The International Federation of Association Football’s (FIFA) plan to limit the exorbitant fees that agents take when a player is transferred has been thwarted.
According to the Associated Press (AP), FIFA, which sought to create rules to limit the fees of soccer players’ agents, lost a high-profile legal challenge in the United Kingdom by the Professional Football Agents Association (PROFAA).
This is a major setback for FIFA’s efforts to curb the overheated agent market.
FIFA believes that agents are causing the soccer transfer market to overheat and is trying to control their fees.
FIFA estimated that agents earned more than $600 million ($780 million) in international transfer fees last year.
In particular, the signing of top players such as Eling Holland (Norway), who switched from Borussia Dortmund (Germany) to Manchester City (England) ahead of last season, is believed to be worth tens of millions of dollars in transfer fees alone.
In response, FIFA has limited the amount of commission an agent can earn when representing a club looking to sell a player to a maximum of 10% of the transfer fee.
There is also an upper limit of 3% if the player’s salary exceeds $200,000, and 5% if it does not exceed $200,000.
If the agent represented both the player and the club, the cap would be 6% and 10%, respectively.
FIFA has also completely banned “dual representation,” where an agent represents both the club selling and the club buying a player.
In a lawsuit filed by PROFAA over the policy to curb the overheated agent market, FIFA won a ruling in favor of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in July, but PROFAA appealed to courts across Europe, including the UK, in September. 먹튀검증