Advisors and intermediaries have received more than half a billion US dollars for international transfers in professional football this year, according to calculations by the world association Fifa.
The payments amounted to 500.8 million US dollars (444.6 million euros), as Fifa announced on Wednesday.
The total increased by 0.7 percent compared to 2020, although the transfer fees fell by 13.9 percent this year.
The highest fees for consultants and intermediaries for cross-border transfers go to clubs from England (133.3 million US dollars), German clubs are in second place (84.3 million US dollars), ahead of Italy (73.5 million US dollars) -Dollar). A total of almost 18,000 international transfers were registered, almost 20 percent of which involved intermediaries. Fifa had already announced in August that in the past decade a total of 3.5 billion US dollars (3.11 billion euros) had been paid in commissions.
Fifa stressed that agents are a vital part of the system and must be properly compensated.
However, it is important that there is no imbalance, for example, in wages paid to players and fees for consultants, said Emilio Garcia Silvero, head of the legal department of the world association.
According to Fifa, there have been individual transfers in which the income of a consultant exceeded the player's salary over the entire duration of the contract.
The world association is betting that its council will adopt new regulations for players' agents at the beginning of next year and that these will come into force in 2022.
"We hope that the new regulations will ensure more transparency in the system," said Garcia Silvero.