FIFA Vs Agents: There’s A Storm Coming

Oscar Wilde once described fox-hunting as the unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable and there will be football fans who feel the same way about FIFA’s attempts to regulate agents. To garble another decent wordsmith’s quote about plagues upon both their houses, in a fight between the two, can they both lose?

There are obviously much more important fights going on in the world right now but, if you care about football, this is not one you should ignore.

Agents can decide who gets which player at what price and how long they stay. Getting that right is kind of important for a professional sport based on fair competition. Many believe they take money out of the game — money that could be spent on better facilities, grassroots projects, the women’s game and so on.

FIFA believes this, too. In many ways, it wants to fix a mistake it made in 2015 when it effectively stopped regulating agents. A year later, Dutch-Italian agent Mino Raiola claimed a reported £41 million — a figure he disputes but has not refuted — from Paul Pogba’s £89 million move from Juventus to Manchester United and a U-turn became inevitable.

This Monday the new FIFA Agents Regulations came into force which, however, will not begin to be applied until next October 1, after this stipulated transition period. 

However, the representatives have not said their last word and are filing several class action lawsuits over what they consider to be clearly illegal: the controversial cap on agent commissions and the failure to serve all parties involved in an operation or a buyer and seller club in the same transaction.

In fact, this measure fully affects the footballers themselves, since the rule benefits them in some cases (such as paying their agent 3% instead of 10%), but seriously harms them in others, such as the fact that that the footballer will no longer be able to delegate to his club to pay the agent, he will also have to pay the VAT on the services or the payment to the Treasury cannot be deducted.

Another risk for footballers is that from now on they will receive many offers to renew their contracts before the rule comes into force on October 1 to avoid the new conditions set by FIFA. By endowing the soccer player with all contractual responsibility with his agent, it is also probable that he will have to pay for other services that his representative offered him before. On the other hand, the player will now be more protected by FIFA than by ordinary justice, since the lawsuits will be decided by a court of the highest body in world football.

For the footballer, however, there are many advantages, such as providing agents with greater training and transparency. One of the great challenges of the Clearing House is to reduce money laundering and all payments between clubs, players and agents will always be made through this body.

The footballer acts now if he so wishes in his own name and right. It will be easier for him to break a contract due to some negligence of his agent than by signing a new contract or transfer. In addition, the automatic or tacit extensions of the contracts are no longer valid. Agents will be prohibited from making payments to relatives of the players, something that had become a common practice, also by the clubs, which will not be able to take advantage of this route either.

The agents, the big losers

The losers are clearly the agents who are going to see their profits diminished considerably and that is why they have decided to continue with their class action lawsuit. For a salary of more than 200,000 euros, the commission for the agent is 3% of the player’s salary, the same percentage if he represents the buying club, 6% if he represents both and 10% if he negotiates on behalf of the selling club. Given that at most the footballer and the buying club can be represented at the same time, the agents will get a maximum of 10% of the operation with the third option. With some nuances, the most important agents in the world support this demand because they all agree that capping commissions is illegal in the free market of the European Union.

FIFA has unsuccessfully sought the support of agents before approving the rule. Also from UEFA and the ECA (European Club Association) but after Infantino announced the new club World Cup without prior notice, these two organizations have left only the highest body in world football in the face of the upcoming litigation.