When it comes to football agents, Giovanni Branchini isn’t just old school. He’s the proverbial rock that was quarried to build the old school, way back in 1986.
Some highlights:
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Well before that now-famous friendly against Sporting CP, he told Sir Alex Ferguson that Cristiano Ronaldo would make a fine replacement for one David Beckham at Old Trafford — and then advised an up-and-coming agent named Jorge Mendes that, while other clubs were offering more money, Manchester United was the right place for his star client to develop.
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When Pep Guardiola was taking his sabbatical after leaving Barcelona, it was Branchini — with Bayern Munich’s blessing — who traveled to Manhattan’s Upper West Side and convinced him that if he wanted a challenge at the highest level, he needed to speak to Uli Hoeness and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.
So when Branchini talks about agents and intermediaries, as he did on a recent episode of “Gab & Juls Meet,” he does it as an insider who knows and understands the system. He knows what he’s talking about; he thinks there should be clear rules for agents, and that FIFA made a terrible mistake when it deregulated the business in 2015.
– LISTEN: Gab & Juls Meet … Giovanni Branchini
FIFA feels the same way, especially after their figures revealed that more than half a billion dollars was paid to agents and intermediaries in international transfers in 2021. It’s particularly staggering when you consider that this represents a slight increase over the previous year, despite the fact that the total value of international transfers declined by 13.7%.
Its latest set of regulations, expected to come into force in 2022, focuses on capping fees paid to intermediaries and agents, and bans the practice of a single agent representing all parties in a deal. It likely won’t surprise anyone that Branchini isn’t on board with various aspects of the new rules and the consultation process that led to them. But it might be a surprise that, as an agent, he’d love it if…
Source : espn
