Following the successful seminar held in Johannesburg, South Africa last month, it’s Lagos’ turn to host Africa’s FA’s, leagues and player agents to debate the new FIFA regulations which could spell the end of ‘player agent licenses’ that allow them to represent football players on a long-term basis. The next edition of the ‘Football Player Representation-Seminar’ is taking place in Lagos on 9 January 2015 following the Glo-CAF Awards, which is hosted a day before this gathering.
FIFA adopted the new regulations at its last congress held during the World Cup in Brazil earlier this year and from 1 April 2015 it will no longer recognise ‘player agents’ but only accept registered ‘Intermediaries’, which will be appointed by either ‘a player or a club’ to facilitate a ‘transfer or contract’.
The seminar held in South Africa drew more than 100 participants representing a cross spectrum of FA’s, leagues, clubs, lawyers and agents debating these new regulations especially how it will affect the relationship between players and agents. Agents will in future only be able to register with the local league when representing either the ‘club or the player’ and will be ‘de-registered’ once the deal has been concluded. These new regulations also prohibit the agent from earning more than 3% of the ‘total earnings of the player’ and it may also not take a commission from a deal where the player is a minor.
The biggest threat to the ‘player agents industry’ is that the new regulations will open the ‘door’ to anybody who is of ‘good standing’ and even corporations could become ‘Intermediaries’ and enter the agency market. FIFA’s new regulations also scrap the need to ‘write an examination’ or lodge public indemnity of CHF 100 000.00.
In terms of FIFA’s new directive FA’s will face potential penalties if they fail to implement these ‘Minimum Standards’ and they must design a new ‘registration system’ that forces both clubs and players to register the “Intermediary” who will facilitate the deal. FA’s must also publicise the names of the ‘Intermediaries’ under their jurisdiction as well as the commissions they’ve earned for the year. The biggest challenge for ‘Intermediaries’ will be the ability to operate in more than one market since FA’s could set different requirements under these new Regulations. The Seminar will also debate the issues around agency contracts, protecting players’ image rights and how to keep disputes between players and clubs out of the courts.
The organisers have extended invitations to stakeholders across Africa and like the Johannesburg edition; it will once again be attended by the who’s who of the footballing world debating ‘bread and butter’ issues around future of the football agency industry. (supersport.com)
