Gianni Infantino has been speaking once more at the Qatar 2022 World Cup, but this time there are just two games left to go. The last time he went public, the FIFA president caused a stir with his monologue about football's politics, this time he explained some of the new formattings to the world game.
The only remaining matches left are Morocco vs Croatia in the third-placed play-off and France vs Argentina in the final on Sunday. However, before attention can be fully turned to that, his latest conference has outlined a new and even busier landscape for football, with a new Club World Cup format adding even more fixtures to the schedule.
Outside of that, Infantino also revealed that he is currently in his first term as president after completing Sep Blatter's final years since his infamous departure in 2016, and explained new plans for an expanded women's Olympics. Outside of the Club World Cup revelation, the next most significant point for domestic teams to take note of is agent policies.
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Some of the most powerful men in the game are agents, with perhaps the most famous being Cristiano Ronaldo's own agent Jorge Mendes. In charge of getting the best deal for the player, taking part in negotiations and also demanding a sum of their own, agents have been increasingly seen in a negative light.
In the new regulations, which have been in the pipeline for a while, dual representation - of a club and a player involved in a deal - is now banned, and commission caps will be imposed, potentially saving Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham millions of pounds in fees. For example, in the deal to sign Erling Haaland, Manchester City paid more than 50% of the £51m transfer fee with £34m extra going to his representatives, including the late Mino Raiola as an agent and Alfie Haaland, his dad.
Those costs will be a thing of the past though, with the new laws stating there will be "A 10 per cent cap on what agents representing buying clubs and players being signed can receive from a transfer."
Other rules include: "Limitations on what those acting on behalf of selling clubs could also make from deals; A curb on the rewards to family members who are not licensed intermediaries; Establishing a clearing-house through which all transfer payments must pass."
It is also expected that an agent's exam will be passed through, meaning that family members won't earn commission on deals unless they are officially passed by FIFA.
These changes have become more and more needed in recent years since agent deregulation left a widely open market for players' representatives to seek out more money. Legal action could yet stop these changes though, with the most powerful expected to take proceedings to court in order to defend their luxurious position.
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