The Qatar Stars League (QSL) participated in the Annual Meeting of World Leagues Forum (WLF), held over two days in Marrakesh, Morocco, and hosted by the Moroccan Professional League, with attendance of 34 professional leagues from all continents. The event featured workshops as well as exchange sessions with FIFA and International Football Association Board (IFAB) and discussions on professional football.

The QSL delegation consisted of its CEO Mr. Hani Taleb Ballan and Executive Director of Competitions and Football Development Mr. Ahmed Khellil Abbassi.

A number of important issues were discussed, most notably the co-ordination between professional leagues and IFAB, mechanism of the work of players’ agents and support within the framework of development adopted by FIFA, issuing cards for agents and setting ceiling for commissions.

Mr. Enrique Bonilla, Executive President of the Mexican League, was appointed as the new Chairman of WLF. He succeeded Mr. Christian Seifert, CEO of the Bundesliga, whose term had ended. However, he will continue as vice-chairman of WLF.

The delegates welcomed the recent agreement between the WLF and FIFA on the development of professional football by which the leagues and FIFA will work together to improve governance structures and standards in the game worldwide.

Leagues also discussed the 2021 FIFA Club World Cup in China. They will make proposals directly to FIFA on the redistribution model in order not to jeopardise competitive balance at the domestic level and to emphasise solidarity.

They discussed ways of exchanging experience to develop women’s football.

The forum members expressed their concern about racism in football. Determined to fight against this inacceptable phenomenon, they decided to set up a Leagues’ “Task Force Against Racism” to collect data across their members, identify best practices and make recommendations.

The QSL’s participation in the forum was in line with its keenness to strengthen relations with leagues around the world.