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Executive Director Ahmad Nassar Shares PTPA Mission at World Players Association Conference

Posted on June 6, 2023 - 1:51 pm by

PTPA Executive Director Ahmad Nassar recently joined the World Players Association (WPA) and FIFPRO (The Fédération Internationale des Associations de Footballeurs Professionnels) at the first-ever #Right2Organize conference, speaking on the mission and importance of the PTPA during the conference’s “New Frontiers in Organizing” panel.

The conference, held at the FIFPRO headquarters in Amsterdam, Netherlands, featured leaders, experts, and pioneers from various players associations and unions sharing their experiences, knowledge, and strategies to build player power. Representatives from more than 70 player associations in 35 countries and 17 sports – including football, basketball, baseball, cricket, American football, and rugby – attended the conference.

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During the “New Frontiers in Organizing” panel, Ahmad shared a variety of perspectives on building tennis’ first-ever players association, the unique power that players have, and the how PTPA is working to change and improve the structure of tennis. Some of his key insights included:

  • Motivating players to collectively organize and engage with tennis’ first players association: “Everybody has at least one thing that they care about, so finding the one thing for the players that might not necessarily be running with arms wide open to a players association has been really useful.” 
  • The PTPA’s current state, and future role, in the overall structure of tennis: “We want to build a lasting institution that is there to support all the players.”
  • Beyond the players, sports’ biggest sources of leverage: “Fans and consumers are an underrated source of leverage.” 
  • Various mechanisms and strategies for player-driven change: “There are legal levers, and there are public levers, there are things around matches and games that players can do short of not showing up entirely.” 
  • How player compensation factors into making the sport’s overall structure more equitable: “[Equal pay] is a starting point, definitely not an ending point.” 

The World Players Association (WPA) is the exclusive global association of organized players and athletes across professional sports. It brings together 85,000 players across professional sport through more than 100 players associations in over 60 countries. It was formally established in 2014 as an autonomous sector of UNI Global Union, which represents 20 million skills and service workers in 150 countries.