Agents want FIFA to stay out of transfer violations

FIFA want to drop their position as the world’s highest authority on cross-border transfer disputes, according to the UK’s leading agents who have revealed the new proposals to ESPN Soccernet.

ESPN Soccernet has learned of one of the most radical moves in world football which would see a major change in the way international transfer violations are dealt with.

FIFA have privately confessed that they cannot cope with the deluge of complaints and disciplinary cases and want to hand it over to the individual football associations, and they have the backing of some of the game’s most powerful agents.

Europe’s top agents are actively lobbying in favour of removing the responsibility of investigating complaints and rule breaches from FIFA and hand them back to domestic associations.

Three well-known football agents, in a position of authority and privvy to the talks, spoke to ESPN Soccernet about this revolution behind the scenes; Mel Stein, Jerome Anderson and Jon Smith.

Mel Stein, one-time agent of Paul Gascoigne, who, as a lawyer, represents First Artist Corporation and is a leading light in the Association of Agents, told me: “It seems FIFA may be dropping out of regulation and leaving it to the FAs.

“We at the AFA would be happy with that, though ideally we would like to be able to self regulate with an appeal process to the FA. I do think that the less FIFA are involved with anything to do with UK agents, an industry they have never really understood, the better.

“The UK industry is in my view the best ordered of all agents’ industries worldwide and we really don’t need external European interference.”

Jerome Anderson, who specialises in handling Arsenal players, from Thierry Henry to Ian Wright, is currently vice-chairman of the European Association of Football Agents and on the board of the domestic AFA. The London-based super agent is wholly in favour of the plans to change the landscape of transfer discipline.

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UEFA Names Club Charged with Match Fixing

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UEFA have charged FYR Macedonian club FK Pobeda for “manipulating the outcome of a UEFA match to gain undue advantage for themselves and a third party”.

The charge relates to a 2004 Champions League first qualifying round match against FC Pyunik in Skopje, which the Armenian side won 3-1.

The charge also implicates the president of FK Pobeda, as well as a player, with UEFA’s Control & Disciplinary Body set to deal with the case on April 17.

UEFA revealed in a statement they had brought the charge, almost five years after the game was played, based on reports of irregular betting patterns and declarations from witnesses.

Pyunik scored three first-half goals without reply in the match.

Their 17-year-old striker Edgar Manucharyan scored a double either side of Zhora Hovhannisyan’s strike before Pyunik had Karen Aleksanyan sent off just before the break.

Pobeda pulled a goal back through Blagoja Gesoski 10 minutes from time, but they did not progress after drawing the away leg 1-1 in Yerevan.

A statement on UEFA’s website read: “UEFA has announced today that the Macedonian club FK Pobeda, its president and one player have been charged for being in breach of the principles of integrity and sportsmanship by manipulating the outcome of a UEFA match to gain an undue advantage for themselves and a third party.

“The match under investigation was the UEFA Champions League first qualifying round first leg between FK Pobeda and FC Pyunik on 13 July 2004.

“The charge is based on reports received from the betting industry on irregular betting patterns and the declarations of several witnesses.

“The control & disciplinary body will deal with the case on 17 April.”

UEFA to charge club with match fixing

UEFA will bring match fixing charges against a European club within days, European soccer’s governing body said on Wednesday.

“There are number of cases we have been looking at,” UEFA general secretary David Taylor told a news conference after the UEFA Congress. “It’s very complex and very difficult to find proof. But within the next couple of days we will be issuing charges against one club.”

Taylor did not disclose what country the club was from. In September UEFA said it was reviewing 10 matches from the current UEFA Cup season and 15 from last season for irregular betting patterns, all in the competition’s preliminary rounds.

UEFA will launch a gambling investigating unit next season featuring experts who will review suspected irregularities in matches from European competitions.

“UEFA is setting up this betting fraud detection system across Europe to include 27,000 matches in the first and second division in each national association,” Taylor said. “Only a few matches cause us problems but we are determined to root out this problem.”

UEFA president Michel Platini called match fixing “a serious risk to football.”

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