Rosell: UEFA must act on agents' fees
Reuters - Wednesday 28 December 2011, 17:26
Barcelona President Sandro
Rosell has called on UEFA to change the rules on clubs having to
pay agents' fees, saying the current system where players do not
foot the bill for their own representation does not make sense.
"I have always asked myself why, when an agent is
representing a player and he comes to negotiate his contract
with the club, why is the club paying the agency fees?" Rosell
said at a football conference in Dubai on Wednesday.
"When he is defending the other party and what he wants is
to get the maximum number for the other party and, at the end,
you have to pay the commission to the agent, it doesn't make
sense. This is something I would ask UEFA to change as a rule."
Transfers are big business and agents' cuts can run into
millions of dollars.
The system has come in for much criticism, with FIFA, the
world football governing body, announcing plans in September
aimed at opening up the dealings to more transparency and
capping the amount which agents can earn from transfers.
While maintaining that agents were the responsibility of
FIFA, Gianni Infantino, the general secretary of European football's governing body UEFA, had some sympathy for Rosell's
position.
"I also agree on who has to pay the agent - the player who
uses the agent," Infantino said.
"That seems quite obvious as well. If you go to the
hairdressers, you don't send your employer to pay the bill," he
added.