OTHER EVENTS

The Leader Column

Authoritative, independent and hard hitting, the weekly column on the business of football tackles some of the biggest issues of the week. Click here to sign up for your weekly fix from the Leaders in Football.

KEIR RADNEDGE: FIFA STEPS UP AS VIRTUAL AGENT OF CHANGE

4:45pm Thursday, 25th February 2010

Internet technology is coming to football's rescue in the never-ending duel of wits between associations and agents. At one stage FIFA thought it had come up with the answer by introducing a licensing system. But most agents could not be bothered to fight their way through the administrative and financial jungle and clubs and players found it simple to bypass an impotent set of rules and regulations. Now, the answer has been revealed.

TMS is shorthand for FIFA Transfer Matching System GmbH, the subsidiary company whose web-based system will, from October 1, be the mandatory gateway though which international transfers must be affected. The happy stroke of fortune which has allowed the world's governing body to impose this methodology is the long-established and accepted need for each transfer of a player between clubs of different countries to be ratified by an international transfer certificate or ITC.

This must be passed between the federations of the two clubs before the player can pull on his new shirt and kick a ball in earnest. Now that ITC depends on the two clubs and associations ticking off the necessary technological paperwork. That further venture into the world of club football a process viewed with suspicion by more than one confederation was sparked by a task force working group on financial issues.

This was created in 2007 at the behest of FIFA Congress with a long agenda including the demand to find an alternative to the ineffective agent licensing system. As Marco Villiger, FIFA's legal affairs director, said: We had to revise our thinking about ways to tackle the agents issue because only 20 to 30 per cent of transfers were being done by licensed agents; the vast majority were being made by agents who are not licensed . . . so we created the Transfer Matching System which is, for me, one of the most thrilling projects FIFA has ever had.

That is a major claim considering FIFA has also been responsible for matters such as creating the World Cup, administering the laws of the game, co-ordinating with the Olympic movement etc.

But agents needs not worry. This does not mean that they will go away. Quite the opposite: it secures and ratifies the role of the agent within the FIFA Family.

Welcome home!

Keir Radnedge is one of the foremost observers of international soccer. He has reported at every World Cup since 1966 and is a regular contributor to TV, radio, newspapers and magazines worldwide. He is London-based Editor of SportsFeatures.com and is chairman of the Football Commission of the International Sports Press Association (AIPS).