Agents file challenge to FIFA rules
GENEVA, March 21, (AP): FIFA is facing another legal challenge to its new rules regulating player agents, this time in its home country Switzerland.
A group of Swiss agents has asked the federal competition commission to intervene with the FIFA Football Agent Regulations, which are being phased in this year and will cap the fees earned from player salaries and transfers.
FIFA worked for years to regulate an industry it argues takes too much money out of soccer, with agents earning $622 million from international transfer deals in 2022.
While elite agencies have earned tens of millions of dollars from transfers for players like Erling Haaland and Paul Pogba, the Swiss group challenging FIFA typically works at the other end of the global market.
“The average players they are representing are playing in second or third leagues in Switzerland with a relatively small market value,” a lawyer for the Swiss agents, Fabio Babey, told The Associated Press in a recent interview.
The FIFA rules, which are set to take full effect in October, cap agent earnings at a maximum 10% of transfer fees when acting for the selling club.
Agents would also be limited to taking 3% of a player’s salary when those earnings are more than $200,000 per year, or 5% when the player earns up to $200,000. Those limits would be 6% and 10%, respectively, when the agent acted for both the player and the club signing them.
FIFA wants to prohibit player agents representing both the buying and selling clubs in a transfer.
Fees would also be paid through FIFA’s Paris-based financial clearing house which aims to bring more transparency - and potential risks to confidentiality, agents argue - to a global transfer market that historically has had murky edges.
“It’s an unlawful agreement, it’s an abuse of dominance,” said Babey, suggesting some of the about 60 agents operating in Switzerland would be forced out of business by the cap on fees.
The Swiss competition commission acknowledged receiving the filed complaint and said it would decide on its next steps “in the coming weeks.” It can open an investigation, try to work with FIFA on amending the rules or reject the complaint.
FIFA declined comment Tuesday on the pending Swiss matter, or other legal challenges to the agent rules.
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A soccer hooligan serving two months in prison for running onto the field at PSV Eindhoven’s stadium and attacking a player during a Europa League match has also been handed a 40-year ban by the Dutch club.
The 20-year-old man will not be allowed inside the Philips Stadium during the length of the ban, PSV said in a statement late Monday.
Prosecutors previously said the man had two previous convictions for soccer-related offenses and was under the influence of alcohol when he ran onto the field late in the match between PSV and Sevilla on Feb. 23 and punched Sevilla goalkeeper Marko Dmitrovic.
Dmitrovic was not injured and wrestled the hooligan to the ground before stewards marched him off the field.
The Dutch soccer federation had imposed a stadium ban on the hooligan but he managed to get in using a ticket bought by a friend.
The man has since been given him what PSV called a two-year “area ban” around the stadium. He was fired from his job after the incident and kicked out of his team’s supporters’ club.
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Jorge Sampaoli’s second stint as Sevilla coach is over.
Se villa fired the Argentine coach on Tuesday, two days after a 2-0 loss at relegation threatened Get a feint he Spanish league.
“Following the defeat at Getafe, which leaves the side just above the relegation zone, the club has decided to part ways with the Argentine coach ahead of the international break,” Sevilla said in a statement. “The image shown by the team in these last matches has led the club to make this decision, in hopes that it can recover in the last 12 rounds of the Spanish league.”
Sampaoli coached Sevilla from 2016-17 before leaving to join Argentina’s national team ahead of the 2018 World Cup. He impressed during his initial stint with Sevilla to gain his chance with the national team, but Argentina mostly struggled under Sampaoli, who was fired after the team’s round-of-16 elimination against France in Russia.
Sampaoli leaves with Sevilla in 14th place in the Spanish league, two points from the relegation zone. The traditional club from southern Spain has won one of its last five league games, with three losses and a draw. It has seven wins, seven draws and 12 losses in the competition.