How FIFA’s New Agent Regulations Could Change The Transfer Market

At the end of last year, FIFA brought in new regulations to improve the standards of soccer agents.

The changes were aimed at tackling serious issues such as corruption, player trafficking and other illegal activities, but they will affect the soccer ecosystem as a whole.

The transition period for those new regulations ended in October, so this upcoming winter 2024 transfer window will be the first that we will see their full impact.

Under the FIFA Football Agent Regulations (FFAR), agents’ commission fees are capped and fees for services to players must come from the player they represent, not the clubs involved.

The new rules shift agents’ incentives away from trying to get players to move clubs often or secure high transfer fees and toward trying to secure high wages for their clients.

Previously, agents could earn huge paydays whenever a player moved club, which could incentivize some agents to push players to change clubs more often, even if this is against the player’s interests, but with agents’ commissions now tied to players’ paychecks, there is an incentive to get players to sign for higher salaries.

FIFA says that “The FFAR ensure that agents no longer have extreme financial incentives to accelerate transfer movement”, and “By linking the service fee of an agent to the salary of a client, the FFAR ensure that the interests of an agent and their client are fully aligned.”

This could push up salaries, especially for young players, while putting some downward pressure on the ever-rising transfer fees.

Endorsements and marketing deals are outside FIFA’s remit, so with agents facing a cap on their commission, they could look to make up for that shortfall by searching for more commercial opportunities for their clients.

FIFA says that “The feedback of football stakeholders to the FFAR has been overwhelmingly positive” and that they are open to dialogue regarding possible future amendments. But some of the largest agents, who would lose out the most from the commission cap, have spoken out against it.

The other main change is the need for agents to be registered, which requires them to pass an exam and submit documents to FIFA. This is actually a bit of a return to the pre-2015 system where agents needed licenses. But it could create a bit of a bottleneck in the short term as some players might have unregistered agents, so are unable to sign any deals until they resolve the situation.

Some have complained about the need for an exam, with Italian agent Daniele Pinna from D.P. Football Management saying that some agents he knew found it impossible, and calling the move for current agents to need an exam “suicide.”

Other agents though have been supportive of the exams, with Lee Dong-jun from DJ Management saying players can recognize that a qualified agent is a “true person” and that “before (the new rules), only people with networks could win this game.”

But one other thing that Lee mentioned is that as well as agents being incentivized to search for commercial opportunities for their clients, some agents from outside Europe might be looking at buying small European clubs as a way to still make a profit when bringing players from other continents over to European leagues.

Like all changes, the knock-on effects of FIFA’s rules on soccer’s ecosystem can be hard to predict, but it is also important to remember that they were introduced primarily to protect players from exploitation, and their success or failure should be judged with that in mind.