ONLY FOUR LEGAL AGENTS

Proliferation of unlicensed representatives worrying

THE FA of Malaysia (FAM) have revealed that there are only four registered football agents in the country. Local and foreign agents must register with respective national football associations as stipulated in Fifa’s rules and regulations in order to represent players.

Previously, agents were only required to register with Fifa before the world governing body changed the ruling in 2015.

FAM now want to clamp down on unlicensed agents in Malaysia as they do not want players to get a raw deal over contractual and other issues.

FAM secretary general Datuk Hamidin Amin said: “All teams in the M-League were informed about the new ruling after it was endorsed last year by our executive committee.

“We have a lot of unlicensed agents in Malaysia and this is quite disappointing,” said Hamidin yesterday.

“FAM informed all teams last year when the intermediary (agents) system was launched on March 7.

“There have been issues over unpaid salaries before this new system was approved for implementation.

On Monday, NSTP Sport that most agents, who are representing local and foreign players in Malaysia, are not registered with FAM.

Currently, three of the four registered agents are locals, while the other is a foreigner.

Hamidin said he does not understand why some teams and players prefer to take the risk by doing business with unlicensed agents.

“In some cases, the agent’s identity is not listed in the players’ contracts which are submitted to FAM.

“This will be a problem when players bring their cases to FAM as the national body will not able to take action.

“Now, we can only impose a fine on unlicensed agents but we are looking at other methods stop this practice.

“If we look at other leagues such as the English Premier League, there are hundreds of registered agents, whereas we only have four in Malaysia,” Hamidin added.