Football agents and minors: what FIFA allows and when

Representing young players is where the FIFA rules are strictest, and where getting it wrong costs the most. The FIFA Football Agent Regulations (FFAR) restrict when you can approach a minor, what you must do first, how the agreement must be signed and when you can be paid. Separately, article 19 of the Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players (RSTP) bans most international transfers of under-18s, whoever represents them.

This guide reflects the FFAR edition in force since 1 January 2025 and the July 2025 RSTP, as of October 2026. For FIFA, a minor is a player who has not yet reached 18. The rules below apply on top of national law and national association rules, which are often stricter.

Can a football agent represent a minor?

Yes, but only once certain conditions are met. Article 13 of the FFAR sets them out:

• Timing. An approach to a minor or their legal guardian, and any signing of a representation agreement, can only be made no more than six months before the minor reaches the age at which they may sign their first professional contract under the law of the country where they will be employed.
• Consent first. The approach can only be made once you have the prior written consent of the minor's legal guardian.
• Training. Before representing a minor, or representing a club in a transaction involving a minor, you must pass FIFA's designated CPD course on minors and meet any legal requirement for representing minors in the country where the minor will be employed.
• Signatures. The representation agreement must be signed by both the minor and their legal guardian, as the applicable law requires, and must meet the standard minimum requirements in article 12.7: the parties' names, the duration, the service fee, the services to be provided and the signatures.

If any of those is missing, article 13.3 says the representation agreement is not enforceable. Breaching the timing and consent rule in article 13.1 is sanctioned, at a minimum, with a fine and a suspension of the agent's licence of up to two years.

What counts as an approach?

The FFAR defines an approach widely. It covers any contact in person or by any electronic means with the player, any direct or indirect contact with a person linked to the player such as a family member or friend, and any action where an agent uses or directs someone else to make contact. Messaging a 14-year-old's parent through a third party, or asking a scout to "plant a seed", can still be an approach by you.

Only a licensed football agent may approach a potential client. Employees and contractors of an agency who are not licensed cannot make approaches, and the agent remains responsible for anything they do.

Can a football agent sign a 15 year old?

It depends on the law of the country where the player will be employed, because the FFAR ties everything to the age at which that player may sign a first professional contract there. Take that age, subtract six months, and that is the earliest point at which you may approach the player or their guardian, provided you already have the guardian's written consent and have completed the minors CPD course.

So where the first professional contract can be signed at 16, a player aged 15 and a half could in principle be approached under the FFAR. Where that age is higher, a 15-year-old cannot be approached at all. National association rules can be stricter than the FFAR, and article 3 of the FFAR expressly allows that. At least one national association, for example, bars approaches before 1 September in the school year in which the player turns 16 and requires agents to hold a separate authorisation from the association to work with minors.

The FFAR does not set a minimum age for a representation agreement independently of this rule. The practical answer to "can I sign a 15-year-old" is therefore: only if the local first-contract age, the six-month rule, guardian consent, the CPD course and the national rules all line up, and with the agreement signed by the player and the guardian.

Whatever the age, a representation agreement with a player cannot run longer than two years and cannot renew automatically. Before signing, you must tell the player in writing to consider independent legal advice and get written confirmation that they have taken it or chosen not to.

Can an agent be paid for representing a minor?

Only in one situation. Article 14.9 says an agent may not receive a service fee for services relating to a minor unless the player is signing their first or subsequent professional contract under the applicable law. Work on a youth registration, a scholarship, an academy move or a trial does not generate a fee.

The trial rules point the same way. Article 19ter of the RSTP prohibits anyone bound by the FIFA Statutes from requesting, offering or receiving any payment connected to a trial, apart from the expenses agreed between the club and the player on the FIFA Trial Form.

Article 14.9 is not one of the fee provisions FIFA suspended worldwide on 30 December 2023 (Circular 1873). Those suspensions cover the fee cap, the client-pays rule and related payment rules, dual representation limits and some disclosure, reporting and enforcement provisions. The minors rules in article 13 are not on that list either.

Where the minors rules stand after the July 2026 court ruling

On 16 July 2026, the Court of Justice gave its preliminary ruling in Case C-209/23 (RRC Sports) on whether several FFAR rules are compatible with competition law, free movement of services and data protection law. It did not strike down the FFAR as a whole. It left most questions to the referring German court, but said that the rule limiting approaches to a client under an exclusive agreement to the final two months appears incompatible with the prohibition on cartels, and that rules on approaches are an obstacle to the free movement of services that the national court must assess for justification.

The court listed protecting players "in particular at the start of their careers" from abusive practices as a legitimate public-interest objective the national court can take into account. It did not rule specifically on article 13. As of October 2026, none of FIFA's published circulars changes the minors provisions, but the approach rules are now open to challenge in national courts. Watch for updates from FIFA and your national association.

International transfers of minors: RSTP article 19

Article 19 starts from a flat rule: international transfers are only permitted if the player is over 18. There are five exceptions:

1. The player's parents move to the country of the new club for reasons not linked to football.
2. The player is aged 16 to 18 and the transfer takes place within a specific free-movement area named in the regulations, or between two associations in the same country. The new club must provide football training to the highest national standards, an academic or vocational education that allows a career outside football, and proper living arrangements such as a host family or club accommodation and a mentor, and must prove this to the association on registration.
3. The player lives no more than 50km from a national border, the club is within 50km of the same border on the other side, and the distance between home and club is no more than 100km. The player must keep living at home and both associations must agree.
4. The player has fled their country for humanitarian reasons without their parents and is permitted to reside, or recognised as vulnerable, in the new country. Refugees and protected persons can join professional or amateur clubs; asylum seekers and those recognised as vulnerable can only join purely amateur clubs until they turn 18.
5. The player is a student on a temporary academic exchange without their parents. The registration cannot exceed one year, and only with a purely amateur club with no professional team or links to a professional club.

The same rules apply to a first registration of a foreign player who has not lived in the country continuously for at least five years. For any player aged ten or over, the Players' Status Chamber of the Football Tribunal must approve the transfer or first registration before the ITC is requested. The application is made by the new association through TMS, using the documents set out in FIFA's Guide to Submitting a Minor Application. The former association then has seven days to approve or dispute it, after which it goes to FIFA for review and to the Players' Status Chamber for a decision.

For the agent, the practical point is that a "move abroad" for a 15-year-old is usually not possible at all, and a move for a 16- or 17-year-old needs both a qualifying exception and Football Tribunal approval before any registration. Never let a family relocate on the assumption that approval will follow.

Academies, trials and professional contracts

• Academy reporting. Under article 19bis, clubs and private academies must report the minors who attend them, and associations keep a register that includes the minor's agent, if any.
• Trials. A minor can only trial with a club from the season of their 16th birthday (15th in some jurisdictions), with the parents' written permission, a designated club contact and proper accommodation, and only twice per calendar year. Each trial has a maximum of eight weeks per club per season for players aged 21 and under.
• Contract length. Under the current RSTP, a player under 18 cannot sign a professional contract for longer than three years. From 1 January 2027, a club may offer up to five years if the player has been registered with it for 20 months or two consecutive competition periods, whichever is shorter, subject to a limit of five such contracts per season, a minimum 10% rise in fixed pay in the fourth year with further rises tied to first-team appearances, and national law or collective agreements.

A checklist before you speak to a young player

1. Confirm the age at which a first professional contract can be signed in the country where the player will be employed.
2. Check the national association's agent regulations for stricter dates, registration or authorisation requirements.
3. Complete the FIFA CPD course on minors through the FIFA Agent Platform, and keep the record.
4. Obtain the legal guardian's prior written consent before any contact with the player, direct or indirect.
5. Recommend independent legal advice in writing and record the response.
6. Have the player and the guardian sign a representation agreement of no more than two years, and diarise its expiry. A shared system such as Quanda makes sure nobody in the agency misses it.
7. Do not take a fee unless and until the player signs a professional contract.

The minors provisions appear regularly in the FIFA agent exam. You can test yourself with the free mock exam at /fifa-agent-exam-practice/mock-exam or the practice questions at /fifa-agent-exam-practice.