodies, namely FIFA, UEFA and the European Union.

Recently, FIFPro took a legal action in the European Comission, bearing in mind the end of the actual FIFA’s transfer system. Another sign that FIFPro is and always be next to the players.

The mandate that FIFPro received from players expresses the need to promote a more fair and equitable system, safeguarding employment relationships, the formation and integration of the youngsters on the market. It’s not FIFPro’s intention to condition or stop the transferring of football players, but to guarantee that these are carried out accordingly to the player’s and the club’s interests, irrespectively of its financial capacity. The actual transfer system generates “financial and competitive disparity”, which means it safeguards the detrimental interests that are harmful to sport and competition, that by allowing abuses to sport agents and third party holders of economical rights, wants to privilege the interests of the clubs with higher financial capacity.

As a member of FIFPro, the Portuguese Union is honored to contribute to his aggrandizement seeing, on the other hand, his work recognized. Recognition confirmed with the recent nominations of the Union’s Delegate and Ambassador for Women’s Football, Carla Couto, for the FIFPro’s Committee dedicated to the modality, as well as the General Assembly President, João Nogueira da Rocha, for FIFPro’s Regulation Committee President. On the other hand, the Union is proud of João Nogueira da Rocha and Joaquim Evangelista’s (Chief Executive) nominations for two FIFA’s judicial bodies (Court of Arbitration for Sport and Dispute Resolution Chamber, respectively). The Portuguese Union is also represented in the European Social Dialogue.

Over the Union’s 43 years of existence, FIFPro also gave us the comfort of being next to us in the defense of the player’s rights. FIFPro has been an essential organization in promoting a lot of initiatives, among which it stands out the FIFA/FIFPro World XI Award and the FIFPro Online Academy and Don’t Fix It projects.

Last but not least, in an era of globalization, in which the player’s mobility is increasing, the link between UNION and FIFPro is disclosing as being additionally important.