Deal or no deal

As FourFourTwo is shown inside a chic, second floor office situated a corner kick from Dwight Yorke’s old hangout, Hugo’s in Kings Cross, a jackhammer is rocking the building. But that’s not the only thing shaking this player-management office. News of an unfolding scandal in the UK – involving agents and alleged illegal payments (so-called “bungs”) to certain managers – is being watched intently by a group huddling around a laptop. The report claims its findings are “set to rock football”.

“Not a great time to be speaking with a journalist!” laughs Craig Nettelbeck as he gets up to offer a handshake.

Nettelbeck, 36, is one of around 21 FFA licensed football agents in Australia. Smartly dressed, well-spoken and unfailingly polite, the former Swans and Demons AFL star is about as far removed as you could get from the image of bungs and dodgy deals.

“I don’t like that term ‘agent’,” says Nettelbeck, whose company Rubicon merged with Richard Briggs’ Men’s Division player management group seven months ago. “I prefer the term ‘player manager’. We look after all aspects of players’ lives, not just contract negotiations, including areas such as players’ commercial deals and even savings plans.

“After a deal has gone through, we look to see that the player’s structures are in place. It’s a day-to day involvement.”

Nettelbeck became an FFA-accredited agent in 2001 and represents “over 10 players”, from retiring Socceroos such as Tony Popovic to several Hyundai A-League players. So, what does he think makes a good player manager?

“It’s about making contacts and establishing relationships with clubs and scouts and building a network of contacts around the world,” says Nettelbeck. “The game is so varied so you have to be across all that to best serve your clients. With most businesses, not just being an agent, it’s about having a personal connection. Obviously it takes a long time to build up.”

Nettelbeck adds that there’s no typical deal because there are so many variations. “Generally, it would depend on what level the player is at. So if he doesn’t have much big time experience, you’d be trying to find an opportunity for him. Then it comes down to your relationships with clubs to get him opportunities. You’re kind of proactive about that all throughout their careers though.

“If it’s an international player, it’s more a case of when an opportunity arises that you’re on top of it. That’s where you need to have relationships [with clubs]. They’ll have in-trays stacked high with info from agents… you need to have a direct contact within the club.”

He cites loyalty as being very important because “at times football is a game with so many opportunities that you need a relationship of trust”. Although he adds that’s not easy to establish initially.

“I’ve been honest with players and their families who have massive expectations for their sons. As a father I’d be the same. So, a dad says that little Johnny should be at Real Madrid, when really you know the best strategy is to develop him in the A-League and when he’s ready, maybe that might be a next step if he’s established in the national team. But sometimes that’s not what parents want to hear.

“That’s where honesty needs to come into play. Sometimes you’ll lose a client over that… but here’s no point in giving false hope.”
Bernie Mandic, player-manager of Socceroo superstar Harry Kewell, agrees with Nettelbeck.

“Harry’s father Rod was probably the most important difference in how Harry’s career has developed,” Mandic told a Sydney newspaper recently. “He avoided being seduced by promises of fame and fortune from glamorous clubs and opted for Leeds, a club that was in a rebuilding phase and had Britain’s best youth development program. Unfortunately, most parents fall for the exaggerated promises of agents and clubs and their sons pay the price.”

Needless to say, Mandic has a barely disguised disdain for some agents.

“Too many Australian players were being looked after by agents that made more money from the respective deals than the player was earning in a year. I thought that was an outrageous rip off,” he tells FourFourTwo of his decision to become a player-manager in 1997.

Bernie Mandic speaks out against haircut regulations for agents

It may sound a little hypocritical coming from a man who has so much to do with a high-profile player’s professional life, but Mandic is quick to note he is not a licensed FFA agent, despite being described as an agent by many in the UK press. “I do not want to be exposed to the hypocrisy and double standards within FIFA and the national federations,” he says firmly. Instead his brother Nicola is FFA-accredited, leaving Bernie to, as he says, “act as the players’ manager similar to what happens in the entertainment industry worldwide in music, television and film”.

Based in Paris, Bernie has seen the manoeuvrings of football agents in Europe over the last decade, and is cynical about most agents’ loyalty.

“Footballers’ agents generally are viewed with suspicion and rightly so,” he says. “The vast majority of agents are there to look after clubs and not the players that they are supposed to be representing. Usually it is the buying club that they owe their loyalty to as usually they are willing to pay the agent the most amount of money.”

What’s more, Bernie has a sweeping solution. “I don’t think agents are needed at all,” he declares. “Practising lawyers should be required to sign off on any player contract and the majority of corrupt deals would be eradicated due to the fact a lawyer would not want to put himself in a position of losing his license to practice law.

“If an agent loses his licence he just needs to have another licensed mate sign off on any deal and all the legal obligations are fulfilled,” he adds.
Player manager Leo Karis also “hates” the term agent. Like Mandic and Nettelbeck, he’s a licensed FFA player agent who “manages sport and media personalities”. However, he does work with agents when the need arises, such as the recent loan move of Michael Beauchamp from Central Coast Mariners to Nurnberg in the German Bundesliga.

“The reality is that you often work with other agents in other countries because you really do need local knowledge.”

That said, he is convinced 21 licensed agents in Australia is too many.

“And anyway,” he notes, “I reckon maybe only three to five agents in this country actually do any business. The majority do it part-time which is obviously a problem.”

Karis sees his job as a strategic one, playing a “significant” role in a player’s development. “It’s about developing a plan for the player’s career as well as looking out for his potential outside of football in, for example, coaching or in the media.”


His football clients (check them out at www.leokaris.com) include Newcastle’s Paul Okon, Perth’s Naum Sekulovski and Beauchamp. Karis adds that he has “a real passion for the job, particularly when I see a player’s career grow. But I like to keep a low-profile myself.”

And what does he look for in a potential client? “Attitude and character would be the first thing, followed by their potential as a player to move either into the A-League or beyond that league.”

Similarly, Mandic looks for the person behind the talent. “His attitude, his ability and his parents. If any of these three are odd, I decline the invitation. We have only taken on four new players in six years, so that tells you how stringent we are in our demands.”

With established footballers, as Nettelbeck notes, it’s often word of mouth that leads players to certain agents and managers. “Locker-room talk… players talk about their agents with other players and that’s often the best referral. If a player rings you, you call the federation to find out if he does have an agent. At the end of the day it’s a small community,” he says.

Of course, not all licensed agents are player-managers. Some, like Lou Sticca, simply negotiate various deals. “Being an agent,” explains Melbourne-based Sticca, “is about relationships. A good agent is no different to any other professional. Ultimately, his client has expectations and you’re there to assist in his career. It’s about listening to your client.”

Rafa shows Kewell what can be done with a healthy groin

Since becoming a full-time licensed agent six years ago, Sticca has gone on to negotiate a number of high-profile deals with Sydney FC during the club’s recruitment phase prior to the inaugural A-League season, prompting Melbourne Victory football manager Gary Cole to taunt, “It appears Lou Sticca is piecing together [Sydney’s] team. What other club on the planet would allow a player agent to do that?”

Sticca also negotiates short-term guest deals: Kazuyoshi “Kazu” Miura last season and, through his Italian connections, the talismanic Benito Carbone this year.

“Some deals are quite smooth, others not so,” says Sticca, with the wearied tone of a man who’s negotiated many a deal. “The reality is that there is an infinite supply of players, but a small number of jobs. Every agent will have their own speciality – Asia, Europe or Scandinavia for instance– but I think your speciality is your last deal. For me, my speciality is probably the UK.”

And like Nettelbeck and Karis, Sticca adds “you need good contacts worldwide” to do the job properly. It was those UK contacts with Simon Bayliff, a licensed football agent with SFX sports management company, that got Sticca in on the negotiating of Dwight Yorke’s Sydney FC contract.
So, what is the process of becoming an FFA-accredited agent?

The FFA run budding Jerry Maguires through a written exam (see photocopy) to ascertain whether they have, in the words of FFA A-League operations boss Matt Carroll, “a working knowledge of the game in Australia”.

You need at least a 66 percent to pass the exam and the multiple choice questions are set by the FFA (based on the local game) and FIFA. Questions include easy ones (“What is the official name of the Australian national competition?”) to more complex posers about standard playing contracts, legal issues, compensation, regulations and international eligibility. FFA also runs police checks on the applicants and there is an indemnity insurance fee to be paid by the would-be agents.

While the FFA has the power to license agents, the Australian Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) acts as custodians for players in this country, providing “international quality representation and service to Australian professional footballers” according to their mission statement.

As such, the PFA is acutely aware of agents and their activities. It has similar concerns to Mandic, but are able to offer assistance to both parties.

“Our role in relation to agents is twofold,” explains PFA CEO John Didulica. “To assist players – in terms of legal advice, support and rights – with their ongoing relationships with agents as well as give agents themselves assistance in servicing players.”

The PFA recently made a detailed submission to the FFA regarding, among other related issues, the agent licensing accreditation procedures (to read in full go to www.pfa.net.au) which Didulica argues is “not onerous enough”.

“The more onerous it is means you’ll attract those who really want to put in the hard yards to become an agent. Why not make it a diploma degree of 12 months study?” he suggests.

Sticca agrees that once an agent licence is granted, it has to be full-time in order to do the job properly. “With the amount of travelling and contact-making you need to do, both here and overseas, how can you have another job and be a professional agent at the same time?”

So, is 21 agent licenses too many for the 270-odd professional players in Australia? “There is no magic number… it’s about quality not quantity,” reflects Didulica. “But we need full-time agents – it’s a full-time compliance.”

In the short term, FFA has no plans to increase the number of agent licences being granted. At the recent A-League agents’ forum, the number of licensed agents was raised.

“It’s hard to say whether the number is too high or too low,” says Carroll, “but we want to keep a level of competition”. But he adds that “there is no stipulation that [being an agent] should be full-time”.

Didulica, who also sits on the FIFA Disputes Resolution Committee as an AFC representative, cites a case of a player who was forced into military service in one country that he went to play in, and another of a player who thought he had a one-year contract when in fact it was for five years.

“It’s an important role [being an agent], it’s not going to go away so it needs to be governed properly,” he stresses. “It is a job that requires enormous integrity and football experience to properly serve the best interests of the player.”

FFA's Matt Carroll urges players to consult the PFA

Interestingly, a recent survey published on the PFA website indicates a majority of players in the A-League don’t trust agents. And this, according to the PFA, is one reason why there is a greater level of players’ trust in player managers as theirs is not solely a “transactional relationship”, says Didulica.

Perhaps it’s not surprising given the amount of money in football and the scope of the game worldwide that some bad eggs will ruin it for the rest. And as Mandic concedes, there are a few good agents who operate as day-to-day managers of players.

“But they are the exception to the rule,” he says. “Tony Stephens… the way he managed the careers of Beckham, Owen and Shearer was brilliant.”

Didulica neatly sums up the dilemma. “Nineteen out of 20 agents will be fine. But it’s that one who can cause massive implications for a player.”