Fifa has taken initial steps towards trying to control the vast amounts of money being paid out of football to agents, agreeing in principle to discuss setting a limit on agents’ fees.
At a meeting in London on Monday, the Fifa football stakeholders committee, which includes representatives from clubs, leagues and the worldwide players’ union Fifpro, agreed to introduce a “clearing house” system to process transfer payments, and to reinstate a form of licensing system for agents, which Fifa abandoned in 2015 to widespread criticism.
The detail of the licensing, and proposals on capping agents fees and requiring players to pay agents for the work done on their behalf, not for clubs to cover these payments, will be subject to further negotiations within football.
The policy discussions will also examine reforms to the player loan system, including proposals to cap the number of loans clubs can make each season. This follows growing concern that top Premier League and European clubs are stockpiling young players who are sent out on loan for long periods.
Fifa said in a statement that the committee had “endorsed principles” for “new and stronger regulations for agents to be established, with agreement on the principle of introducing compensation and representation restrictions.”
The Premier League’s 20 clubs spent £211m in the summer 2017 and January 2018 transfer windows and Uefa has compiled an estimate that €1.5bn was spent in total on agents across Europe in 2017. Concern has grown particularly among clubs that agents, now officially classed as “intermediaries” usually working for both a club – sometimes both clubs – and a player to broker a transfer, are being paid far too much.
The case of Mino Raiola, paid £41m in total by Manchester United, Juventus and Paul Pogba when the French midfielder moved to Old Trafford in 2016 concentrated minds at Fifa and Uefa that action needed to be taken to curb the money leaving football to agents.
The Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, said the agreement was “a significant first step towards … developing a consensus on how to tackle the issue of agents, loans and other aspects of the transfer system”.
