Every individual award at the last five World Cups, from the Golden Ball to the Golden Glove, was won by a player under a European club contract, according to a FIFPRO Europe analysis published on 14 September.

The report puts that dominance in cash terms. European clubs employed 856 of the players at the 2026 tournament, releasing squads worth roughly €16.9 billion ($19.8 billion), or 94% of the World Cup’s total player value.

Of those 856 players, 451 hold passports from outside Europe. Non-European nationals generated 33% of the tournament’s total player value while playing for European employers, a pattern FIFPRO Europe uses to argue that the European club game functions as football’s global gateway.

The wealth is also concentrated. Twenty releasing employers, all of them European, accounted for about 60% of the tournament’s total player value.

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The abandoned $20 billion plan

The analysis lands weeks after FIFA withdrew its FIFA Forward Enterprise proposal, a plan to create a commercial subsidiary that would have brought in private investors alongside FIFA’s own majority stake. Gianni Infantino pulled the $20 billion project within 72 hours of its 29 July unveiling, following formal opposition from UEFA, CONCACAF, the Asian Football Confederation, professional leagues and FIFPRO.

FIFPRO Europe’s verdict on that episode is uncompromising.

“FFE was an attempt to convert the game’s core competitions into an investable, tradeable and undervalued financial asset for private capital,” the union said.

Independent review and stakeholder seats

The report calls for an independent review of the FIFA Council’s executive decision-making, aimed at preventing major changes being pushed by a single office without wider consultation. It also asks FIFA to formally integrate players, clubs and leagues into governance alongside the 211 national member associations.

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FIFPRO argues the funding numbers point in the same direction. The share of FIFA World Cup revenue paid out as prize money has slipped from 10.5% in 2006 to 7.7% in 2026, even as tournament revenue has grown sharply.

“Players receive only a fraction of that return, while participating federations rely on it as FIFA’s only performance-based revenue stream,” the union said.

“Any future proposal to grow solidarity funding should be built together, through trusted governance, not advanced unilaterally.”

Infantino’s re-election bid

The demand for reform arrives with Infantino seeking a fourth term as FIFA president. He announced his re-election bid at FIFA’s 76th Congress in Vancouver on 30 April, and both UEFA and CONCACAF have publicly criticised his leadership since.

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Confederations do not decide the outcome, however. Each of FIFA’s 211 member associations casts its own ballot, one vote per association, and no rival candidate has formally declared. Nominations for the presidency are due to close on 18 November, ahead of the vote at next year’s FIFA Congress.

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