07 October 2025 – The European Leagues Association welcomes today’s positive vote of the European Parliament for the adoption of its report on the future of the European Sport model. This model is based on principles such as fairness, open competitions, sporting merit and solidarity that are highly embedded in domestic league football, which is the backbone of our ecosystem.
The Parliament’s resolution calls on football governing bodies to implement principles and processes of collective governance. It encourages further steps to strengthen stakeholder representation in decision-making, while calling on the European Commission to promote social dialogue in sport as a key decision-making process.
The Parliament called on the Commission to “provide clear guidelines on the application of EU law, including competition law, to the sports sector, also in light of recent judgments of the CJEU”. This intervention comes as European Leagues and FIFPRO Europe have filed a complaint with the European Commission against FIFA, outlining how FIFA’s conflicting roles as governing body and competition organizer create a conflict of interest, with FIFA using its regulatory power to promote commercial interests at the expense of social partners.
The Rapporteur calls on the Commission to present a study mapping the existing financial solidarity mechanisms and redistribution schemes. The leagues welcome this recommendation and will actively contribute to this discussion with concrete solutions on how to further develop solidarity.
Commenting on the resolution adopted by the European Parliament, European Leagues President Claudius Schäfer stated:
“Today’s vote of the European Parliament represents a wake-up call for the football industry, which is currently facing multiple challenges, but also a unique opportunity for European Institutions and football stakeholders to reshape the future governance of our sport in full compliance with EU law.
We encourage all our Member Leagues, with their clubs’ representatives, but also the football stakeholders and those National Associations in European Football, which sit in the international bodies, to work together to implement the principles reflected in this resolution”.