No more FIFA agents in Slovakia from now on

We informed you yesterday about exams that were successfully taken by three applicants at the Slovak Football Association in order to get a license to be a manager for the SFA. Official decrees to represent players at signing up treaties and transfers abroad were obtained on Wednesday by Jozef Tokoš, Peter Židovský and Milan Lednický, joining the only current agent with a FIFA licence Juraj Vengloš. The General Secretary of the SFA, Mikuláš Tarči explained the background of the FIFA decision to deliver competence to grant this qualification to all national federations and associations.

„In December 2000 the company decided to deliver this important competence on a national level, but without giving an official reason for its decision. In my opinion it was because of several complaints about the work of agents that it had appointed itself. So by last year’s decision FIFA will hope to avoid similar problems and complaints in the future. So, now in Slovakia, we have those that we have appointed.“

Juraj Vengloš had to pay 250.000,- Swiss francs to FIFA a certain time ago, was this sum saved by his three new colleagues?

„Yes they did, but they did not get the new qualification for free. It can only be valid after taking an exam, which costs at least 5 thousand Slovak crowns, and depositing another 100 000 Swiss franks by cheque, and signing the ‘codex of licence agent’ document.“

There is no other form of guarantee?

„There is one, but one of our Slovak insurance companies would have to vouch for the agent or his activity. To my knowledge so far, no insurance companies want to do something like that, because they have no experience with vouching for a football agent. The situation abroad is similar, so we recommend them to deposit 100 000 Swiss francs to a bank account.“

According to the present exchange rate, this is 2,970,000,- Slovak crowns! Who will keep this huge amount at its disposal?

„Only FIFA. The Slovak Football Association keeps another 5000,- Swiss francs to prepare and run the exams. The amount of money that every one of our new licensed agents had to pay is really high, but the license is valid all over the world and for the rest of their life. It is a serious business, just like money, so I hope our three new agents can handle this.“

Is knowledge, money and ability all you need to join?

„These are the first pre-requisites, but apart from these everyone who wants to do this job must be without reproach. That has to be stated by the certificate of good behaviour. And he has to prove that he/she is not registered as a official in FIFA, UEFA, a national federation, or also in any club.“

What areas were the test questions from?

„Fifteen were from the rules and regulations of FIFA, and the other five were covering the same areas in the SFA, that we prepared. “

Who was a member of a committee of SFA?

„Sport’s direktor Vladimír Wänke, a member of conciliate committee of SFA and a lawyer Vincent Rechtorík and me. It was our task to evaluate the answers, but not all of the answers had the same value. For an answer to a simple question, for example, What is the purpose of the FIFA organization you could get 1 point. For more complex questions 3, but there are also questions for 5 points. You could get a maximum of 43 points for 20 questions and in order to pass an exam you had to achieve 66 per cent of the points.“

What happens to an agent that lies or breaks the law?

„You have to pay for mistakes and that is why 100 000 Swiss francs have to be deposited for fines. Besides financial penalties there are also other sanctions – from warnings, to revoking the license. This could happen when serious violations occur and the license is revoked.“

Well, there is no need to specially introduce two out of the three Slovak licensed managers. Peter Židovský has already worked as a general manager of SFA, lately he worked at Slovan as an assistant of general director. Milan Lednický is a famous first league ex-player, besides others he played for FC Nitra, Inter, German club Mainz and Cyprus club Anagenisi Derinea.

Jozef Tokoš is a young, 26 year old sports lawyer, and a director of sports marketing agency PLAY. Today, in the area of marketing he represents several Slovak football players, among others Szilárd Németh, Tomáš Oravec, Pavol Sedlák, Juraj Czinege, Ivan Hodúr.

This is the end for FIFA agents, let Slovaks work for Slovak football!