After venturing into the PR side of the football industry around 2007-ish, and travelling to Ghana to work on a couple of projects with Ghanaian internationals, Stephen Appiah and Michael Essien, a lot of things I saw and experienced on my many trips to Ghana motivated me to become a Football Agent in 2010.
I remember all the studying I had to do in the weeks leading up to the exam 📚. I remember my excitement flying to Wembley ✈️ to take the exam. I was working as a graduate engineer for Doosan Babcock (now Altrad Babcock) in Scotland at the time. It was the day of the ash cloud for those in the UK who remember it. I remember receiving the message from British Airways that my flight back to Glasgow had been cancelled.. and I had to spend another night in London…. anyway, I digress (it just brought back some memories) 😁. The study material really helped me prepare for my journey, not only as a Football Agent but as an advocate for African grassroots clubs and players. I learnt a lot of dos and donts, and my eyes were opened to concepts such as the training and solidarity compensation (which I will touch upon properly at some point in another post).
The exam I took comprised of some multiple-choice questions (I can’t remember how many to be honest) but the pass rate was very low – around 30%. I remember the rule at the time was that if you failed it, you couldn’t take the exam for six months. If you failed it again you couldn’t take it for one year and if you failed again, you couldn’t sit it for two years. I am not sure what the current situation is. I was fortunate to pass first time and I started to use my new found knowledge to assist players and clubs. It was a very slippery slope, and maybe I’ll tell some of my stories in another post or maybe in a book, as advised by Samuel Leigh 😊.
Anyway, the main purpose of this post is for those who are new to the industry and may not have known that there was an exam process in place before the intermediary process. I was so happy to hear that FIFA was finally re-introducing the exam 💃🏽💃🏽💃🏽. I remember my mentor, the late Mel Stein being livid when FIFA announced scrapping the exams, and replacing it with Intermediaries and I’m sure he will be happy wherever he is now hashtag#RIPMelStein
The main concern licensed agents at the time had (and that was certainly my concern) was allowing individuals who weren’t equipped with the right (legal) knowledge to become agents, and advise players through their careers.
How important do you think the reintroduction of the exam is? 🤔
PS – Some people have DM’d me to enquire about the current FIFA Agent’s exam process, but I’m really not au fait with it as I qualified under the legacy route and didn’t have to take the exam this time 😅. Your best bets may be Tony Sharkey, Dr. Erkut Sogut LL.M. and John Viola who continue to educate in this area 💙⚽️
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