September 26 – FIFA has announced a series of measures to restrict fees paid to players’ agents and the number of overseas loans that can be made as part of an initiative to regulate the transfer market.
The proposals have been made by FIFA’s Football Stakeholders Committee – which includes delegates from FIFA, clubs, leagues and player unions – and will be recommended to the FIFA Council ahead of its next meeting on October 24.
The cap on agents’ fees would see selling clubs limited to paying agents 10% of the fee they receive. In addition, the cap will be 3% of the player’s fee and 3% of the player’s fee for agents of a buying club.
Juventus reportedly paid almost €27 million – 26% of the total fee – to agent Mino Raiola from the €105 million Manchester United agreed to pay for what was a then world record fee to sign Paul Pogba in 2016. On top of that fee Raiola picked up a further €18 million from Man Utd and €2.6 million from Pogba.
Under the new recommendations agents would be prohibited from representing both the buying and selling clubs in a single transfer.
Agents and intermediaries will now have to be registered with FIFA and all payments will be paid through the FIFA Clearing House system that is currently under development.
Loan restrictions
FIFA also wants to bring in new limits from the 2021-22 season on loaning players overseas to “prevent player hoarding and ensure that loans have a valid sporting purpose for youth development as opposed to commercial purposes”.
The new guidelines are part of FIFA’s ongoing process to reform the transfer system. The idea is that for players aged 22 and over, clubs will be limited to eight international loans in and out, with that number dropping to six by 2022-23.
Within that figure of six loans there will be a maximum of three loans in and three loans out between the same clubs.
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