FIFA: New regulation on relations with agents
On December 16th, 2009, the FIFA Council (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) approved the «FIFA Football Agent Regulations», i.e., the reference regulation regarding the activity of Football Agents and the relationships they may maintain with clubs, players, coaches and other subjects. This is intended to cover the following objectives:
- To raise and establish minimum standards of ethics and professionalism for Soccer Agents.
- To ensure the quality of services provided by Soccer Agents with fair and reasonable fees, and that these are applied uniformly.
- Limit conflicts of interest to avoid unethical behavior.
- Improve financial and administrative transparency.
- Protect players who lack experience or information regarding the soccer transfer system.
- Improve contractual stability between players, coaches and clubs.
- Prevent abusive, excessive and speculative practices.
This regulation, which contains 28 articles, includes and deals with aspects such as, for example, and without being exhaustive, the following:
- General requirements and provisions to become a Soccer Agent.
- Regulation of the examination procedure and issuance of licenses to become a Soccer Agent.
- General regulation of the actions of Football Agents and agencies.
- Regulation of conflicts of interest of Football Agents and conflicts of interest in transfer operations.
- Regulation of representation agreements and limitation of dual representation.
- Regulation of representation of minors.
- Regulation of the commissions of Football Agents.
- Rights and duties of Football Agents when acting as such.
- Rights and duties of clients, i.e. clubs, players, coaches, federations and other parties involved.
Thus, with the approval of these regulations, FIFA intends to establish a regulatory framework to homogenize the relationship between Football Agents and the other parties involved in the negotiations and transfers of players and coaches.
This represents a major change in the relationship between clubs, players and coaches and Football Agents, since this new regulation comprehensively regulates aspects such as (i) the duration of representation agreements; (ii) limitations on the persons who may intervene; or (iii) agents’ commissions, establishing limits on who may pay them and limits on the amounts of commissions, among other aspects.
Regarding when these regulations come into force:
- The general provisions and those relating to the requirements and procedure to become a Football Agent (articles 1 to 10 and 22 to 27), enter into force on January 9th, 2023.
- The other provisions (the remaining articles), i.e. mainly those governing relations with Football Agents, enter into force on October 1st, 2023.
Finally, it should be noted that national federations such as, for example, the Royal Spanish Football Federation, will have to implement, by September 30th, 2023, regulations on Football Agents at the national level under the framework of the «FIFA Football Agent Regulations».
However, it is very important to have internal protocols that regulate in detail the relations between clubs, players and coaches with Football Agents and, in this way, avoid non-compliance with these regulations.
Compliance Department of Molins Defensa Penal.