FIFA takes another step toward reintroducing agent licences

FIFA President Gianni Infantino and president of CONCACAF Victor Montagliani participate in a media conference in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic April 28, 2017. REUTERS/Ricardo Rojas

FIFA are set to reintroduce licences for player agents and has adopted, in principle, a limit on player loans.

FIFA’s ‘Football Stakeholders Committee’ approved “the introduction of licences and exams for agents” at a meeting in London, according to a source close to the discussions.

The governing body of world football did away with agent licences in 2015.

While the committee, chaired by the Canadian Victor Montagliani, the Canadian head of CONCACAF, approved a limit on player loans, they could not agree a number.

FIFA had proposed a maximum of six loans per club as part of plans to reduce the stockpiling of players by leading clubs.

The committee also agreed to the creation of a clearing house, managed by a bank, to handle the solidarity payments from transfer fees due to clubs that trained players in their youth systems.

The committee was voting on proposals prepared by a five-member “task force” chaired by Montagliani and made up of representatives of UEFA, the European Club Association (ECA), the professional players union FiFPro, and the World Leagues Forum (WLF).

The recommendations are expected to be ratified at the next FIFA Council meeting in Kigali, Rwanda, on October 25-26.