By Andrew Warshaw, Chief Correspondent
January 9 – FIFA has made further progress in a move to help clubs deal directly with each other during transfers rather than employ agents.
According to football’s world governing body, agents took commissions averaging 28% of the 11,555 cross-border deals in 2012 and many clubs have complained about having to pay too much money to intermediaries.
FIFA’s proposed Global Player Exchange (GPX) concept was discussed by its Club Football Committee this week and will, it says, “revolutionise” the transfer market by helping clubs sidestep agents.
“These new optional services will have the same core aim of improving transparency,” FIFA said in a statement. “Subscribing clubs will be able to access market information and interact with each other.”
“Extensive stakeholder consultation has shown that most clubs have limited resources for accessing information on the professional player pool and often have to rely on intermediaries, thus increasing club costs.”
Meanwhile, club representatives at Tuesday’s meeting were told FIFA will pay $2,850 per day for all players called up for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
The payments come from a $70 million compensation fund following years of often fractious talks with the clubs who claim they should be compensated at major tournaments since they pay players’ wages.
The meeting also broached the subject of third-party ownership. The committee was presented with a recent International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES) study, indicating that 15% of licensed agents in England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain – the so-called Big Five – had entered into third party ownership arrangements.
“It was reiterated by the committee that a consistent global solution must be found to ensure the integrity of the game,” the statement added.
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