Sports agent lawyer
Your mandate decides what you earn and what you risk
A sports agent brings an athlete and a club together. In football people say player agent or football intermediary, in other sports agent or manager. In law that work is two things at once: placement on the labour market, governed by the region where you operate, and a mandate for your client, governed by ordinary contract law. An agent who represents a player defends that player. An agent who advises a club defends the club. Taking both roles in the same transaction is possible only in narrowly defined cases, and never without written consent given in advance.
On top of that come the rules of the sport itself. In football the FIFA Football Agent Regulations apply, together with the way the Belgian FA turns them into national rules. Everest Sports Law drafts and reviews mandates, guides your application for a placement licence, tests your practice against the regulations and litigates when a commission stays unpaid. We work from Ghent, Brussels, Antwerp and Hasselt, on Belgian files and on cases that end up before FIFA or the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne.
What a sports agent lawyer handles for you
These are the files that come back most often with agents and intermediaries.
The mandate between player and agent
This contract carries your entire income. We set out what you do, for which territory, with or without exclusivity, at which percentage and at which moment that percentage falls due. We watch the maximum term the regulations impose, put every renewal in writing and draft a termination clause that still works when the player leaves halfway.
The engagement by a club
A club can engage you to find a player or to close a transfer. We put that engagement on paper: the result you are paid for, the payment term and what happens if the deal falls through after all. We also settle who bears the fee when the club takes it over from the player, and what that means for tax and social security.
Licence for paid sports placement
Paid placement of sportspeople is a regional matter in Belgium. Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels each have their own decree or ordinance, and each of them asks for a prior licence or registration. An agent who works without it risks a penalty and sees the contract challenged. We build your application, follow it up and keep your file in order for an inspection.
FIFA licence and the agent regulations
Anyone working in football needs a FIFA licence and follows the Football Agent Regulations: the exam, the registration, the limits on the fee and the duty to report every transaction. Those rules are contested. National courts and competition authorities have tested parts of them, so not every provision carries the same weight everywhere. We tell you what applies to your file today.
Conflicts of interest and dual representation
One agent serving both the player and the buying club is allowed only in a limited set of cases, and always with written consent from everyone concerned. Other combinations are prohibited. We test your structure in advance, also when you work through a company or with subcontractors, and we draft the consents the regulations require.
Minors
Stricter rules apply to a player under eighteen. The parents or the guardian sign as well, FIFA bans any commission for services to a minor, and an international transfer of a minor is in principle excluded. We assess in advance whether your involvement stays inside the lines, because a mistake here costs you your licence.
How a case runs
Who decides
You claim an unpaid commission before the business court, or before the arbitral body your mandate names. If the case has an international side, it goes to the judicial bodies of FIFA, with appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne. A disciplinary complaint about your practice is handled by the federation or by FIFA itself.
Which deadlines run
Regulatory deadlines are short. A complaint to a sports body and an appeal to the CAS usually have to be filed within weeks. A civil claim prescribes later, but evidence disappears faster than a deadline. Warn us as soon as a player terminates or a club delays payment.
What you do first
Collect the signed mandate with every annex, the proof of the transaction, your invoices and the full exchange of messages with player and club. Do not sign a settlement and do not send a formal notice before you have legal advice. The first letter fixes your version of the facts.