Johan Cruyff Institute and FIFPro Division Americas join forces for the professionalization of football

Johan Cruyff Institute director, Mariël Koerhuis, and FIFPro Division Americas president, Fernando Revilla, sign a comprehensive collaboration agreement at the WFS

Johan Cruyff Institute and FIFPro Division Americas teamed up in July to work together on the professionalization of the football industry. FIFPro America, determined to continue investing resources to promote the development of football management in its geographical area, reached an agreement with the Johan Cruyff Institute to receive a scholarship for each of its 15 associations, in North America, Central America and South America.

The collaboration between both entities has now been extended with the signing of a comprehensive agreement that will benefit the members of the two groups. Johan Cruyff Institute director Mariël Koerhuis and FIFPro Division Americas president Fernando Revilla have signed the agreement at the World Football Summit being held in Madrid.

Through this agreement, members of FIFPro America will benefit from discounts on all our programs in Sport Management, Sport Marketing and Sponsorship, Football Business and Coaching. The main objective of the collaboration between the two entities is the transfer of mutual talent. Under the terms of the agreement, FIFPro America staff will participate in the development of case studies and in the teaching of Johan Cruyff Institute academic programs, and at the same time our students and alumni will be able to do internships within the FIFPro Division Americas.

Mariël Koerhuis, director of Johan Cruyff Institute, on the left, with Fernando Revilla, president of FIFPro Américas

Fernando Revilla, president of FIFPro Division Americas and former student of the Master in Football Business in Peru in 2012, believes that “this agreement provides a major boost to the continuous professionalization of the management of football and sport in general in the American continent. The training of our association is essential and the opportunity offered by the Johan Cruyff Institute with this agreement is an excellent start”.

For her part, Johan Cruyff Institute director Mariël Koerhuis believes that “it is a collaboration of special relevance because it allows us to achieve a major challenge for our institution: to train current and former professional football players who want to be able to stay connected to their sport, from a management position, after their sporting career. That was one of the most persistent concerns of our founder, Johan Cruyff. With the scholarships we offered in the initial phase to train members of FIFPro Division Americas, we took a first step towards achieving this objective, and the agreement we have now signed will allow us to extend this collaboration and mutually benefit from the experience of both institutions”.