FIFA To Toughen Agent Guidelines

Shortly after declaring that FIFA needed to deal with four evils being doping, cheating, corruption and racism, Sepp Blatter was re-elected as president for a further four years.

Also, at FIFA's annual congress it was announced that player's agents would have to adhere to tougher guidelines. FIFA's Jeu Sprengers told delegates that FIFA wanted to define the role of agents more clearly, restrict the activities of unlicensed agents and limit all agents fees for any deals to three per cent.

FIFA currently issues licenses to agents which last indefinitely, but Sprengers said that in future licenses would only be issued for a limited period, with agents having to re-apply after a number of years which have not yet been finalised. "We will also do more to protect under-age players and the role that agents play in their transfers," Sprengers said.

Sepp Blatter added "It is not good when agents take so much money out of football, or are able to take money from both clubs when negotiating a deal. A players's agent should be paid by the player -- but taking over 10 per cent from a deal is immoral in my opinion."