Serhat Yilmaz is a Senior Lecturer in Sports Law at Loughborough University and Academic Coordinator of the Professional Certificate for Sports Agents and The FIFA Football Agent Examination programs.
Serhat Yilmaz has spent years analysing the evolution of the sports agent market from both an academic and professional perspective. As Academic Coordinator of the Professional Certificate for Sports Agents and The FIFA Football Agent Examination programmes, offered by Johan Cruyff Institute in collaboration with Loughborough University, he has closely followed the regulatory changes introduced by FIFA and the new demands facing an increasingly complex and competitive profession.
In this interview, Yilmaz explains how the FIFA Football Agent Exam has evolved, the main challenges faced by those seeking to obtain a licence, and why a thorough understanding of the regulations is essential for building a successful professional career. He also reflects on issues such as ethics, the representation of minors, and the future of a profession that is moving towards increasingly comprehensive representation models, with a stronger focus on athletes’ personal brand development.
What challenges has the FIFA Football Agent Exam created for aspiring agents?
I think the main difficulty with the FIFA Agent Exam that we are observing as a course provider is that the exam is evolving and becoming harder. This creates a challenge for candidates.
What do I mean by becoming harder? The questions are now much more sophisticated and designed in a way that challenges candidates. They are also generally more tech-savvy in their design.
In addition, we are seeing more “select one or more” style questions, where candidates need to identify multiple correct answers. To answer the question correctly, they must select all of the correct options.
These questions are also increasingly scenario-based. As a result, candidates are faced with technical, scenario-driven questions that may have more than one correct answer, which creates a major challenge under time pressure. They have only 60 minutes to answer 20 questions.
Another challenge is the amount of information they need to process. For me, this changing nature of the exam is one of the main challenges, and it makes preparation essential.
“When we launched the training course in May 2023, our main learning objective was to prepare delegates fully for the exam”.
That preparation is based on the systematic study of the FIFA exam materials so that delegates first learn and understand the content.
Alongside that learning content, which focuses on understanding the materials in depth, delegates also test their knowledge through the training course. Therefore, our focus has always been on preparation.
How does the understanding of regulations for the exam help candidates once they have their licence?
For us as educators, knowledge and understanding of the FIFA exam materials, which are predominantly focused on FIFA regulations, are fundamental for licensed agents.
Once candidates successfully pass the exam and obtain their licence by paying the licence fee, they need to operate in the agent market and in the football industry more broadly. The role requires a solid understanding of these regulations, which, from my perspective, is closely linked to compliance.
“For that reason, I do not think candidates should see exam preparation as something that exists purely to pass the exam. Education also needs to prepare them for their professional careers beyond the exam”.
We need to ensure that they understand these regulations, both in terms of what the rules mean and how they apply in practice. This enables them to operate in compliance with the regulations and develop good, ethical agent practice.
How does the Professional Certificate Program for Sports Agents Online address ethics, integrity and the diversity of the context?
The Professional Certificate Program, which is our flagship programme for aspiring agents, places a strong emphasis on ethical agent practice.
We have a dedicated module focused on integrity issues. Within that module, we cover a range of integrity challenges affecting the agent sector, including conflicts of interest, human trafficking, competition manipulation and match-fixing.
We not only explore these issues but also focus on how to develop ethical agent practices that help address them.
Another area that we consider particularly important from an ethical perspective is the representation of minors. In this context, minors are players under the age of 18, and their representation is a fundamentally important aspect of the agent role, particularly in football.
We therefore have a dedicated module on the representation of minors. Within that module, we use children’s rights as both a legal and conceptual framework.
We utilise that framework to define and conceptualise good and ethical agent practice when working with young players. For me, this is a fundamentally important area, and it is something we want our learners to fully understand as they develop their professional practice.
What misconceptions do students usually have about the sports agent industry?
I think the biggest misconception is the belief that it is easy to break into the profession.
I have said this many times before, and I will say it again: the sports agent market is highly competitive. It takes time to establish yourself. In the Professional Certificate Program for Sports Agents, we discuss these challenges extensively, including the competitive nature of the market and the importance of being patient rather than rushing the process. It takes time to secure your first deal.
Those whom I would describe as aspiring agents, people who are trying to enter the profession and establish themselves in the market, need to be patient.
“The misconception is that success will come quickly and that within a matter of months they will secure a major deal. The reality is different”.
We challenge that perception through our education. We want our learners to develop the right mindset and be prepared for the transition from education into the profession, while recognising that building a career takes time.
How do you see the role of sports agents evolving in the next few years?
The role of the sports agent has evolved significantly in recent years. I now define it as having two dimensions.
The first is what I call on-the-field representation. This involves representing athletes in relation to their sporting activities.
In team sports, this means identifying opportunities with clubs or teams and negotiating the relevant contracts between players and clubs.
In individual sports, where there are no teams, on-the-field representation generally involves identifying competitions and placing athletes in those competitions so they can participate and develop their careers.
The second dimension is what I define as off-the-field representation. This concerns services that address the athlete’s needs away from competition.
These needs are diverse. Agents and agencies now provide branding and public relations services, lifestyle management, financial management and legal services, among others.
“As a result, the role of the agent has become much more holistic. Some academic literature refers to this as holistic talent representation, while others describe it as 360-degree representation or full-service representation”.
Against that background, one area that I believe will continue to grow is commercial representation.
This centres on athlete branding: developing an athlete’s personal brand and using that brand for commercial purposes.
It is a particularly interesting area given the growth of digital technologies and social media. We can also see developments in the United States through Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) rights, where college athletes are now commercialising their NIL rights and specialised NIL agents are emerging.
I think we may see similar developments in European sport.
At the elite level, this is already happening. Top athletes increasingly have a significant branding dimension to their careers. However, I believe these opportunities will also expand to mid-tier athletes and emerging talent.
This is a highly specialised area because it combines branding expertise with an understanding of digital technologies, social media, negotiation and contractual arrangements.
I see it as a dynamic and evolving space that will become increasingly important in the years ahead.
