Many football players choose to have football agents to represent them and help them to get new opportunities, arrange contracts and earn money through sponsorship and appearances. FIFA (the Fédération Internationale de Football Association) releases guidelines to all players from grass roots to professional teams on the best ways you can work with a football agent or other intermediary party.

FIFA’s Players’ Agent Regulations

The FIFA’s Players’ Agent Regulations have been replaced in April 2015 with an amended new set of regulations on how football players and football clubs should work with football agents. This new approach has been approved by the FIFA Executive Committee and came into force on 1 April 2015.

Changes to the Football Agents System

The new FIFA Football Agent System has improved in order to protect football players from agents, and regulate the contracts signed in the football industry. These new changes are:

• Football Agents were previously not licensed. This meant that many international transfers would take place without using a licensed football agent
• It is now easier to verify transfers using licensed football agents, as even transfers made using licensed football agents with the old agent system were often not transparent, so hard to verify
• The old football agents system was not clear on the financial responsibilities of club representatives versus player agents. The new system makes this clearer

The FIFA Committee for Club Football have rolled out the new players’ football agents system through member associations, confederations, football clubs, FIFPro and professional football leagues with the sole aim of making the football agent processes more transparent, and easier to monitor and implement, to increase the quality of uptake nationally. A framework has been set up to tightly control transactions such as football player transfers. This framework introduces some minimum requirements that need to be met by football agents who register themselves to regulate football agent activity such as representing football players and/or clubs, including employment contracts and transfer agreements. All football agents must also sign a declaration when carrying out a transaction on behalf of a player or a club. Making the transactions between players and clubs more transparent gives players and clubs the opportunity to choose their agent knowing that they meet the required standards to negotiate on their behalf in an honest and open forum. Football agents must follow best practice as set out by FIFA. These are:

• Transparency: All football agents must act in a completely transparent manner, disclosing the remuneration and payments made to any party as a result of any player or club transaction
• Payment of third party fees: All transactions are clearly described to clarify who out of the clubs or players are responsible for paying which fees, and what commission percentage can be paid to which third party
• Conflicts of interest: Football agents must properly disclose all player or club activity in order to identify any conflicts of interest
• Protection of minors: Football agents may not accept payment for any player that is a minor