Players' Agents: Past, Present ... Future?

After the well-known Bosman case, the European labour market in professional football changed substantially. Due to Bosman the 3+2 rule (1) was repealed and the payment of transfer sums at the end of a players' contract was found to be illegal in the territory of the European Union for internal EU transfers. (2) Since the abolishment of the limitation of the number of foreign EU players there has been an immense influx of foreign EU players in EU domestic leagues. Eventually, also many non-EU players began to be employed by EU clubs due to the lower acquisition and salary costs of these players as compared to EU players. Due to the elimination of out-of-contract transfer sums players could receive higher sign-on fees and players' salaries rocketed. A shift occurred in the duration of employment contracts from short-term contracts to longer-term contracts as clubs attempted to keep players on now that they could leave a club without any difficulty. Longer-term contracts also ensured a surrogate "transfer sum" in the form of damages for preliminary breach of contract if players left before the contract was fully served. If one adds to all these elements the fact that football players are, in general, relatively young high-skilled workers acting in a sector that operates under the magnifying limelight of the global media and the fact that many clubs are financially dependent on (international) transfers of players, the outlines of a truly idiosyncratic international labour market clearly emerge. (3) It is due to these aspects that the profession of players' agents has evolved over the past twenty years into an activity that is carried out by thousands of persons worldwide. Nowadays players' agents play an indispensible role as the link between players, associations and clubs. They are the oil that keep the wheels of international football in motion. In this contribution a short overview is given of the way in which the profession of players' agent has been regulated throughout the (recent) years. This overview is followed by listing some of the indicators for the need to regulate the profession. Despite the regulations already in place, there have been many calls for still stricter regulation coming from stakeholders in international football, including the agents themselves, and from politics. The reasons for this development are also explained in this contribution. Subsequently, some recent actions that affect the future of the agent industry are described, namely a study into the activities of agents ordered by the European Commission and an early draft of FIFA regulations dealing with the activities of intermediaries. Finally, in the conclusion, a look is taken at the future: who can best ensure the sound regulation of a true football profession and guarantee the protection of professional agents, players and clubs against corruption? FIFA Players' Agents Regulations From the mid 1990s up to 2001 players' agents were granted a licence by FIFA to carry out the profession of players' agent. In those days, applicants had to take an oral exam that was carried out by employees of the national governing bodies. After passing the exam the only further requirements were the deposit of a CHF 200,000 bank guarantee and signature of a code of conduct, after which the agent could start carrying out his activities. Due to the growing number of agents and the increase in the international movement of players a new licensing systems for agents was introduced in 2000 which entered into force in 2001. These 2001 regulations introduced the written examination and licensing of agents by FIFA was replaced by licensing by the national member associations. For this reason, the wording "FIFA-licensed agent" no longer applies since 2001 with the official wording now being "Agent licensed by (the national) FA". In order to avoid an overly elaborate description, below only the most recent version (2008) of the players' agent regulations will be discussed in broad terms. …