Football Agents in the Biggest Five European Football Markets an Empirical Research Report
FOOTBALL AGENTS IN THE BIGGEST FIVE EUROPEAN FOOTBALL MARKETS AN EMPIRICAL RESEARCH REPORT FEBRUARY 2012 Raffaele Poli, CIES Football Observatory, University of Neuchâtel Giambattista Rossi, João Havelange Scholarship, Birkbeck University (London) With the collaboration of Roger Besson, CIES Football Observatory, University of Neuchâtel Football agent portrayed by the Ivorian woodcarver Bienwélé Coulibaly Executive summary While intermediaries acting in the transfers of footballers have existed since almost the birth of the professional game, the profession of agent was not officially recognised until 1991 when FIFA established the first official licensing system. In November 2011, there were 6,082 licensed agents worldwide: 41% of them were domiciled within countries hosting the big five European leagues: England, Spain, Germany, Italy and France. This research project firstly investigates shares in the representation market of players in the five major European championships. By presenting the results of a survey questionnaire, it analyses the socio-demographic profile of licensed football agents in the above mentioned countries, the business structure of their activity, the different kinds of services provided, and the way in which they are performed from a relational point of view (network approach). The analysis of shares highlights that the big five league players’ representation market is highly concentrated: half of the footballers are managed by 83 football agents or agencies. Our study reveals the existence of closed relational networks that clearly favors the concentration of players under the control of few agents. Footballers are not equally distributed between intermediaries. Conversely, dominant actors exist alongside dominated agents. One fifth of the agents having answered to our questionnaire manage the career of half of the players represented on the whole.
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