Rosell: UEFA must act on agents' fees
Barcelona President Sandro Rosell has called on UEFA to change the rules on clubs having to pay agents' fees, saying the current system where players do not foot the bill for their own representation does not make sense.
"I have always asked myself why, when an agent is representing a player and he comes to negotiate his contract with the club, why is the club paying the agency fees?" Rosell said at a football conference in Dubai on Wednesday.
"When he is defending the other party and what he wants is to get the maximum number for the other party and, at the end, you have to pay the commission to the agent, it doesn't make sense. This is something I would ask UEFA to change as a rule."
Transfers are big business and agents' cuts can run into millions of dollars.
The system has come in for much criticism, with FIFA, the world football governing body, announcing plans in September aimed at opening up the dealings to more transparency and capping the amount which agents can earn from transfers.
While maintaining that agents were the responsibility of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, the general secretary of European football's governing body UEFA, had some sympathy for Rosell's position.
"I also agree on who has to pay the agent - the player who uses the agent," Infantino said.
"That seems quite obvious as well. If you go to the hairdressers, you don't send your employer to pay the bill," he added.
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