BUSINESS OF SPORT
The
Makers Modern sports agents can often command huge fees, attracting criticism from managers, fans and pundits alike. CONOR FORREST sought out the opinion of sports lawyer and football intermediary Patrick Conliffe to get a glimpse behind the scenes.
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ast August, Paul Pogba made his long-awaited return to Manchester United for an eyewatering fee of 105 million, surpassing the cost to tempt Gareth Bale from Tottenham to Real Madrid three years earlier. As part of the deal, Pogba’s agent Mino Raiola netted himself a reported 27m, leading to accusations of greed from some quarters, and a call for greater agent regulation from others. “Obviously in the news recently there’s a lot of talk about Paul Pogba’s agent and the amount of money he’s accumulated through his contracts. There is that side of it, which can be quite obscene and hard to fathom, and that’s down to a lack of regulation in the industry – that’s something football needs to sort out itself,” says sports lawyer and football intermediary Patrick Conliffe. Founder of Irish sports management
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agency Fuze Sport, which has since joined forces with specialist sports law firm Full Contact, Conliffe is a qualified solicitor by trade, adding a Diploma in Sports Law from Leicester’s Monford University to his CV before making his first solo foray into the world of sports representation in 2014. “I saw that there was a need for reputable representation within Ireland,” he explains. “With the way the intricacies of the football business are now, you definitely need some sort of legal background or legal expertise in your corner as an athlete.” REGULATION One of the key issues facing the industry, Conliffe believes, is regulation, or a lack thereof, since
FIFA’s global licensing system for football agents came to an end in 2015. Prior to that, potential agents had to complete an entrance exam and have professional indemnity insurance in place, but these days it’s the responsibility of each of the national associations to enforce agent regulations. While countries like Denmark, Portugal, Spain and France have brought in measures that Conliffe describes as going above and beyond what FIFA once enforced, the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) and England’s Football Association (FA) have a lot of work to do to catch up. “There are no regulations in Ireland at the moment, and in England they’ve just gone by the FIFA guidelines,” he explains. “You basically don’t have to sit an exam, you don’t need to have professional indemnity insurance, you just sign a form to say you’re of good and reputable character and you pay them £500 and you’re a football agent.” InBUSINESS | Q2 2017
27/07/2017 10:09