Key role for players - Platini

UEFA President Michel Platini has called on Europe's professional footballers to join UEFA in helping to shape the future of the game on this continent.

Lasting harmony
Speaking to the founding meeting of the European division of the players' union FIFPro in Vienna, Mr Platini said the inclusion of representatives of FIFPro Division Europe within UEFA's new Strategic Council was essential as part of efforts to bring lasting harmony to the European football family. The UEFA President spoke of the progress being made in the relationship. "For the first time in UEFA's history, the players and their union are formally recognised in the statutes," Mr Platini said. "The statutes state that, when organising competitions, UEFA must respect the players' health. The Executive Committee is now obliged - by statute - to ensure that the needs of the players are taken into account."

Strategic Council
"A body has been created which allows the professional players to sit with the UEFA Executive Committee, together with the clubs and leagues, in a body called the Strategic Council, to discuss big issues affecting professional football in Europe. But there is more to do, much more to do. But I want us to do it together through dialogue within football - a dialogue that the new Strategic Council allows. I want European football to return to its origins, and that is what I was elected to do. However, that does not mean that there should be winners and losers - as there are in court cases for example.

Balance
"What it means is that all the main parties have to accept that there is a balance to be found - and that this balance must be acceptable to all. I am trying to find that balance. If there are problems...I want them to be resolved by us, within the football family." Mr Platini made the same call to the players that he did recently to major clubs - to join with the football family and look for solutions to problems together. "Let us stop the court cases and try to resolve the problems ourselves around a table, instead of each time running to the civil court when there is a problem," he said. "I know it is possible because I know the French Charter - the agreement between all the different families - players, clubs, coaches, association - that has lasted for over 30 years. And it will be one of the first tasks of the Strategic Council to try to develop a similar Charter for the European level."

Responsibility
The UEFA President urged the players to make positive use of their new status. "With influence and power comes something else - responsibility," he emphasised. "That is why I ask FIFPro World, FIFPro Division Europe, the national players' unions and of course, the individual players themselves to exercise their rights, at the same time, however, recognising their duties towards our game. For these reasons, I am extending a hand from UEFA to you, the professional players, to ask you to join us in shaping the future of European football. Now you have influence - and you also have a former player as President of UEFA. So, please, use this influence responsibly and we will all benefit."

August meeting
FIFPro is the worldwide representative organisation for all professional players. At the Vienna gathering, Philippe Piat was elected as chairman of FIFPro Division Europe, and will take up his duties at the next FIFPro congress in November. The UEFA Strategic Council is due to meet for the first time in Monaco at the end of August.