FA chairman Greg Clarke calls for regulation of agents following Emiliano Sala tragedy 

Football Association chairman Greg Clarke has renewed calls for the regulation of agents in the wake of the Emiliano Sala tragedy.

The 61–year-old, this week elected as a Fifa vice president, wants ‘transparent’ and ‘sensible’ guidelines around intermediaries.

Fifa chose to deregulate the industry in 2015 but in recent times the growing influence of agents and staggering rise in the sums paid to them have led to calls for action.

FA chairman Greg Clarke has renewed calls for the regulation of agents

The case of Sala, who perished when a plane carrying him from Nantes to new club Cardiff plummeted into the Channel, added further weight to those demands when involvement from a number of agents in a seemingly complex transfer emerged in the days after he went missing. 

Following Uefa’s Congress in Rome, Clarke, who will be paid $250,000 per year for the four-year role, declined to say whether the death of the Argentinian striker, and the details surrounding his move, would lead to change.

‘I don’t want to comment on a case which is being investigated by police and the air accidents investigation branch,’ he said. ‘I don’t think that would be improper.’

Clarke did, however, call for action.

‘I’m a big fan of making sure that the agents are regulated properly, and that the market is transparent and clean and conforms to best practice,’ he said.

Clarke made the claims in the wake of the  Emiliano Sala tragedy

‘I am sure most agents would want that too. Fifa have got a working party and we are supporting that. Uefa are supporting the changes. The English FA are supporting the changes. 

‘We need to get in to it and come up with a set of regulations, make sure everything is transparent, everything conforms to best practice, and then put the rules in place to make sure it happens.’

Clarke disclosed that the topic was an ongoing discussion among football’s governing bodies.

‘There’s been a big debate at Fifa and Uefa about whether (deregulation) was the right thing to do,’ he said. 

‘Within the English FA we’ve made sure our views have been heard because we are just one of 211 countries. We think there should be sensible rules in place, drafted in conjunction with the players, FIFPro, the Professional Footballers Association and others that protect everybody. A transparent set of rules, a compliant set of rules, that is then adopted globally.’