UEFA sets its sights on the agent

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As part of the ongoing UEFA-led independent review of European football, the role of players' agents is coming under intense scrutiny. The topic has been further pushed to the forefront of UEFA's agenda in the wake of recent bung allegations in the English Premier League, in which bribes have reportedly been offered to managers or club officials as part of transfer deals. There is also increasing concern at a wider European level over the use of some transactions involving agents to facilitate money laundering activities.

However, in attempting to stamp out malpractice through increased restrictions on the agents' profession and tighter surveillance of their activities, UEFA is potentially placing too much emphasis on one side of the equation. Corruption requires consenting parties on both sides of the deal, and there is little evidence to date of any impetus to alter regulations to improve the transparency of transactions within the football industry or to improve the monitoring of cash flows and accounts at a club level. Speaking after the UEFA Executive Committee meeting in late January, Chief Executive Lars-Christer Olsson cited an urgent necessity for monitoring agents saying, "There are agents that are behaving properly, and doing a good job, but there are also agents who are not." The fact that agents were said to be handling huge financial amounts added to the need to address the issue.

In an attempt to reduce corruption and further regulate agents' conduct, a working group comprising representatives of UEFA, FIFA, major European clubs, national associations, the players' union FIFPro, the professional football leagues and agents themselves, has drawn up a list of around 50 recommendations for submission to FIFA. While specific details of the recommendations have not been yet revealed, they are understood to fall into three categories: qualifying criteria to become an agent, permitted activities of agents, and the enforcement of regulations on agents.

While UEFA is concurrently implementing a survey of European player agents with the aim of canvassing their views, the consensus voice of any agent body has been conspicuously absent from the arena of debate. The fact is that no such representative body currently exists at a European level. So while the reputation of the profession as a whole is being tarnished for the activities of a rogue few, little consideration has been given as to whether the tightening of already clear and stringent regulations governing agent activity will stem illegal practices at their root cause, which is essentially the existence of corrupt individuals within the agent and the football industries.

Agents, in their roles as intermediaries, are a necessary component in creating an efficient market within football. As a review of FIFA's Players' Agents Regulations testifies, their profession is already subject to clearly stipulated rules and restrictions. In fact, in 2000, following the intervention of the EU Court of Justice, FIFA was obliged to modify certain anti-competitive requirements introduced when it commenced regulation of the agent profession in 1995. Specifically, the 1995 rules required that agents deposit an irrevocable bank guarantee of CHF 200,000 with FIFA (or deposit CHF 100,000 in cash), thereby rendering the profession of agent the most expensive in the industry.

Even with the abolition of the deposit requirement, procedures to obtain a licence as an agent under FIFA regulations include a written examination, evidence of sufficient professional liability insurance or an irrevocable bank guarantee of CHF 100,000 accessible by FIFA, and adherence to a strict Code of Professional Conduct as well as statutes and regulations of relevant national associations.