FIFA to cap agents fees

Chris_from_Sidcup

A 10% cap will be placed on all football agents’ fees from next season as FIFA attempts to tackle the ‘excessive and abusive’ sums taken out of the game by representatives.

The cap will apply to the amount an agent can earn in relation to the transfer fee their client moves for, with an additional cap of three per cent of the player’s wages to be introduced for other services from next season.

Leading agents such as Mino Raiola, Erling Haaland’s representative, and, Jonathan Bartlett, who looks after the careers of stars including Gareth Bale, have threatened legal action against such a move although a German court has found in Fifa’s favour at a preliminary hearing.

Figures released on Wednesday revealed intermediaries earned fees of £760,000 or over in 117 transfers during 2021.

Fifa’s director of regulatory football, James Kitching, said: “There is a drop in transfer fees paid [in 2020] but when you expect to see a similar drop in agents fees, instead we see a slight increase.

“There are some really striking numbers when you look at the fee compared to the [player] salary. That is why we are looking at abusive and excessive practices.”

One such deal saw an unnamed agent pocket a fee worth 118 per cent of the transfer fee paid by a German club to a French club for one player.

Chris_from_Sidcup

Watch Haaland's dad and Raiola try and push for a Haaland transfer in January!

Scoham

Thomas Sandgaard and Roland Duchâtelet like this.

MrOneLung

Will never understand why a club pays anything to a players agent. 

The club will have its own negotiating team who they pay and the player has his team. 

They are leaches on the game. They work for their client, not for the club. 

Gary Poole

Fifa’s director of regulatory football, James Kitching

You can here the money running through the till even in his name

North Lower Neil

Chris_from_Sidcup said:

Watch Haaland's dad and Raiola try and push for a Haaland transfer in January!

I guess if it comes in next season, the summer may still be under the old rules.

Chizz

Net effect will likely be to drive up transfer fees, since a ten percent commission on fees may be more attractive than a three percent commission on salaries. 

In turn, of course, that will mean agents agitating for transfers before contacts are up, to earn even more fees. 

Still, I'm sure FIFA have thought it all through... 

Mendonca In Asdas

If this does get pushed through, all that will happen is the agents will make players move around more to make up the shortfall.

jonseventyfive

Ok good luck with that one. 

Lincsaddick

over the table cash can be monitored, not so easy when it's handed over under the table

Leroy Ambrose

Chris_from_Sidcup said:

A 10% cap will be placed on all football agents’ fees from next season as FIFA attempts to tackle the ‘excessive and abusive’ sums taken out of the game by representatives.

The cap will apply to the amount an agent can earn in relation to the transfer fee their client moves for, with an additional cap of three per cent of the player’s wages to be introduced for other services from next season.

Leading agents such as Mino Raiola, Erling Haaland’s representative, and, Jonathan Bartlett, who looks after the careers of stars including Gareth Bale, have threatened legal action against such a move although a German court has found in Fifa’s favour at a preliminary hearing.

Figures released on Wednesday revealed intermediaries earned fees of £760,000 or over in 117 transfers during 2021.

Fifa’s director of regulatory football, James Kitching, said: “There is a drop in transfer fees paid [in 2020] but when you expect to see a similar drop in agents fees, instead we see a slight increase.

“There are some really striking numbers when you look at the fee compared to the [player] salary. That is why we are looking at abusive and excessive practices.”

One such deal saw an unnamed agent pocket a fee worth 118 per cent of the transfer fee paid by a German club to a French club for one player.

Be a bit more receptive if they tackled the fucking great lunacy of awarding the World Cup (in a totally fair and above board manner which had nothing to do with brown bags full of money, of course) to a desert country full of human rights abuses that's so hit they literally have to move it to six months later in the year.

If they want to look at excessive sums of money flowing out of the game, while they're at it, they could look into those brown paper bags that clearly contained no money at all, just in case... 'oh look, several million pounds appears to have found its way into the accounts of various national federations around the world, I wonder how that could have happened?' 

soapy_jones

Yep thanks FIFA!

PragueAddick

Of course I detest FIFA as much as everyone else on here, but I think that at least this is a start. Unfortunately it has to come from FIFA, because the globalisation of the player market means that any special restraints on agents enacted here, including those that in principle I would favour, simply would not work. For example I think PFA should take over the job of representing players, both in negotiation and the background care the agents claim to offer; but obviously a player from abroad would’ve been brought in based on an existing agent relationship, and it’s unrealistic to expect the player to give that up and go with the PFA, knowing that in a couple of years he might leave the country on another transfer. It’s also encouraging that a couple of the usual agent suspects  are already preparing  to use their ridiculous funds  of cash  on expensive lawyers. Let’s hope they lose because that will encourage more authorities to take things a step further. Meanwhile if anyone can show me an example of a “good” agent, I remain all ears ( and eyes).

letthegoodtimesroll

Not wishing to defend agents but I suspect they do a pretty good job looking after their clients who, were basically kids wrapped in cotton wool when they got into the game, are cosseted in comparison to most of the fans that cheer them on and will mostly be forgotten about job wise when their playing paycheques stop at what will be a comparatively young age. If FIFA really wants to do something about the money going out of the game due to agents then perhaps it should also introduce an annual levy equivalent to the fee each club pays out in agents fees. That should encourage a bit more momentum in bringing the figure down

PragueAddick

letthegoodtimesroll said:

Not wishing to defend agents but I suspect they do a pretty good job looking after their clients who, were basically kids wrapped in cotton wool when they got into the game, are cosseted in comparison to most of the fans that cheer them on and will mostly be forgotten about job wise when their playing paycheques stop at what will be a comparatively young age. If FIFA really wants to do something about the money going out of the game due to agents then perhaps it should also introduce an annual levy equivalent to the fee each club pays out in agents fees. That should encourage a bit more momentum in bringing the figure down

That is unquestionably what they will tell you, on those rare occasions when someone tries to hold them to account in public. It's certainly true that players need this kind of support. The question is whether they get  it, consistently, from all agents, and whether agents put the resource in, commensurate with the revenue they are earning. Put simply, most agents have the same attributes as the worst kind of estate agent, whereas the kind of resource you are talking about needs the attributes of someone like Tracey Leaburn. (I have only recently had the chance to get to know Tracey, but estate agent type, she isn't. Lee Amis is. They don't get on....).

The agent "remuneration model", if I can grace it with that phrase, basically drives even the least greedy agent towards seeking a transfer for their player at any given moment.That's where the money is. On top of that, agents seek revenue from clubs too. The rumour is that Jacko's father-in-law sought a "fee" from the club. I won't quote the amount, since I have no way (right now) of verifying the rumour. However what appears to be a fact is that at the beginning of the process, this guy was acting for Jacko, and at the end of it, Jacko decided to sign up to Jon Fortune's agency.  

As for the post-playing career, most agents see that  as having a pet IFA connection to whom they can send players for "investment advice". Fine. Except, if you've spent most of your career in League Two, "investment advice" is unlikely to be what you mainly need. 

The PFA's idea was to separate this player care/negotiation side from the agents, so that the agents would have a business model like normal recruiters, acting for and paid by only the "employer" while the PFA would have a team that would look after the players. Morally, it is obviously the right structural approach. Sadly, and especially nowadays with the globalised market, it seems almost impossible to be able to implement that. That should not stop us from constantly seeking to hold agents to account for the humunguous amounts they collectively take out of the game. Our money. Parasites.