The Agents Angle - The World's Premier Football (Soccer) Agent Show · The Agents Angle

Transfer Fee Disputes, Player Valuations & Complex Clauses - Italy’s Agent Regulation Shift - Can We Ever Accurately and Fairly Put a Price on a Footballers Transfer Value?

·59 min·3 clips
Roma and Newell's Old Boys disputed whether two transfers were structured to hide the true value of a sell-on clause.
1. The Agents Angle episode focuses on transfer fee disputes, player valuations, complex clauses, and Italy’s new FIGC agent-regulation shift. 2. Peter Paliologos and Jonathan Booker host the show, and Ian Lang of Lombardi Associates joins as the guest because he advises clubs, players, agents, and governing bodies on transfers and governance. 3. The episode asks whether football can ever accurately and fairly put a price on a player’s transfer value. 4. Peter says the FIGC approved new sports-agent regulations on 23 April and aligned them with the non-suspended parts of FIFA's FFAR. 5. He explains the new concept of a domicile sports agent, which lets a FIFA-registered agent work in Italy through a registered FIGC agent. 6. Peter also says the arrangement requires a collaboration agreement, shared commission distribution, and joint fiscal responsibility. 7. The hosts note that CONI has not changed its own rules, which may leave Italian agent regulation in a transitional state. 8. Peter adds that Italian regulations now prohibit clauses limiting the contractual autonomy of male and female footballers. 9. He says there is no compensation for professional contracts of minors or apprenticeship contracts in Italy. 10. Ian then shifts the conversation to transfer valuation and says clubs are using more data modelling and benchmarking tools. 11. He cites the FIFA global transfer report for 2023 and says there were more transfers involving compensation, but lower headline figures overall. 12. Ian uses an example of a central midfielder with two years left on a contract to show how clubs compare goal involvements and defensive participations across markets. 13. The Roma v Newell's Old Boys dispute becomes the main case study for sell-on clauses and contested transfer values. 14. Ian says Newell's alleged that Roma and Spartak Moscow manipulated two deals, including a young Italian goalkeeper transfer, to conceal the real value of an Argentine player. 15. He explains that Roma relied on Omar Ongaro's contractual methodology while Newell's used CIES, and the arbitrator set a third figure. 16. Ian says future agreements should specify a valuation method, such as FIFA's contractual methodology or CIES, to reduce disputes before CAS. 17. The interview tone is practical and technical, with Peter and Jonathan pressing for real-world examples rather than legal jargon. 18. Ian speaks in a measured, advisory style and repeatedly frames issues as negotiation problems rather than abstract legal theory. 19. Listeners interested in football transfers, agent regulation, and contract clauses will get the most from this episode. 20. Listeners who want match analysis or simple football news may skip it.
Listen to the show on