German clubs paid 75 million euros to players’ agents

German professional football paid around 75 million euros in agent fees for its player transfers in the year ending.

This puts the German clubs in second place worldwide behind the English clubs (118 million). Places three to five go to Italy (65 million), Spain (31 million) and France (27 million). That emerges from the figures published on Wednesday by the world association FIFA.

A total of 444 million euros in agent fees for the 17,945 transfers of professional players were paid worldwide. According to FIFA, at least one intermediary was involved in 3545 of these transfers (19.8 percent). Almost 96 percent of global commissions were paid by European clubs.

Although global transfer expenses fell for the second time in a row as a result of the corona crisis, broker fees remained constant and even increased slightly by 0.7 percent compared to 2020. The total amount of commissions from the past ten years amounts to 3.1 billion euros, according to FIFA.

FIFA is already working on new regulations

FIFA is currently working on introducing new rules for players’ agents. These are intended to ensure “more transparency and professionalism in the system,” said FIFA Chief Justice Emilio Garcia Silvero on Wednesday. On the one hand, the new rules are about licensing issues, but also about upper limits for commissions.

With the latter there are still “some difficulties” in the consultations with all parties involved. Luis Villas-Boas Pires, Head of FIFA’s Players’ Agents Department, spoke of “some examples where agents have earned more than their player’s annual salary. We want to prevent that.”

The new rules should be in line with EU law. In view of possible complaints from dissatisfied players’ agents, FIFA was “not concerned,” said Garcia Silvero: “It’s a big goal, we believe we’re doing the right thing here.” The new regulations are to be adopted by the FIFA Council in the first quarter of 2022.

The agency fees in a country comparison: