The European Club Association (ECA), a group of the elite football clubs all over Europe, has ceased to exist. After the general assembly in Rome on Wednesday, the organisation is named now European Football Clubs (EFC).
With the new name, the body chaired by Nasser Al-Khelaifi, president of Paris Saint-Germain now brings together over 800 clubs from 55 countries in both men’s and women’s football. The institution is still formally recognised by UEFA and FIFA.
The statement of “standards” reformulating an identity clearly stated that it “reflects the organisation’s representatives and their values.” The main purpose of going under one banner is to unify clubs “as one voice” and to make them a driving force in shaping football not only at European but also at global levels.
During the last two years, the organisation has tripled its membership and claims that it has been a vehicle in changing competition formats for the advancement of the larger number of clubs to the international level.
While there are increasing player voices raising the issue of too many fixtures, EFC has been supportive of FIFA’s enlarged Club World Cup that Chelsea won in July after defeating PSG 3–0 in the final in New Jersey.
The rebrand is only a few days away from when UEFA greenlighted the plans for La Liga and Serie A to hold matches of their domestic league in the U.S. and Australia.
