Overview
- Max Eberl cautioned against a blanket rejection of agents, saying they are part of the market and that clubs can still refuse disproportionate demands, while noting uniform rules are hard to achieve.
- Oliver Kahn said clubs always have the option to walk away from deals and called parts of the discussion “pharisaical,” adding that European competition law limits what FIFA can impose.
- Karl‑Heinz Rummenigge, in a FIFA interview, decried soaring agent payments as immoral and part of a “rat race,” urging reforms but dismissing abolition as nonsense.
- Agent Roger Wittmann hit back on Sky, questioning Rummenigge’s moral authority, citing €1.347 billion earned by agents in the last window, and arguing clubs built and rely on the current system.
- Contract talks over Dayot Upamecano, including a dispute over a lump‑sum signing bonus versus installments and reports of very high compensation, helped trigger the public dispute as spending on agents continues to rise without new regulation.