FA chairman Greg Clarke calls for greater regulation on use of football agents
Saturday 9 February 2019 23:04, UK
Football Association chairman Greg Clarke has called for agents to be more strictly regulated following widespread concerns about their influence within the game.
Clarke is now one of the game's most powerful administrators following his election as a FIFA vice-president in Rome on Thursday.
That same day, the body of Cardiff striker Emiliano Sala was recovered from the underwater wreckage of a plane which had crashed into the English Channel on January 21.
The tragedy has shone a light on how some agents are able to create interest in a player, decide where they go and earn huge sums for pushing the deal through, which is all entirely legal.
The FA and Premier League have been asking FIFA to limit the power of agents and cap their fees since world football's governing body decided to abandon its licensing system for 'intermediaries' in 2015, a move many in the game believe was a mistake.
But FIFA appears to have recognised the issue, forming a working party last year with UEFA, the main leagues, clubs and players' union to formulate new rules for agents.
Speaking to reporters in the Italian capital this week, Clarke said: "I'm a big fan of making sure the agents are regulated properly, and that the market is transparent and clean and conforms to best practice. I am sure most agents would want that, too.
"FIFA has a working party and we are supporting that. UEFA are supporting the changes. The English FA are supporting the changes.
"We need to get into it and come up with a set of regulations, make sure everything is transparent, everything conforms to best practice, and then put the rules in place to make sure it happens.
"Within the English FA, we've made sure our views have been heard because we are just one of 211 countries.
"We think there should be sensible rules in place, drafted in conjunction with the players and others that protect everybody. A transparent set of rules, a compliant set of rules, that is then adopted globally."
