By Andrew Warshaw
January 15 – The Association of Football Agents (AFA) has angrily criticised FIFA’s plans to introduce a new system to reduce the influence of agents, denouncing it as unworkable. The UK-based body represents about 350 agents.
Last week, FIFA held further talks over its so-called Global Player Exchange which it says will “revolutionise” the transfer market.
FIFA said a total of 11,555 international transfers took place in 2012, with the average rate of commission paid by clubs to “intermediaries” standing at around 28%. The GPX system will seek to provide a private service through which subscribing clubs will be able to interact with each other over player availability.
But in a hard-hitting response, AFA chairman Mel Stein said the new methodology had not been properly thought through and that FIFA didn’t fully understand how transfers operate. “Like most stuff FIFA does, this idea is totally ill-conceived,” he told the Daily Mail newspaper. “FIFA are such a shambolic organisation that even if there is a will to make this thing happen, I’m not sure they will ever be able to do it.”
“Clubs themselves are often administered by people including accountants who are not football people. They are not in a position, generally, to be in touch with the marketplace in professional footballers. Agents are in touch with the market because that’s what they do. Think about all the parties involved in a transfer. The manager of the buying club, the manager of the selling club, the owner who controls the purse strings, the player’s representative and others. And the agent pulls all those strings together, which is very valuable.
“Very often the cheapest and most effective way to get a deal done will be using an agent. We as agents will fight tooth and nail against GPX. It’s probably illegal, like fee capping. And it’s certainly anti-competitive. The idea that a club might not be free to use an agent on transfers is ridiculous and if it was threatened, there would be legal action.”
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