"We want to reiterate that 30% of all football transfers are done by agents who do not have a licence. This opens the gateway to human trafficking, money laundering, fraud and corruption," said Belgian MEP Ivo Belet (European People's Party) when MEPs were debating the issue on Tuesday (15 June).
But the resolution on players' agents in sports, adopted today, also highlights a recent European Commission study which found that while "the regulations of agents established by sports federations are basically aimed at controlling access to the profession and regulating its exercise," such bodies only have "limited supervisory and sanctioning powers".
MEPs stress that sports federations lack the means to control or pursue direct action vis-à-vis sports agents, who are not registered with them, nor are they entitled to impose civil or criminal penalties.
"As football leagues have limited powers to tackle this problem and can only regulate those agents who are registered with them, a European initiative is needed," said MEP Belet.
The resolution calls for the introduction of an EU initiative to control the activities of players' agents. The Parliament also called for players' agents not to be allowed to receive mediators' fees for football transfers involving minors.
Efficient controls and enforcement of sanctions should ensure that all players' agents stick to the rules, it stressed.
Commission communication due end 2010
EU Sports Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou said she was fully aware of the "political importance" of this issue, recalling the findings of a recent Commission study on the topic.
"There is no doubt that some EU action is desirable," she said, referring to sports federations lack of power to intervene in cases of serious malpractice. She also noted that the internationalisation of professional sport makes it difficult to adopt a national approach to problems of a systemic nature.
Vassiliou suggested that "the EU can play a coordinating role and help to ensure a harmonised approach to the issue of agents," for example by using the EU's new competences on the harmonisation of criminal law.
A Commission communication on future EU sports policy is due in November. Vassiliou said the paper would "certainly look at this issue in more detail".
