The Gordian knot has been severed. After years of disputes and various legal battles, FIFA, UEFA and the leading clubs have once again found common ground. The historic meeting at the Home of FIFA in mid-January brought about some remarkable agreements … because all of the involved parties sought dialogue rather than confrontation, just as I personally have done since my election as FIFA President in 1998.
The governing bodies and the professional clubs approached each other in equal measure. There are no losers here … only winners. The dissolution of the G-I4, a body that unlike individual clubs was never recognised by FIFA, means that an organisation that has been eking out a rather unconstructive existence outside of football’s pyramidal structures will now disappear from the scene. What is more, the clubs that made up the G-14 have also agreed to withdraw all of their pending legal cases.
The G-14 is not the only body to have been dissolved, however, as the European Club Forum has been replaced by the European Club Association (ECA), a body that unites more than 100 European clubs. Furthermore, clubs will be given a platform and greater opportunities to have their say within FIFA’s structures. Once it has been approved by the FIFA Executive Committee and Congress, the current FIFA Club Task Force will be upgraded to a standing committee.
At the same time, FIFA will accommodate the clubs on various issues that have repeatedly been the subject of controversy over the years, namely the international match calendar and the release of players to national teams, particularly for double-headers, friendly matches and continental championships. The necessary adjustments to the international calendar will require further rounds of consultation, not only by the FIFA Executive Committee but also with the confederations.
A financial agreement has also been reached and with regard to the FIFA World Cup™, FIFA will make contributions to the clubs via their respective associations to cover insurance payments for injuries as well as for training compensation.
The letter of intent signed in Zurich, together with all of the related steps and measures, will ensure that the relationship with the clubs will be so much more constructive and enduring than in the past. This will be particularly true for all of the off-the-pitch issues that football is currently confronted with, whether that be transfer rulings (such as the recent Webster case), release provisions, club ownership, safeguarding the rules of sport for promotion or relegation or the relationship between our game and supranational organisations. After all, those who speak with one voice and know how to bring all of their interests together naturally carry more weight and authority.
By directly including the players with the support of the FIFPro players’ union and by reaching an agreement with the clubs, the football family has once again been reunited … all in the spirit of “For the Game. For the World (of football)”.

FIFA CALENDAR
20 April Beijing
Final Draw for the Olympic Football Tournaments Beijing 2008
22 April Johannesburg
Meeting of the Board of the Local Organising Committee for the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™
30 April – 1 May Zurich
70th Blue Stars/FIFA Youth Cup
25 May Sydney
Internal Audit Committee meeting
26 May Sydney
Finance Committee meeting
27 May Sydney
Executive Committee meeting
28 May Sydney
Confederations’ meetings
28 May Sydney
CONCACAF Congress
29-30 May Sydney
58th FIFA Congress
6 July Brasilia
Final Draw for the FIFA Futsal World Cup 2008
8 July Johannesburg
Meeting of the Board of the Local Organising Committee for the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™
17-27 July
FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Marseilles 2008
6-23 August
Olympic Football Tournaments Beijing 2008
16 September Johannesburg
Meeting of the Board of the Local Organising Committee for the 2010 FIFA World Cup South
AfriraTM
30 September-19 October
FIFA Futsal World Cup Brazil 2008
20 October Zurich
Meetings of the Sports Medical Committee, the Referees Committee (Part I) and the Football Committee
21 October Zurich
Meetings of the Referees Committee (Part II), the Players’ Status Committee and the Associations Committee
22 October Zurich
Meetings of the Organising Committee for the FIFA Club World Cup, the Media Committee and the Committee for Women’s Football and the FIFA Women’s World Cup
23 October Zurich
Meetings of the Goal Bureau and the Finance Committee
24 October Zurich
Executive Committee meeting
30 October -16 November
FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup New Zealand 2008
20 November – 7 December
FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup Chile 2008
25 November Johannesburg
Meeting of the Board of the Local Organising Committee for the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™
12-21 December
FIFA Club World Cup Japan 2008
18 December Tokyo
Finance Committee meeting
19 December Tokyo
Executive Committee meeting

The International Center for Sports Studies (CIES) in Neuchatel, Switzerland, has just concluded partnerships with two universities in South Africa. In collaboration with the University of South Africa (UNISA) in Pretoria and the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) in Port Elizabeth, CIES will be setting up a training programme for sports managers with the emphasis on marketing, law, finance, administration, event management and communications.
“These agreements with two prestigious South African universities represent a major step forward in realising our objectives. I am happy that FIFA is helping to train high-quality administrators to take charge of African sport in the future. Football is proving in this manner how essential it is to society,” pointed out FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter.
Similar programmes have already been successfully set up in Argentina and Chile as well as in Senegal, where the Cheikh Anta Diop University (UCAD) in Dakar accepted 52 students during the 2006-07 academic year to attend the first ever course in sports management held in Africa.
The NMMU will organise courses on its Port Elizabeth campus, where the first programme is due to start in September 2007. UNISA, for its part, will be in charge of home study courses for all English-speaking countries in Africa as from 2008.
The two new partnerships form part of FIFA’s Win in Africa with Africa initiative, the aim of which is to establish long-term development and solidarity programmes as a means of perpetuating and reinforcing the legacy of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ in Africa.