FIFA-Chef Gianni Infantino.
picture alliance / empics | Nick Potts
A German court has provisionally banned FIFA from enforcing new rules for players’ agents. The World Football Association has now appealed against this.
Business Insider spoke to players’ advisors about their conflict with FIFA and the possible consequences for the Bundesliga.
“FIFA is trying to force the intermediaries out of the system,” says advisor Ralf Bockstedte, who, as a plaintiff, managed to stop the new regulations for his industry for the time being.
Player transfers in the Bundesliga usually fail due to transfer fees or unfulfilled salary requests. But now a conflict between the world association FIFA and players’ agents could complicate the transfer business. FIFA boss Gianni Infantino wants to enforce new regulations for agents, above all capping their fees. However, the district court of Dortmund temporarily quashed the FIFA rules in May. The powerful association has now appealed against this, as confirmed by a FIFA spokesman. The specialist magazine “Kicker” had previously reported on it.
Originally, the new regulations were to apply in full from October. Instead, the legal battle threatens a deadlock with uncertain consequences for clubs’ transfer plans, most of which work closely with players’ agents. “The clubs are very unsettled,” says Philipp Wehler, Managing Director of the German Football Players’ Association (DFVV). The merger is led by industry giants such as Dirk lever and Steffen Asal, who represents, among others, the German internationals Kai Havertz, Serge Gnabry and Marc-André ter Stegen.
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Almost 212 million euros flowed to football agents from the Bundesliga last year. In the age of mega-transfers, they make a lot of money when changing players and signing contracts. According to the new FIFA rules, consultants should in future be allowed to collect three to a maximum of six percent of a player’s salary or ten percent of the transfer fee. Several industry experts report to Business Insider that commissions of between ten and fifteen percent are customary in the market. “The aim of the regulation is clearly to reduce the clubs’ expenses for consultants,” says Wehler.
How do other industry representatives feel about FIFA’s plans? Business Insider asked around. “If I earn millions, then the three percent might fit,” says Alexander Bergweiler, who takes care of the interests of German national defender Antonio Rüdiger from Real Madrid with Sahr Senesie. “But if I go to Rostock and bring someone there for little money, the fee may not even cover the travel expenses.”
That means: Away from the glossy football of the Bundesliga, the consultants are not concerned with paying millions, but with the continued existence of their business model. In the 2nd Bundesliga or lower, the players are less well-known, which sometimes makes the effort involved in transfers greater, while the commissions are already lower.
Bergweiler draws a comparison with the industry to explain the resistance of the agents: “FIFA tells a supplier who was never part of the system: We buy your service as a monopolist for the amount X.” It is unclear how Conditions will look like in the near future. This could cause uncertainty on the German transfer market.
The Dortmund district court has initially prohibited FIFA and the German Football Association (DFB) from “enforcing, implementing or applying” controversial regulations such as the upper limit on fees. But the Higher Regional Court in Düsseldorf, which is responsible for antitrust law, could lift the injunction from Dortmund.
Agent: FIFA is ‘overrun by procedures’
In the opinion of FIFA, the decision of the Dortmund judges contradicts previous judgments by courts in Germany and other European countries, according to a spokesman. Years could pass before the case in Dortmund is negotiated – especially since the Mainz Regional Court has appealed to the European Court of Justice in another case relating to the FIFA rules. At the moment, the world association is being “overrun by various procedures,” says Bergweiler.
Legally, the question is whether football associations are allowed to regulate the consultant market. FIFA has a dominant position in the multi-billion football business. The European Court of Justice should clarify whether the association with its rules for consultants interferes with the competition rules within the EU. This is how the cartel judges at the Dortmund Regional Court saw it when they stopped the new regulation for the time being.
“FIFA is trying to force the intermediaries out of the system”
One of the plaintiffs in Dortmund is player agent Ralf Bockstedte. For him, the court is not just about the amount of the fees. The lawyer, who has experience in the football business, is convinced: “FIFA is trying to force agents out of the system.” From his point of view, the end for many players’ agents would be the “logical consequence” of the new requirements, Bockstedte told Business Insider.
The consultants are considered influential, but their lobby in professional football can be considered manageable. If a transfer gets stuck, the agents are quickly demonized. “From a legal point of view, the intermediaries are nothing more than brokers,” says Bockstedte about his own profession. You give players security and ensure a balance between them and the clubs.
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“FIFA would prefer it if there were no intermediaries,” says Philipp Wehler from the DFVV industry association. According to the lawyer, this may also be due to the fact that the association has nothing to do with the transfer business itself. However, he does not believe that FIFA wants to “push the intermediaries completely out of the market”. “The association wants consolidation,” he says.
Bergweiler, the advisor to real star Rüdiger, sees it similarly. “Capping consultant fees was the whole purpose of the exercise,” he explains. “But I don’t think that will happen.” From his point of view, however, it would have been different if colleagues had not gone to court. Bergweiler says: “I would have waited a bit, but I would have complained too.”
Bergweiler is one of the players’ agents who are pushing for corrections in the question of fees, but do not flatly reject the planned regulations. “I can live with the rest of the FIFA rules relatively well,” he says. A core of the plans is the reintroduction of a player agent license. It could reduce the number of footballers’ friends or relatives in contract talks.
The dispute between FIFA and the intermediaries also reveals a possible line of conflict within the consultant scene. Well-known agents have used the years of bubbling income to professionalize their business and build up impressive consulting firms. According to Bergweiler, the big agencies could live with the FIFA rules better than others because “the small ones hardly have a chance to act on the market”. But at the moment the fight against a fee cap is uniting the industry.
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