The Slovak Football Association has got rich at the expense of the agents

Zdroj: Pravda, Michal Zeman

FIFA confirmed that fifteen thousand Swiss franks withdrawn by the SFA were taken without authorization

The Slovak football association received almost a half a million Slovak crowns from three agent candidates after requesting it with no reason.

Each of the following three, Milan Lednicky, Jozef Tokos and Peter Zidovsky had to pay an admission fee of 5000 Swiss franks (428 000 Slovak crowns) for the agents´ tests, which all three have passed.

According to the latest agent rules, the so-called national associations are responsible for an agent´s activities such as player transfers. These associations organise the agents´tests and give out the licenses. The Slovak Football Association wanted to improve their economic situation by demanding money from agents.

The same has been confirmed by Gianpaolo Monteneri, head of players' status and legal services at FIFA. He added that national associations can only request an amount of money which is necessary for them to cover all the expenses having directly to do with the agents‘ exams, organisation of the exams. These associations should in no case try to make a profit.

Included in their expenses could so be the communication with FIFA officials as well as with the three test participants (fax, letters, postal fees), engaging the three-member commission (eventually their transportation costs) or buffet costs (coffee, mineral water). All of these obviously cannot be compared with the amount the association has collected.

Discrimination played a big part in this matter as well as there was no mention of any fees at the beginning. All of the candidates have been indirectly informed about this through a letter, where it stated that they only would be admitted to enter for the exams after paying 5000 Swiss franks. Many of them were discouraged by this fact, only four of them were actually present on the day of the exams. One participant even had to leave as he hasn´t transferred the money to the SFA account yet.

Equally, the agent either has to transfer almost three million Slovak crowns (100 000 Swiss franks) to a bank account as a bank collateral or pay a professional insurance (this service is not offered in Slovakia). This of course doesn´t have to do with the exam.

"In my opinion the association should not cause any obstacles. The candidates who met all the criteria should be getting their license with no regards on their social status,“ revealed Jozef Tokos, one of the candidates.

He asked the SFA director to provide him the exact figure - the money SFA had to spend on Jozef Tokos directly related to the agent exams and wants the rest to be paid back to him. According to our information Lednicky and Zidovsky will do the same soon. Tokos added that he will even be demanding a FIFA reform which would undoubtedly cause another chaos on international scene. A lack of sponsors and a bad financial situation is what troubles the Slovak Football Association at the moment. Though these should not be solved by demanding money against the rules of FIFA.