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Changes in the regulations concerning transaction intermediaries.

In 2015, the Polish Football Association changed the regulations regarding football agents, replacing the licensing system with a registration procedure, which you can read about in detail here, here, and here. After two years, the association decided to make certain corrections and changes in resolution No. III/42 of March 27, 2015, of the Board of the Polish Football Association regarding cooperation with transaction intermediaries. You can read about the changes introduced by the resolution of August 30, 2017, in this brief post.

 

There aren't many changes, but some of them have a significant impact on the rights and obligations of individuals professionally involved in advising in the football market.

The content of Article 4(7) was modified. Under the amended provisions:

"After concluding the Intermediary Agreement, the Intermediary is obliged within 3 days, but no later than the day of conclusion of the contract or transfer agreement, to enter it into the Registration System and send the original by registered mail to the Polish Football Association, under the penalty of ineffectiveness towards the Polish Football Association."

 

This means that the agreement with the player or the club must be entered into the registration system and the original must be sent by mail within 3 days from the date of conclusion, but no later than the day of conclusion of the contract or transfer agreement. Previously, sending the original was the obligation of the intermediary, although failure to do so was not tied to the penalty of ineffectiveness towards the association 1)effectiveness was dependent on registration in the registration system.

 

The next change is the deletion of paragraph 5 point 6 of the intermediary resolution, which read:

 

"An intermediary who is a legal entity or other organizational unit cannot conclude an intermediary agreement with an underage Player."

 

In my opinion, the change is entirely justified. I assume that the initial intention of the deleted provision was to protect the player, meaning that a minor player would be under the individual care of an intermediary known by name and surname. Apparently, the Polish Football Association (PZPN) has come to the correct conclusion that the organizational form of the intermediary is not a threat to the potential interests of the young player. Moreover, there could be extensive football agencies operating as a sole proprietorship, employing many staff members, and the player may not have any contact with the agent specified in the contract. It should also be noted that the ban was circumvented through the dual registration of the intermediary as both a company and a natural person

 

The last change concerns the scope of financial data that the Polish Football Association (PZPN) will publish regarding the activities of intermediaries. According to the previous regulations, the association was required to publish by March 31 of each year:

  1. a list of all transactional intermediaries registered in connection with the activities covered by the resolution,

  2. intermediary agreements and transactions in which intermediaries participated,

  3. the total amount of compensation and fees paid by all players to a particular intermediary,

  4. the total amount of compensation and fees paid by a particular club to a specific intermediary.

 

In practice, PZPN only published data from point 1). Perhaps it was considered that the existing regulations were too restrictive, or internal difficulties were encountered in meeting the requirements set by themselves. Following the change, the association will now publish only the data that it is required to publish according to FIFA guidelines, namely:

 

  1. a list of all transactional intermediaries registered in connection with the activities covered by the resolution,

  2. the total amount of compensation and fees paid by all players to all intermediaries,

  3. the total amount of all compensation and fees paid by a particular club to all intermediaries.

 

The regulations thus introduce a certain anonymization of data compared to the originally adopted solutions. Financial data will be aggregated rather than individual as in the previous provisions. I also suspect that the published salary data will include amounts due based on reported contracts, rather than actually paid, as PZPN has limited means to verify whether the compensation from a specific agreement has been paid.

 

Foto: Sebastian Vital on Foter.com / CC BY

 

  1. The effectiveness depended on the registration in the registration system.