Before people vilify agents for making illegal approaches to players before the 1 January of the year in which they turn 16, let’s ask the question: are the regulations which prohibit those approaches fit for purpose, and are they really ‘protecting’ these young players as they should?
The EPPP framework (via the Youth Development Rules) is designed to ensure that the ‘cream rises to the top’ - that the best talent is nurtured at the clubs with the most resources. Part of that framework is a training club’s entitlement to compensation for the training of a player from the age group of Under 9. So, on one hand, you have clubs / academies that are signing large numbers of these players each year and crystallising their entitlement to compensation (in the event the player leaves the club for another club), but they are not able to have representation from an agent until the year in which they turn 16. At that point, they will have likely been offered a scholarship (which can take place from 1 January in the year that the player turns 14) and stepped outside of the Youth Development Rules’ fixed compensation framework and into the PFCC subjective assessment compensation framework (which is much more valuable to a training club – see the PFCC’s recent award when determining the level of compensation which Liverpool FC was to pay Fulham FC for Harvey Elliott). I can say with confidence that, from my experience, not many (if any at all) academies explain the compensation framework to a young player and their families upon signing, nor are the implications of the compensation framework explained annually as the player progresses, particularly before the 1 January of the year of the player’s 14th birthday – when a scholarship can be offered and PFCC compensation kicks in.
Let’s look at what ‘might’ happen in the following scenario…
A young player joins his local club, which has a lower category academy with limited resources and no U23 / development team. The academy’s teams play clubs of similar limited resources. He excels and would likely benefit from the significant resources of a club with category 1 academy status (more coaches and technical staff, better facilities and matches against other category 1 academy teams). He’s received an international call up and his profile is growing amongst scouts of category 1 academies. The EPPP framework is based on the idea that the player will move to a category 1 academy, his current training club will be compensated and everyone is happy. However, the category 1 academy club can’t make an approach (directly or indirectly) to the player or his parents to discuss whether they would be interested in such a move. The current club will more than likely refuse any formal and open request from the category 1 academy club to speak with the player with a view to facilitating a transfer. The current club will want to hold on to that player for as long as possible, make him a scholarship offer and push him up the age groups (possibly putting him in the first team at the earliest opportunity – regardless of whether he is ‘ready’) – all with the motive of enhancing the value of the compensation they will receive when the player inevitably leaves. During this whole time the player and the family can’t take any advice from or be represented by a good agent that knows the regulations and how things work.
Can you see how this framework might currently not be fit for purpose? Can you see why higher category academy clubs might risk breaching regulations and utilise agents to make contact with players at a young age? Can you see why those agents take chances in breaching the various regulations in making contact and why (in many cases) the player and families are likely to welcome the approach and advice?
This is not all about greedy underhanded agents, this is about a system that is potentially not fit for purpose. We perhaps don’t see the same outcry concerning the commercialisation of young talent in other sports or in the entertainment and media industries. Why shouldn’t players and families be allowed to take advice from an agent when they want – even more so if those agents are properly qualified and regulated? Why shouldn’t other clubs be allowed to approach players openly and there be an open transfer market designed to facilitate the development of the best talent in a more open way?
It is easy (and lazy in my opinion) to focus on the so called ‘murky’ world of football agents. In my view, there are some more complicated questions to be asked of the system and the current regulatory frameworks which govern academies and young players.
