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Leading football agents lost a crucial legal dispute over FIFA’s incoming rules that would impose a cap on their service fees.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport — the world’s top sports court — ruled in FIFA’s favor Monday, dismissing the Swiss Professional Football Agents Association’s (PROFAA) claims that the regulations violate competition and European Union laws in their “entirety.”
FIFA introduced new regulations for agents earlier this year — due to take effect in October — that include limiting agents’ earnings on players’ salaries and transfers. The rules also prevent agents from representing both buying and selling clubs during a transfer.
The Swiss agents’ group requested that the new rules get a legal check last October, asking the court to decide whether FIFA can regulate agents’ activities because they are “peripheral” to the actual sport.
But judges said FIFA “has both technical and democratic legitimacy” to regulate football agents’ services.
FIFA welcomed the ruling, saying it “fully confirms the legality, validity and proportionality” of its new rules.
The ruling also comes after The Football Forum (TFF) — another network of football powerbrokers — complained to the European Commission in April that the rules would unfairly harm their earning potential.
This article has been updated.
