On Monday 6 November 2023 , an order from the Madrid Commercial Court number 3 was announced, adopting precautionary measures regarding the application in Spain of certain articles of the FIFA Regulations on agents. The issue has been raised in several countries, of which these measures are only known in Spain and Germany.
The Spanish judge has ordered FIFA to provisionally refrain from applying the fee limitation to agents, introduced in its recent Regulations, and to the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), to refrain from transposing this limitation to its internal regulations. .
FIFA, in its capacity as the highest governing body of world football, promoted at the end of 2022 a regulation to regulate the work of football agents at an international level. Among other issues, the regulation introduces a quantitative limitation on the fees of football agents, by setting a maximum percentage limit of fees that each agent can receive, depending on who they represent in a given transaction (articles 15.1 and 15.2 of the FFAR).
The Spanish judge says that, without prejudice to a detailed examination at the appropriate procedural time, apparently, the conduct consisting of the implementation of the limitation of fees in the mandatory regulations in the different football competitions in respect of which FIFA is the authority Lastly, as the governing body of international football, as well as its mandatory application by the federations or associations that depend on it, would correspond to the indicated conduct of decisions of business associations, given the hierarchical relationship between the different national federations, specifically the Spanish one, and FIFA.
The judge adds that the most relevant element in relation to arts. 101 TFEU and 1 LDC depends on whether the implementation of the aforementioned limit on fees for football players’ agents has the effect or object of preventing, restricting or distorting competitive play.
According to the judge, the adoption by the FFAR of the fee limit for football agents creates a purchasing cartel, which sets a maximum acquisition price, as well as causing a drastic reduction in the agents’ remuneration, both effects constituting the restriction prohibited by arts. 101 TFEU and 1 LDC.
FIFA contributed to the case a resolution of the Commercial Court of the Netherlands Brussels (Nederlandstalige ondernemingsrechtban Brussel) of 25.9.2023, in which the same precautionary measures are denied (doc. 8.2) and the arbitration award issued by the CAS that rejects the claim of the Professional Football Agents Association (PROFAA) to declare that art. 15 FFAR violates Swiss competition law by introducing a mandatory cap on service fees.