ECA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

The 24th ECA General Assembly, the first of to be held virtually, took place on 8 September, bringing together 178 ECA Member Clubs.

The meeting provided the opportunity to cover a number of important topics of relevance to the professional game at a time when football is facing its biggest ever challenge with many clubs having to contend with uncertain futures.

ECA Chairman Andrea Agnelli said: “What this pandemic and this crisis shows us and brings to us is one of the elements that I have stressed ever since the very first day of my chairmanship of the ECA – that the entrepreneurial risk of the industry lies on the clubs’ shoulders… If one thing connects all of us, irrespective of whether we come from a top club, a medium club or a small club, it’s that we have stadiums and we have receipts from the stadium. That has been pretty much wiped out. It’s the vast majority of us that will bear deep scars from this crisis [and] my hope is that we come together collectively, as responsible individuals, each one of us as clubs, so we can bring forward our positions, with our stakeholders, with one united voice.”

UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin and FIFA Vice-President Victor Montagliani spoke directly to ECA Members, both offering messages of reassurance and commitment in providing the necessary support to assist club football to overcome the challenges it faces and the need for all stakeholders to continue their efforts in working collaboratively in coming up with the right solutions in supporting the game as a whole.

The CEO, Charlie Marshall provided ECA Members with a detailed assessment of the key decisions that have been taken over recent months, along with UEFA, FIFA, FIFPro and the European Leagues, aimed at supporting the game and managing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Stephan Reiter (FC Salzburg) and Sharon Tammam (Maccabi Tel-Aviv FC) elected to the Executive Board for the recent departures of Raphael Landthaler (SK Rapid Wien) and Stefan Pantovic (FK Crvena Zvezda).