Brazilian Football Clubs Depend on Agents and Investment Funds

12/17/2014 - 08h40

With 204 registered agents, Brazil has the sixth-highest number out of all the countries affiliated with FIFA. However, this year, FIFA decided to restrict the activity of agents in the game, meaning that their presence in Brazilian football will become even more significant.

In theory, clubs will begin to negotiate players without intermediaries, though in practice, players are still likely to consult someone of trust when it comes to transfer business.

While agents and investment funds may have earnt a reputation for predatory behavior, they have not necessarily been bad for Brazilian football in the last ten years.

Fernando Gonçalves is not a household name. However, he was director of the partnership between Nations Bank and the Rio de Janeiro club Vasco da Gama at the end of the 1990s, director of football at Fluminense in 2005, and director of the Traffic investment fund in partnership with Palmeiras between 2007 and 2009.

Ten years ago, Gonçalves declared that money from investment funds would transform Brazilian football. He was right.

Between 2007 and 2014, groups like Sonda, Traffic and MFD helped to keep players in Brazil such as Neymar and Paulo Henrique Ganso, as well as bringing in foreign talent like the Argentine Andrés D'Alessandro and the Chilean Charles Aránguiz. However, there were conflicts when agents tried to force through transfers.

In 2006, Neymar went to Madrid to train with Real, an arrangement made by the businessman Wagner Ribeiro. He returned to Brazil three years later and decided to stay at Santos. In this case, the agent did not interfere.

In contrast, three years later, Oscar left São Paulo acrimoniously, with the help of his agent, Giuliano Bertolucci. The player went to Internacional of Porto Alegre and then later to Chelsea.

"There are agents and agents. I don't think an agent should have more than 30% of a player's rights, but it's good when there is a partnership," says the businessman Jorge Machado.

One example is the young striker Corinthians striker Malcom. The club owns 30% of his rights, and 35% is controlled by the agent Fernando Garcia.

In contrast, Palmeiras would not relinquish rights of more than 25% to Gabriel Fernando. The club ran the risk of losing the player, but the gamble paid off and he is due to sign a new contract.

In 2007, Manchester United bought Carlos Tevez with the assistance of the Iranian businessman Kia Joorabchian, while this year, Atlético Madrid were runners-up in the Champions League, with a time full of players sold by the Portuguese agent Jorge Mendes.

Europe's medium-sized clubs, like Sevilla and Porto, use this type of partnership as a way of competing with the continent's giants like Bayern Munich and Barcelona, who are cash rich and do not depend on agents to do their business.

Nonetheless, Real Madrid has a close relationship with Mendes. The difference is that in the case of the bigger clubs, the agent needs the club more than the club needs the agent. In Brazil, the clubs do not have this kind of power.

Translated by TOM GATEHOUSE

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	Leticia Moreira - 24.ago.10/Folhapress
	In 2006, Neymar went to Madrid to train with Real, an arrangement made by the businessman Wagner Ribeiro (picture)