New World Association of Leagues aims to help FIFA rebuild

Photo credit: AFP.

A group of professional soccer leagues from all over the world have decided to create a ‘World Association of Leagues’ following a meeting in Paris, the French Professional Football League (LFP) president said on Tuesday. The English, French and Spanish leagues are joined by 20 others from around the world in a bid to work closely with scandal-tainted world governing body FIFA.

The new association will come into effect in January.

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“The professional leagues from the whole world want to participate in the rebuilding of FIFA and football institutions,” LFP president Frederic Thiriez (above) said. He added that the important thing was to ensure the professional leagues were “involved in the decision-making processes.”

The decision came following a meeting at the World Leagues Forum in Paris on Tuesday, which was attended by four of the five candidates to take over the FIFA presidency in February’s election to replace suspended current incumbent Sepp Blatter.

“Football is not dead but its international institutions are very sick,” added Thiriez, referring to the unprecedented corruption scandal currently engulfing FIFA.

“And we believe that with the experience we have in managing football daily in our countries, we can bring our experience to help rebuild FIFA.”

Prince Ali bin Al Hussein of Jordan, ex-French diplomat Jerome Champagne, South African business tycoon Tokyo Sexwale and Asia’s football chief Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa were the four FIFA presidency candidates in attendance.