FIFA creates entrance exams for agents looking for courses – 01/24/2023 – Sport

Since December of last year, lawyers specializing in sports law have been receiving calls from clients who make international deals in football.

The question is always the same: “What now?”

“They are afraid because the agents are used to doing the same thing over and over again. They say: ‘wow, I’ve been doing this for 30 years, don’t I have the right to a safe-conduct?’ I answer that they have been driving for 30 years, but they have to renew their driver’s license”, says lawyer Cristiano Caús.

His office is one of those that started to organize a course aimed at entrepreneurs active in Brazilian football and who will need to take a test written by Fifa to remain in the market. The first will be in April this year. Of the 20 questions, a 75% accuracy rate will be required. Those who do not pass will not be prevented from intermediating transfers.

The return of the test, applied until 2015 and banned since then, was approved by the FIFA council at the end of 2002 and came into effect on January 9 of this year. According to the entity, it is a step towards “establishing a more transparent transfer system.”

In addition to introducing the test and the official license to work, the entity that controls football will limit commissions for intermediating transfers. The maximum to be received by the agent will be 3% of the salary of the represented player, the same percentage if he looks after the interests of the buying club and 6% if he works on behalf of both parties.

If you act for the seller, you can keep a maximum of 10% of the transfer.

Contrary to what happens today, the manager will no longer be able to represent the athlete, the buying team and the selling team, an expedient used to maximize the money he receives.

When the French midfielder Paul Pogba was traded by Juventus (ITA) to Manchester United (ING) in 2016, the Italian Mino Raiola (1967-2022) oiled the interests of all parties involved and pocketed 27 million euros (R$ 151.4 million at current exchange rates). This is the kind of situation FIFA wants to avoid.

Disclosure of the need to pass a test was, at first, the detail that most caught the attention of Brazilian businessmen. It worried many, but not all.

“I think it will be a good thing for the market. It will get better. Nowadays, to do business in Turkey, you need a Turkish intermediary. If you go to France, a Frenchman. It makes no sense. It’s like wanting to get married and having to call a third person for the wedding”, compares businessman Luiz Augusto Carvalho, who carries out transactions with several of the main clubs in the country.

The move is FIFA’s admission of guilt. In 2015, the entity promoted a change that increased the number of agents in the world of football. They came to be called intermediaries and the idea was to reduce bureaucracy. To be authorized to work in Brazil, for example, it was necessary to fill out a form, pay a fee to the CBF (Brazilian Football Confederation), around R$ 5,000, and present a certificate of good background.

On the confederation website, 1,663 intermediaries are listed. The number is misleading. Legal entities are registered with agency names, each with multiple agents.

” [A prova] will serve to clean up the market a little. There are too many people. I just don’t really know what to expect from this test. Must be hard. But if it’s too easy, anyone can pass”, recalls Flavio Arão, father and agent of defensive midfielder Willian Arão, currently at Fenerbahce (TUR).

The test will address five documents used by FIFA: the transfer regulations, the agent regulations, the disciplinary and ethical code, the statute of Figa and the norms for the protection of minors.

“It will serve as a kind of filter. As if it were an OAB test [Ordem dos Advogados do Brasil]. That’s why we organize courses for our customers. They will need to train to continue practicing their profession”, adds Caús.

Most are used to, in the case of technical transfer market matters, appealing only to specialized lawyers. This should continue to happen, but FIFA’s strategy is to make agents aware of the legislation and not mere adventurers. Caús says that in the transfer of midfielder Bruno Guimarães from Lyon (FRA) to Newcastle (ING) it was necessary to examine and sign ten different contracts.

The consensus for businessmen is that, deep down, FIFA’s main objective is to have a smaller number of people working in the area.

“It is necessary. There are a lot of people. And if you make an international transaction, you pay a commission to an agent from another country who had nothing to do with the negotiation”, recalls Carvalho.