The silent dispute between FIFA and UEFA for control of the football business has ended up undermining the unity of the international footballers’ union FIFPRO, the most representative in the world until now with more than 60,000 members. The split was staged this Thursday on Madrid’s Gran Vía, at the headquarters of the Spanish Footballers’ Association, AFE. Its president, David Aganzo, led the act of rupture while presenting AIF, International Footballers’ Association, a new union with a global vocation. “I have been president of FIFPRO, I prefer to be out,” declared Aganzo, who will preside over the dissident institution.
AIF claims to represent more than 30,000 players. According to its founders, “it is born with the aim of becoming the reference union for footballers worldwide,” and is the result of the merger of the Spanish union AFE with the Mexican Footballers’ Association, the Professional Athletes’ Union of the State of Sao Paulo, and the Swiss Footballers’ Association. The headquarters of the new organization will be located in Madrid.
The four separatist entities have something in common: they warn that they want to negotiate more directly with FIFA, the international federation, the main governing body, without being accountable to UEFA, the European federation, which is more dependent on Union laws, and which they accuse of excessively conditioning the actions of the unions in England and France, pillars of FIFPRO.
Today we mark a before and after for the present and future of our colleagues.
The International Footballers’ Association (AIF) is born, an initiative we are promoting with the conviction that male and female players must be at the center of all… pic.twitter.com/R56EWGbOwD
— David Aganzo (@davidaganzo) April 23, 2026
The division would be unthinkable without the escalation of the dispute between Gianni Infantino, FIFA president, and Alexander Ceferin, UEFA president. As the secession occurred, FIFPRO issued a statement accusing Aganzo of disloyalty for “collaborating with groups closely linked to football’s governing bodies.” The circumlocution points to the contacts that Aganzo, while president of FIFPRO, maintained with Gianni Infantino, the FIFA president. Sources familiar with the conflict assure that FIFPRO decided to dismiss Aganzo last year for negotiating with Infantino on issues related to players’ health without the union’s knowledge.
FIFPRO sources indicate that the FIFA board broke off relations with the union in 2024 after a complaint from players to the European Commission regarding the unilateral imposition of a calendar that, according to employees, violated the right to rest.
“I don’t need anyone’s permission to meet with Infantino,” Aganzo said this Thursday. “I didn’t attend those meetings as president of FIFPRO but as president of AFE. If I have a Barcelona and Villarreal match scheduled in Miami that only affects Spain, I attend on behalf of AFE.”
“We are not here to fight with FIFPRO but to improve the conditions for footballers,” explained the leader. “There are many footballers who are not affiliated with any union. That doesn’t mean they don’t want to be. We offer a new model, to try to have much more dialogue, so that the political side is set aside and footballers have much more voice.”
To talk or to refuse to talk
Aganzo regrets that last year, during the Club World Cup in the United States, the current president of FIFPRO, Sergio Marchi, refused to sit down and talk with Gianni Infantino. “We represent thousands of players!” says the Spaniard. “Our responsibility is to try to speak with the highest regulatory body in football.”
FIFPRO’s statement, which has representation on UEFA’s executive committee, was forceful: “The concept announced in Madrid by its current president [Aganzo] appears to be nothing more than a speculative attempt to strengthen his own position through a group that lacks the fundamental legitimacy to represent professional footballers globally (…). In the last two years, FIFPRO has modernized its governance to be more transparent and accountable; this was part of a democratic process that led to the AFE president losing his position as FIFPRO president. Subsequently, he ended AFE’s affiliation with FIFPRO, which weakened global support and benefits for players in Spain and Spanish players worldwide.”
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