By: Omar Jatta

The Gambia Football Federation GFF has on Wednesday, February 10, 2016 called upon all those interested or has been working as Football Intermediaries  (Football Agents) to come forward and register, as part of the new Intermediary regulations introduced by the World Football Governing Body, FIFA, which came into effect from the 1st of April last year.

The Football Federation has now set their deadline and final registrations must be completed before or on the 29th February 2016.  And all applications must submitted  to the GFF General Secretary at Football House by this date.

In their statement released through the various media outlets, the Federation outlined all the requirements for the registration.

See statement below:

The Gambia Football Federation wishes to inform all stakeholders and the general public interested in working as FIFA Intermediary that they should send their applications for registration to the General Secretary of the GFF at the Football House in Kanifing.

FIFA Regulations on Working with Intermediaries came into effect on 1 April 2015 and that it requires associations, among other things, to implement a registration system for intermediaries, requiring intermediaries to be registered by the Member Association for every individual transaction in which they are involved in (articles 3 and 4 of the intermediary Regulations)

Each Member Association is required to make publicly available on an annual basis (at the end of March of every calendar year) the names of all intermediaries they have registered.

The consolidated total figure of remuneration paid to intermediaries by all players within a member Association and separated each of its affiliated clubs must be published by each Member Association. The Report will be first published by 30th March 2016.

The FIFA Disciplinary Committee tasks FIFA TMS Integrity and Compliance with monitoring the proper implementation of the minimum standard requirement by the Associations in line with the regulations on working with Intermediaries and with providing detailed reports of the results of all the steps undertaken.

All applications must reach the GFF General Secretary on or before the 29 February 2016.

For further details on the requirements, please contact the Deputy General Secretary and Head of Competitions of the GFF at Football House in Kanifing.

What is an intermediary?

An Intermediary is a person who acts as a link between people in order to try and bring about an agreement; a mediator. This definition doesn’t differ much from the description of work football agents do or used to do. So, an intermediary is someone who works on behalf of a player or club, who talks with the other party to negotiate a deal for their client.

In 2009, the 59th FIFA Congress decided to embark on an in-depth reform of the existing players’ agents system in order to address several shortfalls that had been identified with the licensing system established by the FIFA Players’ Agents Regulations.

Who can be an Intermediary?

The licensing system for Football Agents has been abandoned and replaced by a registration system for intermediaries where no qualifications nor experience are required. This means that intermediaries do not have to take an exam and hold a licence like agents before, but they need to register at their national Football Association and pay the registration fee.

Before they can register, they need to prove that they have an ‘impeccable’ reputation and no criminal record. As part of or the registration process, all intermediaries have to sign a Intermediary Declaration where they confirm their agreement to the provisions in the new Regulations and the regulations of football associations they are contractually related to. Intermediaries have to renew their registration every year and pay the renewal fee if they are to continue working as such

Why these new regulations?

The main goal of the new Regulations is to establish a more transparent system that is easier to implement and administer by the football associations across the world. These Regulations are just the base and are to be enforced by the national football associations which can also supplement them with their own requirements as long as these are consistent with the obligatory terms of the FIFA Regulations.