How to become a football agent: the FIFA licence, step by step

Since 1 October 2023, anyone who provides football agent services in connection with an international transfer needs a licence issued by FIFA. There is no shortcut for lawyers, former players or coaches, and no agency licence that covers its staff. The licence belongs to one person, it is issued for an indefinite period, and it lets that person work worldwide.

The route has five parts, set out in article 4 of the FIFA Football Agent Regulations (FFAR): apply on the FIFA Agent Platform, meet the eligibility requirements, pass the FIFA exam, pay the annual licence fee, then keep up continuing professional development (CPD) every year. This guide takes each in turn, with the facts as of October 2026.

Do you need a FIFA licence to be a football agent?

Yes, if you want to negotiate or arrange deals for players, coaches or clubs. Article 11 of the FFAR says only a licensed football agent may perform football agent services, and article 12 says only a licensed agent may approach a potential client or sign a representation agreement. The definition of football agent services is broad: it covers negotiation, communication and preparatory work aimed at concluding a transaction.

The FFAR govern international transfers and representation agreements with an international dimension. Purely domestic work falls under the national football agent regulations of the relevant member association, which must be consistent with the FFAR and may be stricter. Depending on the national association, you may have extra registration steps for domestic deals, so check its rules as well.

You can run your business through a company, but the company does not hold the licence. Employees or contractors who are not licensed may not perform agent services or approach potential clients, and the licensed agent remains responsible for what the agency does.

Eligibility: who can become a FIFA agent

There are no formal educational or professional requirements. FIFA says so directly in its licensing guidance. What matters is a set of integrity tests in article 5 of the FFAR, which you must meet when you apply and at all times after you are licensed. You must:

• have made no false, misleading or incomplete statements in your application
• never have been convicted of a criminal charge (including related settlements) concerning matters such as organised crime, drug trafficking, corruption, bribery, money laundering, tax evasion, fraud, match manipulation, forgery, sexual abuse, violent crime, harassment or trafficking
• never have been suspended for two years or more, disqualified or struck off by a regulatory authority or sports governing body for breaching ethics or professional conduct rules
• not be an official or employee of FIFA, a confederation, a member association, a league, a club or a body representing clubs or leagues
• not hold an interest in a club, academy or league, personally or through your agency
• not have been found working as an agent without a licence in the 24 months before you apply
• not have been personally bankrupt, or a majority shareholder, director or key office holder of a business that went bankrupt, into administration or liquidation, in the previous five years
• not have held an interest in a sports betting business in the previous 12 months

The FIFA general secretariat investigates eligibility and can do so at any stage. If you fail a requirement, you are barred from the exam and your application is rejected. If you are not notified of a problem, you may sit the exam.

Step 1: register on the FIFA Agent Platform and apply

Everything runs through the FIFA Agent Platform at agents.fifa.com: the application, the exam booking, the licence fee, CPD courses and, once licensed, your licence card. You create an account, upload a valid government-issued photo ID, and submit a licence application during the application window.

The window is short. Since 2025, FIFA has held one exam edition a year, with a 45-day application period. For the 2026 edition, applications opened on 20 January 2026 and closed on 6 March 2026 (23:59 CET). FIFA said those would be the only exam sessions of the year. If you miss the window, there is nothing to do but wait for the next one. FIFA announces dates by circular and on its agents pages, and the 2026 circular was published in January.

The application includes paying the exam fee and choosing an exam time slot and language. FIFA does not publish the exam fee amount in its public documents; it is shown to each candidate on the Platform before they submit.

Step 2: pass the FIFA football agent exam

The exam is set and run by FIFA, not by national associations, which may not charge any fee for it. As of the 2026 edition, it is:

• 20 multiple-choice questions, where one or more answers can be correct
• 60 minutes long, with a pass mark of 75%
• held online only, with remote invigilation, so you sit it from a private room rather than a venue
• electronic open book: you may consult the official study materials on the exam platform, but not printed copies or your own notes
• available in English, French, German and Spanish

Each question is worth 5% and only fully correct answers score, so you need 15 out of 20. Before exam day you must also complete a mandatory Pre-Exam Readiness Check on the Platform; miss its deadline and your application is rejected. You can attempt the exam once per edition. If you fail, you apply again in the next window.

Our separate guide to the FIFA agent exam, at /insight/fifa-agent-exam, covers the format, the rules on the day and how to prepare in detail.

Step 3: pay the licence fee within 90 days

Passing the exam does not make you an agent. Under article 7 of the FFAR you must pay the annual licence fee within 90 days of passing. If you do not, your application is automatically declared void and the exam pass is wasted.

The amount is set by circular. According to FIFA's agents FAQ (last updated January 2025), the first licensing period costs USD 600, and renewals have cost USD 300 a year since 1 October 2024, due by 30 September each year. The fee covers access to the Platform, the CPD programme and dispute resolution before the Agents Chamber. The Platform's help centre says only personal credit cards are accepted for the licence fee. Check the current figure on the Platform, because FIFA can change it each year.

Step 4: receive your licence

Once the fee is paid, the licence is issued to you as an individual. It is strictly personal and non-transferable, it has no fixed end date, and it authorises you to work worldwide, wherever you sat the exam. You can download a digital licence card from the Platform. It carries a QR code that links to a licence validation page showing your licence status and licence number, which is how clients and clubs can check you.

Step 5: continuing professional development

Article 9 of the FFAR requires licensed agents to meet CPD requirements every year. FIFA's CPD rules, published on its education page, are:

• The CPD year runs from 1 October to 30 September.
• New agents need 20 credits a year for their first 10 years, after which the requirement falls by 25% (15 credits in year 11).
• Agents licensed through the legacy route or a recognised national licensing system need 40 credits a year for five years, then the standard requirement applies.
• Credits come from FIFA courses on the Platform and are awarded only if you complete the course and score at least 80% in its assessment.
• Credits cannot be carried into another year.

One course matters more than the others. Before you represent a minor, or represent a club in a transaction involving a minor, you must complete the designated CPD course on minors (article 13 of the FFAR). FIFA's FAQ says that accreditation lasts three years.

Staying licensed

Article 17 of the FFAR sets out what happens if you slip. Your licence is automatically provisionally suspended if you stop meeting the eligibility requirements, miss the licence fee deadline, fail to complete CPD in a calendar year or fail to meet your reporting obligations. For the fee, CPD and reporting, you then have 60 days to put it right or the licence is withdrawn. Eligibility failures go to the FIFA Disciplinary Committee.

You can ask to suspend or terminate your licence voluntarily through the Platform. Be careful with termination: anyone who terminates and later wants to practise again must go through the full application process, exam included.

The calendar is the practical risk. A licence fee due by 30 September, a CPD year ending the same day, minors accreditation that lapses after three years and two-year limits on representation agreements with players are all dates that pass silently. Whether you use a spreadsheet or a system such as Quanda, put every one of them somewhere that will remind you before they fall due.

The rules you will work under, and what is suspended

Some FFAR provisions are not currently enforced. Following a preliminary injunction granted by the Landgericht Dortmund in May 2023, the Bureau of the FIFA Council approved a worldwide temporary suspension of several provisions, announced in FIFA circular 1873 of 30 December 2023. FIFA's current notice says the suspension applies until further notice. The suspended provisions include the service fee cap (article 15 paragraphs 1 to 4), the client pays rule and other service fee payment rules in article 14, the prohibition of double representation (article 12 paragraphs 8 to 10), certain reporting obligations in article 16, and the disclosure and publication rules in article 19.

On 16 July 2026 the Court of Justice in Luxembourg gave a preliminary ruling in litigation over the FFAR. It left most questions for the referring German court to decide, and FIFA said it would meet agents' representatives to seek a consensual solution. As of October 2026 we have found no FIFA circular lifting the suspension. The licensing system itself (the exam, eligibility, the fee and CPD) is not among the suspended provisions.

Is there any way to get a licence without the exam?

Only two narrow routes existed. Agents licensed under the old FIFA Players' Agent Regulations could apply for an exemption, but only if they applied by 30 September 2023, so that route is closed. The other exemption is for people licensed under a national law licensing system that FIFA has recognised following a request by the member association. Everyone else sits the exam.

Before you apply

Start with the official sources: the FFAR, FIFA's licensing guidance and the exam study materials, all linked below. Then test yourself. Our free mock exam at /fifa-agent-exam-practice/mock-exam runs to the same format of 20 questions in 60 minutes, and there are more practice questions at /fifa-agent-exam-practice. They are not FIFA products, but they will show you quickly which regulations you need to know better.