The FA’s news rules on the regulation of player agents: A critique

On 21 November 2006, the Football Association (FA) approved and implemented the new domestic Football agents regulations (the regulations), which came into effect in September 2007. Whilst it is too early to ascertain the impact of the regulations on conduct of player agents, they have sparked controversy with existing player agents, with numerous threats of legal action against the FA challenging legality of the regulations . The drive behind the regulations was the FA's determination to establish a clear set of guidelines in response to a string of high profile misconduct claims involving football agents . However, the furore surrounding the regulations led chairman of the Association of Football agents (AFA) Mel Stein to argue that the "regulations go far beyond having a relationship between licensed agents and the FA ", resulting in what he terms as a "witch hunt" .On the other hand, the FA argued that these changes were good for restoring confidence in the game and that "what we are doing is bringing in a set of regulations which will improve transparency, address potential conflicts of interest and better and move effectively regulate these areas of the game" .