The first woman in the board is the national team player Biroova

Union of Football Professionals becomes a candidate member of FIFPro

The Union of Football Professionals (ÚFP), which already has up to 200 members, was officially accepted as a candidate for full membership at the General Assembly of the International Federation of Professional Footballers (FIFPro) in Rome. For the past two years, ÚFP held observer status within the organization. ÚFP President Ján Mucha received a certificate confirming the union's candidate status from FIFPro General Secretary Theo van Seggelen in the Italian capital.

"Our union has been operating for three years. From the very beginning, one of our main goals was to become part of the international association. I’m very pleased that we are well on our way to becoming a full member. It is a commitment for us to continue working and also a clear signal to professional footballers in Slovakia that they have a strong association that is respected abroad as well," said ÚFP President Ján Mucha.

According to ÚFP advisor Jozef Tokos, FIFPro is a driving force for change, especially in the transfer system. The current system has remained practically unchanged since 2001 and no longer reflects today’s reality. FIFPro is therefore negotiating changes with FIFA at the international level; the first changes have already been made and national associations are obliged to implement them. "Footballers can now terminate their contracts if they have not received two months’ base salary—previously it was three. A player can also terminate a contract if the club fails to pay a bonus. There is also now a ban on abuse of position. A typical example: a club is dissatisfied with a player, removes him from the squad, and he can only train individually. That is a breach of contract. In Slovakia, only now is an amendment to the Registration and Transfer Regulations being prepared, while the Sports Act still contradicts FIFA rules in certain aspects," explained Tokos.

FIFPro will also advocate for limiting player loans, as some clubs (FC Chelsea, Inter Milan, AC Milan) have dozens of players out on loan. FIFPro believes that player agents' incomes are increasing disproportionately on a global scale and therefore proposes stricter control over both transfer intermediaries and player registration to prevent conflicts of interest. The system of training compensation should be simplified to benefit smaller clubs. Clubs could also protect themselves by blocking a player's future transfer if they were previously denied a solidarity contribution.

The transition of the Slovak association from observer to candidate member means that Slovaks now have the right to participate in discussions about proposed changes. "Moving from observer to candidate status is a bigger and more important step than becoming a full member. Our representative still cannot run for the organization’s international board, but can fully participate in meetings. We could be accepted as a full member next year. This year, Montenegro was accepted as a full member after its candidate phase," noted Jozef Tokos. The FIFPro evaluation system is strict, assessing the size of the membership base, how often association representatives communicate with clubs, and whether the association is active.

The most recent ÚFP general assembly, held in late November in Oščadnica with participation from players of top-division clubs as well as a representative from second-tier Skalica, acknowledged the resignation of board member Róbert Jež. In his place, Alexandra Bíróová, a representative of the women’s national team, was approved. Supervisory board member Marek Sapara also resigned and will be replaced by Podbrezová captain Miroslav Viazanko.

"By electing Alexandra Bíróová to the ÚFP board as the member responsible for national team relations, the ÚFP intends to enter into an active dialogue with the Slovak Football Association (SFZ) in 2019 about the conditions for players representing Slovakia," said Jozef Tokos. ÚFP aims to align itself with successful agreements reached between athlete representatives and national football associations in countries like Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, and other football-developed nations. Most recently, public attention was drawn to the case of the Fialková sisters in biathlon. In 2019, ÚFP will also focus on personal rights. "Individual contracts are, of course, different from collective ones, which apply to footballers. However, we do not consider the legal text—especially the key phrase 'obliged to respect'—to be ideal. There is an application problem: what exactly must be respected—only the sponsors and advertising partners of the federation, or is the athlete also required to be active on social media?" Tokos emphasized.