The NEW FIFA Football Agent Regulations

Good morning everyone,

I hope you enjoyed last week’s edition of Learning the Venture, where I gave a brief run-down on some of the updates we’ve had at AceBoy Sports Group over the last month or so.

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If you’re a fan of Learning the Venture, then I think this one will interest you!

This week, I’m going to talk about the new FIFA Football Agent Regulations that have recently come into force, and how the industry has responded so far. The new regulations have been in effect for just over 10 days now, and the movement within the industry has been interesting and insightful.

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Now, let’s get stuck in!

As of October 1st, 2023, the new FIFA Football Agent Regulations (FFAR) were officially implemented, requiring anyone wanting to act as an agent to have a license, which would have been obtained through passing one of the two exams this year or applying through the ‘legacy path’ as an agent who passed the previous exam before it was abolished in 2015.

As many of you know, I passed the exam on the first attempt in April, and I am currently in the process of getting my CPD qualification on working with minors. I’ll also be required to complete other CPD courses throughout to hit a certain credit tally in order to maintain my license.

As part of the new FFAR, each country’s Football Association (FA) was required to submit their own National Football Agent Regulations (NFAR) of which agents would abide by if they were working on a transaction that was strictly ‘national’ in nature, i.e. the transfer of one player between two English clubs. However, not every country agreed to this, with some FAs simply not implementing new regulations and carrying on as business as normal.

The prime example of this being in Germany, where no new NFARs have been adopted and the new FFARs not adhered to. Therefore, any transaction involving a German club, German player, German coach, or German agent, is not subject to the FFAR. This caused ripples throughout the industry and has already began to complicate things for multiple agents with dealings in Germany.

A bit of light reading below if you’d like to see the actual court ruling…

Luckily for me, I don’t do business in Germany… yet!

Similarly, the England FA has elected to delay the implementation of their new NFAR until November 30th, 2023 at the latest, after a group of agencies took their case to arbitration, citing multiple issues with the new FIFA regulations. This was pretty frustrating for a lot of agents who primarily work in England (like myself) as it meant that we now have to wait once again for a change that we know is coming, but haven’t been given much guidance on how to prepare for it.

Therefore, all agents acting in England are required to work under the previous intermediary regulations that were set out by the England FA in 2015.

If you’d like to take a look at the announcement from the FA, the link is below:

This isn’t a problem for me as I had renewed my intermediary registration in April 2023 when it expired, as I needed to be fully compliant before the new FFAR and therefore NFAR were implemented (or at least should’ve been) on October 1st, 2023.

Regardless of these set-backs however, that is all they are. Could the new regulations have been implemented in a smoother, more efficient manner?

Absolutely!

But the FFAR have already gone a long way in giving that extra bit of credibility and professionalism to all the agents who are now officially licensed, at least in my opinion.

It’s made speaking with prospective players a lot easier as it’s given a point of reference for them to look for when seeking an agent - no license no signing!

I’ve already had a sense from a few clubs that they respect the work you’re doing a bit more as well. Obtaining the license shows that you’re willing to go the extra mile in terms of studying and preparation in order to be able to work in the industry, rather than just paying a registration fee.

Obviously, there are many who have failed the exam complaining about the FFAR and how it has created a roadblock to entering the industry blah blah blah…

At the end of the day, if you’re serious about your craft, especially one that impacts the careers and lives of others, then you need to respect the process and embrace the challenges to succeed and provide value to your clients.

That’s all for this week!

I hope you enjoyed this edition of Learning the Venture, and if you are new please consider joining the roster!

Until next time,

Cheers!

Jason