FIFA transfer reforms gain additional support

The European Parliament’s (EP) Committee on Culture and Education has published a report recalling “the need to regulate the activities of agents” and acknowledging the importance of the “recent reforms in the football transfer market”.

 

While urging “the relevant sports authorities to ensure the prompt implementation of these reforms”, the document prepared by rapporteur Tomasz Frankowski MEP also states that a number of measures being implemented by FIFA, such as the Clearing House, the licensing requirements for agents and caps on agents’ commission “go in the right direction”.

 

The EP document follows the publication of another report by the Council of Europe in June this year that recognises FIFA’s ongoing efforts to reform the transfer system, stressing that the soon to be operational FIFA Clearing House “will represent a milestone in achieving comprehensiveness, transparency and integrity of the transfer system for football players around the world”.

 

Other entities supporting FIFA’s ongoing efforts in relation to the transfer system reform have been the G20 Anti-Corruption Working Group and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

 

As highlighted by FIFA President Gianni Infantino on the occasion of the 71st FIFA Congress, there is still a significant imbalance in world football: the global spend on player transfers (totalling USD 7 billion in 2019) is not reflected in the payment of compensation to training clubs (totalling just USD 70 million in 2019), which is far less than agents’ fees (which amounted to just USD 700 million in the same year). To remedy this, the FIFA Clearing House will help enforce training compensation and solidarity payments, potentially raising the amount to USD 300 million per year.

 

Since 2017, and in line with the FIFA President’s blueprint The Vision 2020-2023: Making Football Truly Global, FIFA has made major steps towards the establishment of a fairer and more transparent transfer system, with the FIFA Council endorsing three reform packages. An overview of the main achievements in relation to the reform of the transfer system is available here.