Across the world yesterday, more than 6,500 football agents sat the FIFA exam in an attempt to obtain a 'football agent's licence' which has been reintroduced by FIFA as a mandatory requirement to provide football agent services (as defined by FIFA) from 1 October 2023.
The exam comprised 20 multiple choice questions, to be answered within 60 minutes. Each question had either one correct answer, or multiple correct answers. Candidates were permitted to refer to the FIFA study materials during the exam, which number 528 pages.
Speaking with candidates after the exam, the overwhelming reaction was it was very difficult, appeared to have been designed to achieve a very high fail rate and that none of those candidates are confident they will pass.
Reasons why candidates found the exam so difficult include:
1. The time constraint. The average time available to read the text of each of the 20 questions, understand the question, read the text of the multiple choice answers, identify the differences (sometimes very small differences) between the multiple choice answers, consult the 528 pages of study materials (if required), determine the correct answer (or answers) and then select that answer (or those answers) was only 3 minutes. That leaves very little margin for error.
2. Many questions included ambiguous or otherwise imprecise language and some questions required candidates to effectively define terms or concepts which are not themselves exhaustively defined by FIFA (for example, what constitutes 'just cause' for a party to terminate a Representation Agreement).
3. FIFA made only one practice exam available to candidates to aid their preparation, and which, according to FIFA, had a pass-rate of only 25%.
While some people in the football industry may not have much sympathy for football agents who fail the exam, the implications for the industry of a very high failure rate will be profound. In the lead up to 1 October 2023 players, coaches and clubs will become increasingly nervous about the status of their current agent and may well need to sign with a new agent, being one of the anticipated few who has then passed the FIFA exam, or who was otherwise licensed by FIFA prior to 2015 and who meets the requirements to continue to act as a football agent without needing to sit the new FIFA exam.
Depending on the number of agents who do not pass the exam, there could literally be thousands of players, coaches and clubs across the world who need to find a new agent. In effect what will happen is an enormous (and very fast) consolidation of the football agent market. The effects of that seismic event will take years to fully materialise. Will they improve the outcome for the game as a whole? The answer to that question is the same as the answer to some of the 20 questions posed in yesterday's FIFA exam: your guess is as good as our's.