The Malta Football Players Association (MFPA) has been recognised as a candidate member of FIFPro, the world foootball players’ union.
The MFPA, formed just over two years ago, was awarded the candidate member certificate at FIFPro’s general assembly, held late last month in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Carlo Mamo and Konrad Sultana repre-sented the MFPA at the FIFPro general assembly which was attended by players unions’ officials from over 60 countries.
Six countries were accepted as full members of FIFPro, namely Ecuador, Ghana, Malaysia, Namibia, Paraguay and Zimbabwe. Besides Malta, Guatemala and Venezuela were also granted candidate member satus.
FIFPro now has 55 full members, three candidate members and six observers (Botswana, China, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Korea and Tunisia). The Palestinian Professional Players Association (PPPA) have been given a special membership status.
“At the general assembly, the MFPA officials received very good comments and feedback from the FIFPro executive committee,” the MFPA said in a statement.
Various topics were discussed during the congress, including the players’ health and safety at the 2014 Brazil and 2022 Qatar World Cups, and the FIFA FIFPro XI voting and award ceremony.
The global match-fixing problem and FIFPro’s campaign ‘Don’t Fix It’ were also on the agenda. Investigative journalist Declan Hill gave a very interesting presentation about the subject while Mario Cizmek, a former Croatian professional player, shared his personal experience on how lack of payments and financial problems turned him into a match-fixing victim.
The new FIFPro Board for the period 2013-2017 has been installed with Philippe Piat succeeding Leonardo Grosso as FIFPro president.
Division Europe also has a new president, Bobby Barnes from the English PFA.
Mamo, who plays for Tarxien Rainbows, and Sultana, a retired striker who had spells with several clubs during his playing career, took part in the traditional friendly between the members of various divisions.
The European team beat the Rest of the World 4-1.
The 2013 FIFPro Merit Award has been given to Stiliyan Petrov, the former Bulgaria captain and Aston Villa midfielder who is undergoing treatment after being diagnosed with acute leukaemia in 2012.
The Stiliyan Petrov Foundation was established this year.
Its aim is to help address the issues involved when people are diagnosed with leukaemia. FIFPro donated $25,000 to the Stiliyan Petrov Foundation.