FIFA’s Controversial New Agent Exam Fails Nearly Half of Applicants

FIFA’s con­tro­ver­sial new licens­ing exam for foot­ball agents saw near­ly half of test-tak­ers fail in its first admin­is­tra­tion, cast­ing doubts on the rig­or and fair­ness of the revamped qual­i­fi­ca­tion process.

Accord­ing to FIFA, only 52% of the 3,800 can­di­dates who sat for the exam last week passed. The exam was admin­is­tered in over 100 coun­tries, with hun­dreds of would-be agents tak­ing the test at the ExCel Cen­tre in Lon­don. Results will be released to can­di­dates on Thurs­day, Sep­tem­ber 12.

FIFA intro­duced the new world­wide agent licens­ing regime as part of an effort to increase reg­u­la­tion and crack down on unli­censed agents. But the high fail­ure rate has led to com­plaints from many can­di­dates about the dif­fi­cul­ty and opac­i­ty of the exam.

The exam con­sists of 20 mul­ti­ple-choice ques­tions to be com­plet­ed with­in an hour. Can­di­dates are allowed to bring cer­tain ref­er­ence mate­ri­als, lead­ing some to believe the test could be eas­i­ly passed by search­ing for answers. How­ev­er, FIFA claims the ques­tions require apply­ing knowl­edge from the 528-page study guide.

Those who failed may re-take the exam on Sep­tem­ber 20. The new license will become manda­to­ry for all agents on Octo­ber 1, though cur­rent agents who qual­i­fy under FIFA’s “lega­cy” rules are exempt.

The new licens­ing sys­tem has drawn both praise and crit­i­cism. Long­time agents have applaud­ed FIFA for attempt­ing to weed out “unscrupu­lous” agents, but have voiced con­cerns about lim­its on com­mis­sions and dual rep­re­sen­ta­tion. The high fail­ure rate on this first admin­is­tra­tion, how­ev­er, rais­es ques­tions about whether the new regime will achieve its stat­ed goals.