The executive director of a new “super agency” has told Off The Pitch that the industry is undertaking a complete transformation, moving towards a “full service management model” and that he would welcome greater regulation of player agents.

He also says that English clubs and players can look forward to great new financial opportunities from the unprecedented talent now produced by the country’s youth academies.

Last week two of Europe’s largest independent football management agencies, England’s Unique Sports Management (USM) and Germany’s International Sports Management (ISMG), announced that they had merged to become Unique Sports Group (USG) with immediate effect.

The deal brings a roster of more than 300 players, including Reece James (Chelsea), Aaron Wan-Bissaka (Manchester United), Hakan Calhanoglu (Inter Milan), Matthias Ginter (Borussia Monchengladbach,) Ryan Sessegnon (Tottenham Hotspur), Callum Wilson (Newcastle United) and Kevin Volland (AS Monaco).

USG claim that its players have a combined market value of £670 million.

The new agency’s executive director, Marlon Fleischmann, describes the deal as “a coming together of two independents with equity shares in each business.”

“It's more of a partnership and alliance than a full takeover,” he says.

“I think we're both specialists in our territories and I think combining that expertise together gives the joint vision much greater reach and knowledge and a network across the two most dominant territories, which is the Premier League and Bundesliga.”

Anglo-German trade

Fleischmann says that the deal is, in part, a recognition of the growing trade in young players between England and Germany, which is “very different now to what it was maybe three or four years ago.”

“I think what's happened now is the strength of the young players we're producing in this country attracts a lot more interest and opportunity across Europe. As agencies we have to go with that adapt and move and become more of European centric than just territories specific.

Back then, he says, “if you’re a Premier League agency or an English agency, you wouldn't need to really look for opportunities abroad for your clients. And in Germany, the same thing. The players would stay and their dreams are to play for the big teams in each in territory.”

Now, he says, there is a golden generation of young English players, who are encouraged by the examples of Jadon Sancho and Jude Bellingham, who have both starred for Borussia Dortmund having left their home country in search of opportunities in Germany.

“I think how we look at it, if you look at our growth in the talent that we're producing in our academy systems, the generations that are coming through have never been so strong. And at the same time, the Premier League is at its strongest.

"So, if you're a young player coming through, your marketplace used to be stay in your academy see if you could break through into your first team in the Premier League. If not, you go to a smaller Premier League club or top Championship club.

“I think now that's different. I think now it's a case of if your pathway in the Premier League isn't going to be there. You can go to a top European club. You may not even need to stay in that academy you'll go to a European opposition instead and that's the biggest change for us.”

Trading places

The opportunities, he says, are twofold. Young English players are getting a chance to shine at the top end of an elite European league and often play in UEFA competition too. Their original English clubs retain high sell on clauses, meaning that as that talents develops they can benefit from a greater sell on fee.

“If you're Man City and you send Jadon Sancho to the Bundesliga, with someone like Dortmund that will produce a longer term a higher sell on percentage than if he'd gone on to , say Fulham,” he says.

Sancho returned to England in a £73 million move to Manchester United this summer, earning City a reported £10 million cut. The England international had originally left City for Dortmund for £8 million in 2017 without making a first team appearance.

“I think putting the players on the European map does increase the valuations because it just puts them to a bigger audience,” says Fleischmann.

Youthful transitions

Fleischmann has built his reputation overseeing the careers of a crop of teenage hopefuls to world stars. Previously, he acted for Tottenham and England captain, Harry Kane.

Reece James, is arguably USG’s most high profile client now and was one of the heroes of Chelsea’s Champions League win and England’s march to the Euro 2020 final.

“I think where we position ourselves is as an elite talent agency,” he says. “Our clients are generally players that have been with us for six, seven, eight years and we build them from academy players into the established stars they are now. So our model is more about how we can secure the best opportunities for those talents.”

Changing models

He agrees that the USG deal reflects a broader shift in the industry towards larger agencies with “a more sophisticated model”.

This will encompass an array of services that help players navigate the complexities of an increasingly digitized, multi-platform world, as well as the personal challenges that come from being megastars.

“I think the industry has to mature,” he says.

“If you look at ICM and Stellar [US mega talent agency ICM acquired Britain’s leading football agents, Stellar, in 2020], everybody at the top level is running very sophisticated agencies. If you look at the agency model ten years ago, it was an agent who did everything: tried to move the players, tried to negotiate... and it wasn't the correct management model.

“I think if you look at how talent has been managed in America, whether that's a musician or an NBA player, there are different strands. I think we've tried to look at how we can maximise the service level to our clients to reflect not only the increased exposure the players are getting here, but the pressures that come with it and the changes in society.

How do we secure them?

“Yes, we have a raft of intermediaries that are there to negotiate contracts or transfer moves or the historical traditional services an agency would do. But we've got an athletic department. We've got a content production department in-house. We've got social media managers in-house. We've got designers in-house, we've got concierge in-house.

“So, we've got a raft of services and infrastructure that was never there under previous agency models. I think it is the industry reflecting that maturity in producing more sophisticated models and really looking at these clients and how do we put 360 service around them? How do we secure them? How do we make sure they get the absolute best from us?

"And we are providing the best services and what goes into making a top level pro footballer both on and off the pitch, and that has to be done jointly, holistically together.

I like to say that there's football agents and there's management models and we're a management model

“I think that's driven how we've formatted and changed our business. I didn't think I'd be here, interviewing for content producers but that's now necessary if you're going to manage at top level client, you have to be able to produce content for social media, for broadcast, for straight to consumer content. You have to do it. Whereas 10 years ago, when I was a younger agent that was never in our thoughts. But that's just how the industry is adapted, and I think it's grown up.”

Defying sterotypes

Fleischmann says it is a “massive source of frustration” that perceptions of player agents still revolve around the old “monster, monster” stereotype of a cigar chomping rogue.

“People have an imaginary guy in their head rubbing their hands together when they hear the term football agents that that isn't reflective of what we are as a business or how we operate,” he says.

“We couldn't be further from that.

“I like to say that there's football agents and there's management models and we're a management model. I think if you're just a popular agent, you've only got one string above. I think as a management model, which we are, we look at the whole and the scope of it.”

He says that the extra services USG provide are not value added, but simply part of their client benefits. FIFA are looking to cap commissions agents can take from transfer deals, but he says that client services are not an income stream they are developing to possibly offset this.

FIFA’s tightening grip

He says he welcomes regulation and reminds me that he once had to sit exams to become a FIFA licensed agent. FIFA completely deregulated that system in 2015, leaving its governance to national member associations – which seemed at odds with the growing internationalization of the game.

Privately, FIFA executives now acknowledge this was a mistake and are actively working to reform agent regulation. A third consultation on the subject is expected soon.

“We're happy to go back to a system where there is quite a lot of regulation. In terms of the capping of commissions, let’s see what happens. I don't know. I don't want to comment on something that hasn't been confirmed. But if the business will have to adapt, we’ll adapt. We're not going to just shut up our shop because there's new regulation.

“We have a very strong business. We have a strong client list and I think the players see the value in not just agents now, but as 360 [degree] management, not just an individual representation.”

Peter Croonen, chairman at Belgium top-side KRC Genk, explains in the first episode of the new Off The Pitch podcast, "Inside the Executive Box", why the special ownership of the club turned out to be an advantage during the Covid-10 lockdown.

KRC Genk are owned by a non-profit organisation, which is a clear limitation in terms of getting access to capital, but at the same time that specific ownership model is forcing the club to always make sure they have the necessary funding in place to back up all sorts of investments.

"There is one big downside though [with the ownership model], and that is [the lack of] access to finance. And we have to reflect on that. If we are going to do all this infrastructure work that we have planned, we need funds, in a way where we can combine it with sporting stability and the long-term ambitions of the club. So, access to finance is a downside.

"Therefore, we need to create our reserves on the inside of the club – in our balance sheet. Our reserves are not in the pockets of a rich owner. It has to be in the pockets of the club itself. And that was a big benefit during the corona-lockdown. So the downside proved to be a upside in a crisis situation like we have just been through," explains Croonen.

Peter Croonen is also happy to see that the ownership model has proven strong in terms of making sure that there is continuity at board level.

"In our club we have 56 members who come together twice a year, who mainly get information, but the only real task for the members is to appoint and to dismiss the members of the board. And we have a very good stability in the last ten years in terms of stability in the board. Most members of the board today has a history in the board of more than 10 years. And football is a very complex environment [so we need that continuity]," says Croonen.

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They managed a draw against PSG and saw narrow defeats to both Juventus and Lyon.

Tonsser United are indeed one of the new kids on the block in the football industry when you compare them to clubs like Liverpool, Barcelona and Bayern Munich - all clubs with a long and very proud tradition in relation to transforming young talents into football superstars.

Actually, it shouldn’t really be possible for Tonsser, the football community and app founded in 2013, to compete with some of the world’s biggest clubs when you consider the tens of millions of euros the clubs spend each year on recruitment and running their academies all over the world.

But that is the story of Tonsser, and probably of most start-ups: Few would say there is a gap in the market, but scepticism is often beaten by innovation and technology.

Peter Holm, co-founder of Tonsser and CEO, is convinced that Tonsser have an important tole to play in the future landscape of football.

“In the beginning we wanted to create an app that would encourage children to play even more football, to get better and to share their tricks and skills with their friends. What we found out was that many of these players had a dream of becoming professional players. So we started our own team, Tonsser United, to create opportunities for unsigned youth players who are not part of an academy”.

Fulfil their dreams

Tonsser is an app, with almost 1.3 million users all over the world, which could be described as a bit like LinkedIn, though the target group is very, very different. No ambitious grown ups in suits and ties, but young football players having their own profile as a football player on the App.

There they can get votes by their team-mates after matches, and on the app they can - among many things - watch videos by children like themselves from all over the world sharing tricks, goals and highlights from matches.

But in 2018, Tonsser decided they also wanted to help their members fulfil their dreams of becoming professional footballers.

“It’s fair to say that clubs were reluctant to talk to us when we decided that we wanted to bridge our users with the professional academies around Europe. We were confident that in the Tonsser app there were quite a few talented players who could make it at the highest level, but clubs didn’t really buy into that.

"They felt that they had a strong legacy, and that they knew how to pick out the most promising talents. So it was a tough start – but today things have changed,” says Holm.

The company has been backed financially by both venture funds and private investors, such as Alejandro Bedoya from Philadelphia Union, David Bellion the ex-Manchester United-player, Andreas Laudrup, a former Danish professional, Claudio Chiellini former Juventus and Arthur Kosten, one of the co-founders of booking.com.

Who were never picked

In total Tonsser have received €11,6 million in funding and they are currently in the middle of a funding process that should add a further capital to the company founded in Denmark 8 years ago.

“We want to empower every player to unlock their potential,” is a sentence you will find on Tonsser’s website, and that is exactly what they started doing three years ago when they created Tonsser United, a team of young players who had a Tonsser account, wanting to give these players the opportunity to play against some of the biggest talents in the world.

Even though most clubs were sceptical about facing a team of “underdogs”, consisting solely of players who were never picked by the scouts from the professional clubs, clubs like Juventus, PSG, Lyon and Fulham then decided to play some of their best talents against Tonsser United.

“Those matches brought us a long way, and we – and the players – saw that we could actually compete. But to be frank, the real breakthrough came when Covid-19 locked down most of the world. Suddenly our app was a great tool for scouts to watch young talents play because they couldn’t go and watch live football,” Holm explains.

Show how good they are

He stresses that he doesn’t want to criticise the way clubs recruit and the way academies are being run, but says he is just convinced there will always be proper talent that doesn’t fit into the current academy and scouting structure, so Tonsser has a role to play in giving these underrated players and late-bloomers a chance to show what they can do.

“So far, we have arranged some matches, but in the future we want to do a lot more. Tonsser United should be much bigger in the sense that we should play many more matches against teams all over Europe, allowing our members to show how good they are.

"We have already seen some of our players sign for Brentford, Hellas Verona, Ingolstadt, Esbjerg and Gent, and we believe many more will follow in the future.”

Holm doesn’t want to be to specific in setting out their goals in terms of the number of matches they should arrange, the number of Tonsser players that should be offered a professional contract and the number of players that should break through at senior level.

That is what we do every day

For him, the goal is to be the number one club globally in terms of members and if they can achieve that, then he is convinced that the results will follow.

So far 65 per cent of the players who played a match for Tonsser United have either been on a trial or offered a professional contract.

“We have another very important role to play which is making sure that kids and youngsters actually love to play football. The development is alarming when you see how many kids are not playing football today. So that is also part of our vision that we should create events where our members can improve their skills and get some valuable coaching from inspiring people.

"Not all our members will be offered a professional contract which is okay – but we want to do everything we can to make them love the game of football, and that takes some initiatives that other clubs don’t necessarily facilitate.”

According to Holm, Tonsser is born digital so they are used to developing technological solutions for players in order for them to continue playing football.

“That is what we do every day. That is what we have been doing for 8 years. Building a cool app that young players love to use. So it doesn’t take a lot of convincing for us to walk the digital road because that is the only thing we do.”

Revenue-wise, Tonsser is making money from the members of its app, where parents pay for their children to have an account, clubs also pay to get access to the video material on the app, and they work with brands like Nike and Adidas to create projects for youth players, including Tonsser United.

“I understand that some people in the industry can be sceptical towards us and our vision. But if you look at Paris as an example there are tens-of-thousands of very good young footballers, but only a few professional clubs in the area. So there is not the right balance between the offering and the demand if you look at it from an industry perspective.

"And this is where we can play a role – and we have already seen one of our young players, Samy Mahour, sign a professional contract with Gent in Belgium. We arranged that trial for him and many others, and he was picked. So that is what we do – and we have just started.”

With football clubs struggling to come to terms with the financial implications of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, the 2020/2021-season’s January transfer window went down as one of the most uneventful on record.

Take the Premier League, for instance, where many of the world’s wealthiest clubs play their football. Here, despite the vast riches on display, even these super-wealthy clubs aren’t immune to the economic issues brought about by the pandemic, as England’s top flight recorded its lowest ever number of deals in a transfer window.

Indeed, throughout the entire Premier League – undoubtedly the richest in global football – there were just 26 signings in January, which amounted to a little more than half the number of transfers in the same period last season.

Considering the financial hit football clubs have taken as a result of lost ticket sales, the fact they’re choosing to stick with what they’ve got rather than splashing the cash on new players shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.

But as well as the economic issues the pandemic is causing for many of our football clubs, was there another reason that explains why even the Premier League’s big boys failed to get new recruits through the door in January?

Brexit Britain and its impact on transfers

Throughout the Brexit debate, much of the conversation was about the economic impact leaving the European Union would have.

Questions about the fishing industry, food regulations and the price of medicine from abroad were all hot topics, but one thing hardly anyone stopped to consider – at least not publicly – was how an exit from the trading bloc would affect the trade of football players to and from Europe.

This appears to have been a major oversight, as new rules and regulations brought in on January 1st have changed the way clubs conduct their transfer business, and these adjustments are already causing recruitment issues for some managers.

Take one Sam Allardyce, for instance. Perhaps no manager embodies the failure to grasp exactly what leaving the EU would mean for the trade of Premier League footballers quite like the former West Brom boss.

Back in 2018, while in charge at Everton, Allardyce was asked how he’d voted in the EU referendum. Pulling no punches, Allardyce was critical of the EU and said he believed it was time the UK withdrew.

“I am out,” Allardyce told the Sun. “My feeling is that the European Union isn’t doing the United Kingdom any favours.”

However, after getting his wish and seeing the UK complete its formal withdrawal, Allardyce was surprised to find the new rules and regulations in place have made purchasing players from Europe much more difficult.

And to Allardyce’s dismay, the new red tape put in place torpedoed his January transfer plans, making his already-difficult job of rescuing the Baggies from relegation even more of an uphill task.

“I have found three players already who were capable of coming here and were not allowed,” he told reporters after watching his side post another defeat.

“It’s a shame. Due to new regulations in terms of the permit they were unable to come to this country, whereas previously they would have done. I have to look at that and think ‘can he qualify?’”

Impact on the Premier League’s product

The new rules, which were agreed by the FA, Premier League and UK government, were designed to help young, homegrown talent prosper, but one of the side-effects of the changes is they’ll create a real hurdle for some transfers moving forward.

In the past, Premier League clubs could complete transfers with relative ease, but now every player arriving from Europe must be in possession of a work permit, which can only be obtained once the player has met a number of requirements.

This will undoubtedly result in the collapse of some transfers that in the past would have gone through without any hiccups.

Additionally, while every transfer will now require more paperwork, some deals are off the table all together. Take the signing of international U-18s, for instance, which are now banned completely under the new rules that state any player signing to or from a European club must be over the age of 18.

Just think of the deals that wouldn’t have happened over the years if these directives had been in place longer: Cesc Fabregas to Arsenal, Jadon Sancho to Borussia Dortmund, Paul Pogba to Manchester United – all historic transfers that would no longer be permitted, which would undoubtedly have an impact on the Premier League’s product.

It’ll be interesting to see how this will affect the viewing figures of the Premier League. With an annual audience of 4.7 billion viewers watching from 643 million homes around the world, the English top flight is by far the most popular football competition on the planet.

However, this popularity has been, at least in part, built by the young and promising overseas talent English teams raided their European neighbours for over the years.

With those deals now prohibited and many transfers being scuppered by post-Brexit restrictions, it remains to be seen whether this will have an effect on the Premier League’s dominance moving forward.

Will clubs start to look elsewhere?

With Europe becoming an increasingly difficult market to sign players from, pundits and football experts have predicted Premier League sides may start to look further afield, with South America and Africa muted as likely destinations.

For fans of the Premier League who enjoy watching these skillful, technically gifted players with magic in their boots, these could be exciting times.

Although British clubs will still need to wait until South American and African players turn 18 – this rule was always in place, and the exemption only existed when signing from other European countries – once they reach their eighteenth birthday they’ll be immediately eligible for transfer.

Moreover, judging by the new system used for granting the work permits, signing these players may be much more straightforward than it was in the past.

Points are awarded for international appearances, and due to the fact competition in some of these countries – particularly African nations – isn’t as high as it is in some parts of Europe, not only do talented young players have a better chance of making it into their respective national sides, but they may already have international caps under their belt. This would make obtaining a work permit for a proposed transfer much easier.

Additionally, the Brazilian and Argentinian leagues are viewed highly by the permit system, and the Copa Libertadores has been given equal weighting to the Champions League.

This means straight away there are 32 sides whose players automatically meet the GBE threshold, while the Copa Scudamericana – the second-tier South American club competition that’s equivalent to the Europa League – also racks up the same number of points, providing another 32 sides to monitor for potential signings.

Add to that the fact youth players are now viewed much more favourably and suddenly we have hundreds of previously ineligible players who are now gettable, making South America a very viable and increasingly attractive option for British clubs.

With Premier League sides expected to turn their focus to these continents, this could well send shockwaves around Europe as many French sides rely on African imports, while the Spanish and Portuguese leagues always have a steady stream of South American talent coming in.

If suddenly there’s increased competition from Britain, will many of the clubs around Europe be able to compete? At a time when the majority of them are seriously struggling in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, given the financial muscle of the Premier League’s biggest sides, the answer might well be no.

Scouting improvements necessary

Despite an increase in competition from British clubs, one advantage teams from elsewhere in Europe have at the moment is in the area of scouting.

Many Premier League clubs simply don’t have the scouting networks in place to upset the order just yet, but with some heavy investment over the next couple of years or so, they could soon start to pick up some of the best talent from under the noses of their continental rivals.

With a significantly wider market, once clubs start to improve their scouting networks then it won’t be hard to find talented players. Whereas in the past it was only permitted to purchase full internationals or those valued above £15 million, many of these players were out the question for most clubs.

However, with the criteria changing, the market is now open to more clubs. Thus, Latin America might be about to receive an influx of scouts from the UK.

In the past, very few players have joined British sides directly from South America. Even fewer have come straight from Africa.

This strategy was viewed as risky, as traditionally players from these countries tended to struggle to adapt to such a different way of life, while the physical intensity of European football can also prove a stumbling block for some.

Instead, British sides preferred to sign players who had already proven themselves elsewhere in Europe, so the vast majority of South Americans in the Premier League came via another league.

There have been exceptions to the rule, though, with the likes of Gabriel Jesus and Richarlison among those plucked directly from their homeland. These two players have proven particularly successful, and the hope will be that more players can adapt to life in the UK as well as those two have.

What’s the conclusion?

With Britain’s exit from the EU only a few months old, it’s still difficult to predict exactly how the divorce will affect the transfer dealings of Premier League clubs, and what subsequent impact this will have on the world’s most popular league.

As time goes by and the dust begins to settle on the pandemic and its economic ripple effect, the picture should start to become a little clearer.

However, if there’s one thing we can be certain of, it’s that the signing of players from Europe has just been made a lot more difficult for Premier League managers, and this may well result in many of Britain’s sides setting their sights on different markets.

Coming from a background in sports journalism, avid football fan Darryl Rigby now works for the Immigration Advice Service in the UK, a law firm that helps people with visa and settlement applications.

English Premier League clubs receive an estimated $100 million a year from their games being broadcast in Singapore which is $100 million more than their Singapore Premier League (SPL) counterparts get.

This is the one of the many things Lion City Sailors intend to change about football in the tiny Southeast Asian nation. It is going to take time and money but this ambitious club has plenty of both.

“European clubs have been around for 100 years or more, while we are one year-old” says Chun-Liang Chew, Lion City’s CEO.

“Today, there’s no money from broadcasting and this may not be the right time for fans paying to watch games so now it is all free-to-air. For us at the moment, it is about bringing the fans in and then we can think about revenue when we have the brand we want.”

Maritime history

It is clear what brand Lion City Sailors are aiming for and it is all about national pride. As soon as Forrest Li, reportedly the seventh richest Singaporean with a fortune estimated at $1.7 billion, and his e-commerce and video-game company Sea, bought  SPL’s Home United in March 2020 changes were made.

“We wanted a club that would represent Singapore and the name Lion City does that,” adds Chew.

The use of‘ ‘Sailors’ is a nod to the company in charge as well as the maritime history of this major port.

“We hope we can become successful not just in Singapore but in the region. It is about bringing the fans together. We want to have success in the Asian Champions League and our vision is to be Asian champion.”

Bringing the head coach of the 2020 Asian champions, Kim Do-hoon of South Korea’s Ulsan Horang-i, in May was a statement of intent. What really captured the headlines though was the signing of Brazilian midfielder Diego Lopes from Benfica in January for $2.2 million, smashing the existing transfer record of $38,000 many times over.

Add to that the return of Singapore captain Hariss Harun after seven years overseas, and there is a real buzz around the club.

Intense school studies

Yet for all the eye-catching signings, the Sailors are doing something not yet common in Singapore football; planning for the long-term.
Construction is due to start on a state-of-the-art youth academy that will cost around $7.5 million.

“We are still setting up the foundation so we can establish ourselves as a club that can deliver success and win titles,” says Chew.

Persuading youngsters that a professional career in the country is viable has not been easy, especially as school studies become more intense.

“We are also focused on youth development and setting up a pathway for young players who can move through the club to the first team and it is also about investing in infrastructure, sports science, data analytics and scouting and this is what we are focusing on at the moment.”

This is all possible as the Sailors are the only privatised club in a country where teams are traditionally registered as societies and are financially reliant on public money and proceeds from state-regulated gambling that are distributed by the Singapore FA (figures are not given by the federation but it handed out a total of about $30 million among the seven local clubs in 2019).

Everyone is watching

The hope is that a new ownership model works and is seen to work to attract more private investment into the game.

“It is important that we do well as everyone is watching us,” says Chew.

“We want to show the rest of the clubs that we are the leaders and can become a super club in the region. We hope to be a catalyst for other investors to come in and privatise other clubs. We really need more so we can make our league competitive and raise the standard of Singapore football and make the league more exciting. Fans want to see competitive football like the English Premier League which is so interesting as you have six clubs that are always strong and other teams are competitive too.”

To have something similar in Singapore would be a dream especially as local football has been in the doldrums for a few years with attendances sometimes struggling to reach four figures, players sometimes struggling to make ends meet and the national team, known as the ‘Lions’, were regarded as the best in Southeast Asia a decade ago struggling to compete with regional rivals Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia.

Not exactly big stadiums

When the situation returns to normal, Lion City have targeted an average attendance of around 5,000 which would be the highest in the country by some distance but that is just the start.

“Stadiums here are not exactly big and there will be many more watching on YouTube, Facebook and television. We see many fans going online to watch the game.',” says Chew.

There could, one day, be a new stadium or a move to the recently-built Sports Hub.

“That holds 50,000 and maybe we could fill that for games in the Asian Champions League. It is just whether it is the right time for us to move there.”

Such ambitious talk is rarely heard in these parts and Chew dismisses the common refrain heard from football officials in the Lion City that the local love for the European, especially the English, game makes it difficult for SPL clubs to compete.

“I was up early today to watch Manchester United and Liverpool and it was such an exciting game but I remember when I was 17 or 18 years old, local football was huge and the stadium was packed with 60,000 and still people trying to get tickets and there were a million people watching on television.

"Then too we had English football taking place. The whole country was glued to the screen to support Joseph Schooling [the swimmer who won Singapore’s first ever Olympic gold in 2016] and they weren’t swimming fans. We just need to bring people together.”

An efficient country

A population of six million does not have to hold them back either.

“We are an efficient country, if there is something we want to do and the conditions are right then we can do it and that is the same with football.

"There are many countries in Europe with populations smaller and they have not shown their limitations. There is a national agenda and a collective vision in wanting to do well in football, to build an ecosystem. It doesn’t matter if the population is small if the will is there at all levels, all the way down to the fans,” says Chew. 

Lion City Sailors are already looking outside their borders however. Closer relations with Malaysia may be key. There is a larger population and bigger football market. Singapore clubs have competed in Malaysia before with considerable success and the two countries may find once more that a combined competition could help both.

There are also plans to develop relations outside Asia.

“We are looking at working with European clubs and are looking to learn from them, particularly our youth academy. We can look at regular exchanges and having competitive matches in the same age group so we can benchmark our youth. There are so many things we want to and we are just getting started.”

FIFA will fund the clearing house, which will handle all training rewards, agents fees and, in future, transfer fees, with ‘a global solidarity mechanism’ set as well to replace the current system of training compensation and solidarity, the world federation’s legal director Emilio Garcia Silvero said. 

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Off The Pitch, Garcia Silvero confirmed that the global governing body will finance the clearing house, which will serve as a bank in FIFA’s reforms of the football transfer system. Those new regulations will alter the way transfers are handled and fees dispersed.

“FIFA will be funding the so called clearing house.” says Garcia Silvero. “We are going to pay for everything because this is part of our social responsibility. We are not going to deduct 0,03 per cent of each transfer.”

“So, the cost of running the foundation, the cost of the employees, the banking fees, and also the company operating the whole clearing house. We have never considered the possibility of charging a fee for using the clearing house. The clearing house will bring transparency, compliance, accountability and good governance to the transfer system so no way we are going to transmit this amount of money to the clubs.”

Wants to handle all transfers

Based in the Netherlands, the clearing house will be a full FIFA company structured as a foundation under Dutch law, subject to the supervision of the local central bank and EU laws.

Garcia Silvero expects the clearing house to still become operational this year subject to “some administrative clauses and compliance aspects”.

In the long run, FIFA wants to handle all transfer fees, a market of $5.36 billion in 2020, via the clearing house, but at first the global governing body will bring training rewards, both the training compensation and solidarity mechanism in articles 20 and 21 of FIFA Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players (RSTP), as well as the agents fees under the umbrella of the clearing house.

The phased process will incorporate training rewards first, with intermediary payments to follow “in 1,2,3 years”. 

FIFA’s RSTP require clubs that acquire professionals in certain circumstances to pay training rewards, in the form of solidarity mechanism or training compensation, to the training clubs that produced those professionals.

The arrival of the clearing house, coinciding with the introduction of a new 1 per cent levy on transfer compensation, will ensure that such payment is properly made to training clubs.

A more equitable distribution of funds

“The idea is that all components of a player transfer involving compensation will be clearly defined, and that training clubs will receive the amounts owed to them under FIFA regulations,” explains Garcia Silvero.

 “The one per cent levy (on top of the five per cent solidarity mechanism and the agreed transfer compensation) will be collected by the FIFA clearing house and used to fund part of the new Training Compensation 2.0 system agreed by the football stakeholders. In this way, the original objective of solidarity in the football transfer system is being re-recognised and respected.”

“The Training Compensation 2.0 system will take a global approach, and ensure a more equitable distribution of funds to clubs that produce professionals. Payment and receipt of training compensation and solidarity mechanism will be made through the FIFA clearing house, which ensures that training clubs will rightfully receive what they are owed, and streamlines the processes for clubs that are required to pay training rewards.”

“FIFA and all stakeholders agreed to start the clearing house with the solidarity and training compensation.

"Clubs are losing a lot of money every day because of the legal framework and due to the fact that a lot of clubs around the world don't pay training compensation and solidarity mechanism to the clubs or other clubs can’t trace the life of the respective players, so the thing we need to solve is the amount of money clubs are losing all around the world. And there is a consensus on this point.”

Need to guarentee that money flows

To facilitate the new system and ensure clubs respect the rules, FIFA will task the clearing house to execute and run all the compliance exercises through a team of dedicated professionals.

“The compliance screening will be highly, highly relevant in the context of the clearing house,” says Garcia Silvero.

“We need to guarantee that the money flows from the official bank account of the club to the official bank account of club; that the bank accounts are located in the same country as the clubs; and some other compliance matters. It will be challenging but we will be subject to EU banking legislation and that’s obviously important and highly relevant for us. In the beginning it will create some inconvenience for clubs adapted to the old system but for sure it will increase transparency and good governance all around the world.

"A dedicated team of compliance experts will sit at the FIFA clearing house to deal with these transactions all around the world.”

The clearing house is but a part of global ruling body’s long planned overhaul of the transfer system that has met resistance in some quarters.

Yesterday FIFA’s transfer task force met again informally as work picks up steam after delays due to the Covid-19 pandemic in a year that could well prove to be pivotal for Zurich’s reforms.  

Few would disagree that if you change the strategy of a company, you would be well advised to inform your stakeholders so they understand what to expect from you.

When Netflix was founded in 1997, it was purely a movie-rental service. Users ordered movies on the Netflix website, and received DVDs in the post. When they had finished with them, they would simply post them back to Netflix in the envelopes provided.

That business model changed quite a bit, and in 2007 Netflix also offered their customers a streaming service.

Amazon started out as an online book retailer, but Jeff Bezos always wanted to sell much more than just books, so in 1997 he expanded the product offering to computer games and music. It was clear to everyone that Bezos was pursuing a strategy that would grow Amazon at a pace few global companies could follow.

But what about Tottenham Hotspur? How would you interpret the hiring of Jose Mourinho as head coach of the club in the late autumn of 2019? Was that a clear sign that Spurs were giving up their stylish playing philosophy and everything related to that in terms of the academy work and the whole perception of the club?

Never clinched a title

Mourinho replaced Argentinian Mauricio Pochettino who had been at the club for more than five years, after a very poor run.

The former Espanyol and PSG-defender had taken the North London club back to the top of the Premier League, although he never managed to win a title. He almost did the magic in the summer of 2019 when they lost the Champions League final to Liverpool FC, and they also came fairly close when they were runners up in 2016/2017 to Chelsea FC.

But Pochettino, now head coach at Paris Saint-Germain, never clinched a title, and he was replaced by Portuguese serial winner Jose Mourinho.

Some would argue that you can never compare a football club to businesses like Netflix or Amazon, because the dynamics in football are very special – so why should a managerial change be seen as a club changing their whole strategy?

If you ask Dan Hammer and Mads Davidsen, the authors of “How Hard Can it Be?” - a book about strategy in football, or more precisely the lack of strategic work - they would argue that a change as significant as the one Spurs supporters witnessed almost a year and a half ago, is identical to a company making a big change in strategy, because the playing styles the two managers apply are so different.

Very different football philosophy

“…However (after the managerial change) Tottenham never got any rewards in terms of significantly better results even though the ‘honeymoon’ effect was visible in the first phase under Mourinho when Spurs got a boost and returned to the great results they had enjoyed earlier on.

"But now the club are back to the same levels of results that got Pochettino sacked. That is the quick analysis. However the most interesting thing is the long-term strategy – what do they want as a club?

“Have Tottenham changed their business strategy and would they (in the future) invest more heavily in the team in order to be a Top-4 club financially? And have we also witnessed a change in football strategy? In that case it will be two to three years before the strategy has been fully defined and implemented.

"Are the owners aware that this is how it works? Because there is no doubt that Mourinho has a football philosophy very different to Pochettino. To put it simply then, Spurs have walked away from a ‘dare’ mentality to an ‘avoid’ mentality," the authors write in a chapter of their book where they highlight a few examples of clubs who have been able to over-perform and punch above their financial weight.

In that environment, Levy was the steady boat on the ocean who kept the direction and stuck to the budget no matter how much fury he would get because the club was not spending as much money on transfers and wages as competitors

One example in that chapter is Atalanta, who were amongst the last eight teams in the Champions League last year under their coach Gasparini, who is still in charge. 

And the other example was Tottenham Hotspur who managed to become a regular Top-4 team in the Premier League under the leadership of Pochettino - despite the club being pretty far away financially from the other Top-4 teams, and at the same time they did not spend much money on transfers. Actually, Tottenham Hotspur had an entire summer transfer window without a single addition to the squad.

Fundamentally new direction

The authors also highlight the fact that the change in playing style is also having an influence on the club’s ”… history, culture and the whole Tottenham brand. When you visit the club – both the training facilities and the new stadium – you see the slogan 'to dare is to do’ everywhere. But how does that align with the ‘avoid’ mentality that the new manager applies?”

Hammer and Davidsen write that the playing direction under Mourinho is basically a step in different direction from the way the game is evolving, where you see offensive-minded teams dominating in many leagues and often clinching the titles.

They make it very clear that they don’t have any preferred playing style – or any preferred strategy – and that every club should find their own way forward based on their history and the financial situation they are in. But they are just in doubt – when looking at Tottenham Hotspur – as to whether the chairman Daniel Levy has decided to take the club in a fundamentally new direction.

That strategic ambiguity should also be seen in the light of the fact that Spurs have always had a certain style of play and the chairman has been widely respected all around the football industry for his ability to make profits and create respectable league positions in a league where competitors lost hundreds of millions of pounds.

In that environment, Levy was the steady boat on the ocean who kept the direction and stuck to the budget no matter how much fury he would get because the club was not spending as much money on transfers and wages as competitors.

70 per cent is capital

“The interesting question is, where will both clubs (Atalanta and Tottenham Hotspur) be in five years’ time? Have they analysed their own success in the market and made a few reassessments and changed a few things in time? Or will they continue to move on as now with the likely scenario being that results will slowly but surely decline?”

According to the authors, clubs such as Atalanta and Tottenham Hotspur need to realise that they cannot continue to outperform competitors who are spending significantly more money on transfers and wages.

The authors have developed a model called the “70-20-10” model, according to which 70 per cent of a club's success on the pitch, over time, can be explained by the size of wages (plus amortisation and costs of agents), while 20 per cent relies on strategic football decisions and action being carried out at a club on a daily basis. In other words: 70 per cent is capital and 20 per cent is skills. The last 10 per cent is a matter of luck.

With that thesis as an anchor, Spurs need to realise, according to the authors, that they just cannot compete with the biggest clubs in Europe in the long run, as long as Levy is not prepared to “splash the cash” like most other clubs – who are less focused on the financial results.

It should also be noted that the authors are sceptical about the strength of Tottenham Hotspur’s fundamentals. In the book, they refer to conversations with the club, and visits to the club, that left them with the clear impression that Pochettino had a major influence on most sporting decisions when he was on board. The authors are not in favour of managers with too much power, because it leaves clubs in a vulnerable place when managers or coaches are replaced.

Needed a title

In the case of Pochettino, they recognise the results created under the leadership of the Argentinian, because the owners gave him time, but at the same time they ask if the success was build on an “unhealthy model”.

“But how much is anchored in the club and permanently formalised and implemented, when the manager/head coach is gone?” they ask.

But did Levy perhaps feel he needed a title to bring the club to the next level, and that Mourinho could provide just that?

And if that was the case, then perhaps it could have been a clever decision to pause the strategy and the playing philosophy for a short period, and then return to normal when a title had been won and the whole global perception of the club might be different?

“Unfortunately, you won’t find an on/off-button attached to a strategy. If that was what Levy had in mind, in case it was a thought-through strategic decision, then he underestimated what it takes to build a solid playing style in a club. It requires you to have two years of focused work fully implemented.

"There are many aspects to work on: The work on the training pitch, analysing, recruitment, academy and the implementation in matches. Everything is connected, so when the playing style is changed, then the demands from other departments of the club are changing too.

“So it can destroy many things in the long run for an academy, that per definition has a long-term mindset, to meet such short-term demands – in the shape of new demands that meet the new playing style. The complexity in football doesn’t allow you to suddenly make a strategic U-turn in order to win a short-term title. The complexity in football is way too big to think that you can actually win things in the short-term.

"The most likely scenario would be that you simply can’t do this. And even if you did succeed in this short-term manoeuvre, it wouldn’t make the club stronger but on the contrary lower its chances of succeeding in a sustainable manner in the long run,” Davidsen and Hammer say in a written answer.

Q: Obviously we don’t know in details why Levy decided to make this head-coach change, and you don’t seem convinced it was the right thing to do, but let me ask you another way: Are there any good reasons to change a head-coach position like that, and at the same time not want  – in the long run – to change the playing philosophy of the club?

”Fans do have strong opinions whether one coach is better than another – we don’t pay too much attention to that. Our focus is the overall strategy for the club. A strategy that contains both the business and the football side of things over a period of time. Another challenge with Mourinho at Spurs - and you shouldn’t underestimate the importance of this – is the history of Spurs and their culture and brand.

"When you visit their amazing training facilities and the new stadium, you will see this 'to dare is to do’ logo no matter where you go. That motto is a great part of the telling of this club’s history and the way they attack, and with that mindset they create offensive teams and goal scorers.

"But in this case, they have made a compromise by adjusting the playing style to focusing on defending – meaning that they want to avoid things instead of ‘daring' things as they used to do. And very seldom do we see clubs perform well over a long period of time if they go straight up against their own history and tradition,” the authors says.

Q: You also seem very critical about the sacking of Pochettino, but results were rather poor for a long period of time. They had 18 defeats in all competitions in 2019, more than any other team in the Premier League, and of the last 24 matches under Pochettino, Spurs lost 11. Under those circumstances it doesn't seem like a brutal sacking because the manager were actually underperforming. Would you agree on that?

”We try not to judge the actual decision to release a manager or head coach of his duties, because such a decision can be the right thing to do. On the contrary, we write that the analysis that led to the sacking of Pochettino was wrong and simplified, because his performances as a head coach looked as if they were over-achievements because he was really skilful in terms of style of play, methodology, recruitment and the partnership with the academy.

"Due to that, the club punched above their weight in terms of the money they actually spent on the squad compared to the competitors. Then the club went back to where they actually should be in the table, looking at the budgets compared to the competitors, and then they sacked Pochettino because they thought he was underachieving.

"In other words, the owners of the club hoped that they could continue to elude the financial logics of the football industry, even though over time, that is not empirically a possibility.”

An English version of the book will be published as an e-book in the autumn.

FIFA has confirmed that its football ‘clearing house’ will begin handling transfer related payments from 2022, with algorithms under active consideration as a means of determining player’s market value. 

It has also said that reforms to the way agents can operate and be renumerated will be in place by July 2022.

Speaking at FIFA’s annual football law review, Ornella Desirée Bellia, FIFA’s Head of Professional Football, laid out an extensive overview of FIFA’s ongoing review into the football transfer system, which will have seismic implications in the way transfers are handled and fees dispersed.

“As soon as the clearing house starts its operation, all training rewards payment will be made through it,” she said.

“This is a huge a huge development for the football industry and community.”

Electronic player passport

Long term FIFA plans to handle all transfer payments, but for now will use the clearing house to ensure transfer fees are distributed accurately to intermediaries and clubs who were involved in a player’s development or where sell on fees have been agreed with previous clubs.

She suggested there may be a “transition period” but said the system should be in place by next year.

To facilitate the new system all professional players will be allocated digital passports, which details their career moves and training paths.

"Once we have the final electronic player passport, then we can see the distribution of training rewards through the clearing house,” she said.

“The new club pays the clearing house and the clearing house pays to all the training clubs.

“What is very important is to stress is that the clearing house is going to make a compliance assessment of all the clubs that are involved in these payments.

One per cent levy

“The clearing house will make sure that clubs also comply with international and national law concerning money laundering, anti bribery, corruption and so on. And I think this is a very important step also in general for the governance of football and transparency and so on.”

Ms Bellia added that the system for apportioning ‘training costs’ from a players development were being reappraised, having not been revised since 2001.

She said there will be a new 1 per cent levy added on top of all transfer fees, some of which will be redistributed by the world football’s governing body to clubs investing in youth development.

In 2020 there was a global total of $5.36  billion in global transfer fees across 17,077 player transfers, down from a pre-pandemic peak of $7.35 billion.

Further reviews

Ms Bellia said that FIFA’s transfer task force had been delayed by the Covid pandemic, but added that its work had benefited from the longer duration as it had enabled them to expand their work. She said that one of the four main topics were still under consideration were the transfer window, squad size limits, minors and financial regulations.

“The transfer window closing after the competition starts may cause squad instability and can cause integrity issues, and so on,” she said. 

FIFA was also still looking at the issue of squad sizes and said one of its “objectives” was to avoid what she termed “hoarding”.

Speaking about the issue of squad sizes she said:

“Clubs need to avoid the hoarding of players and make sure that clubs acquire new players not just to have a mere financial profit, but because they want to use them,” she said.

She also said that the Task Force Transfer System was looking at more ways to safeguard minors and work better for the interests of players.

Why not create an algorithm

Finally, she said they were looking at ways of regulating football’s financial flows, in order to promote financial stability, club long-term planning, and ultimately a more competitive system. Speaking about player transfer fees she presented potential measures that could be used to curb the inflation and added “Why not create an algorithm to determine player market value,” she said, but did not offer further detail. She stressed that any new regulations must be agreed by all football stakeholders.

The FIFA Task Force, which is made up of representatives of the European Club Association (ECA), clubs not represented by the ECA, the World Leagues Forum, FIFPRo, plus representatives of national associations and confederations, is to report its findings to FIFA’s Football Stakeholders Committee. It then adopts recommendations for the FIFA Council.

Ms Bellia said that she anticipated the majority of reforms to be in place in time for the summer 2022 transfer window.