“There is crazy money in football” – Kommersant FM

Football clubs around the world have spent a record amount on agent commissions. During the year, the amount of remuneration amounted to more than €800 million, according to the official FIFA website. Judging by the organization’s report, even the spending of women’s football clubs on agents exceeded €1 million for the first time in history. How were intermediaries able to increase their income? Kommersant FM sports commentator Vladimir Osipov looked into it.

All attempts to reduce payments to agents have not yet yielded results. FIFA leaders even introduced new rules with which they tried to limit agent payments to 3-5%, but this did not help. In the past year, a new world record was set: the amount did not reach €1 billion, but exceeded €800 million, which is 42% more than last year. So the FIFA restrictions did not have the desired effect, says football agent Vadim Trushkov, who lives and works in France: “Unfortunately, there are so many loopholes that the more restrictions there are, the more actively people will look for ways to circumvent them.”

In addition, player prices are rising, and the number of international transfers through agents has also hit a record level. New clubs found 3,353 players in this way. This number will grow year by year, because clubs are comfortable with this format of work, says football agent Dmitry Selyuk, who lives and works in Spain: “I take young football players whom no one knows, then I develop and promote them. It turns out that the footballer played, the club earned money, and, in principle, I brought him and can also sell him.”

As for the largest amounts of agent payments, England is, of course, the leader. Here the clubs make crazy money from the sale of television rights, so they don’t skimp on agents. Over the past year, British teams paid agents €256 million. In second place are Saudi Arabian clubs, which spent a little more than €80 million. In Russia, data on agent payments has not yet been published, but in 2022 they amounted to about €30 million.

This year, the most resonant amount so far remains the amount of €3 million, which the agent of Dynamo striker Konstantin Tyukavin received for a new contract, according to unofficial information, of course. Despite the super-income, agents eat their bread for a reason, says football manager Yuri Belous: “We must keep in mind that it is not so easy for a boy who is 17-20 years old to get into the club, these guys need some kind of help. Of course, clingy people appear who begin to extort money from the club when the player has already developed.

But truly helping athletes mature is a very difficult job.”

Becoming a football agent in the modern world is not easy. For example, this year almost 20 thousand people applied for FIFA licenses. Less than half made it to the official exam, and a little more than 3 thousand people received the coveted status. Therefore, it is not surprising that agents are actively opposing the new rules of the International Football Federation, especially in England, although so far without success.

Although the English Football Association has decided that FIFA’s new rules violate British competition law, legal action appears imminent. No matter how they end, the agents will continue to work. After all, there is crazy money in football, and there are unlikely to be fewer people who want to become part of this cycle.

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