According to FIFA’s Football Agents in International Transfers Report, the total spending on club player agent service fees reached $881 million in 2023.
This represents an increase of 42.5% compared to the level of spending in 2022 and even surpasses the previous record of $654.7 million from 2019 by more than one-third.
In England and Saudi Arabia, soccer clubs fueled spending on player agents in international transfer deals.
Also, a large proportion of all club agents were employed by clubs in Europe, accounting for the lion’s share of 86.6% of global spending on club agents. Similarly, European clubs employed 86.6% of all engaging club agents and 82.6% of all releasing club agents.
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The largest amount of agent service fees was paid by clubs from England, with a combined total of more than $280 million. Saudi Arabian clubs had the second-biggest spending on engaging club agents, with $86 million. Korea Republic had the greatest share of outgoing transfers with a releasing club agent, with 31.6%.
The number of international transfers with an agent acting on behalf of the player reached a record high in 2023, with a total of 3,353 transfers. This corresponds to 15.4% of all transfers and represents an increase of 8.4% compared to 2022.
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This considerable increase demonstrates the player agents’ expanding clout and impact in the football business as clubs spend more than ever on agent fees when FIFA is trying to clamp down on how much agents can earn from a transfer.
FIFA’s new agency regulations aim to control player agencies, impose a 10% maximum on transfer fees, and restrict commissions to 3% of a player’s pay beyond $200,000 annually or 5% of the player’s salary up to $200,000. When the agency worked on behalf of the player and the team that signed them, those restrictions would be 6% and 10%, respectively.
However, the agents have won several court rulings in cases challenging the implementation of the rules, rendering FIFA’s rules unenforceable in several key markets.
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The latest court ruling was in the UK at the beginning of December in a case brought by Britain’s biggest player agencies, including CAA Stellar and ICM.
The worry is that if all do not follow the regulations, they may unintentionally tip the competitive balance in favour of the countries that FIFA is powerless to control.
FIFA also argues that agents could manipulate the economics of a transfer fee by spreading speculations, delaying a deal and using the extra time to boost their potential income.
