The FA will "for the first time this week publish the names of the agents paid on each individual transfer completed by Premier League clubs in the last two transfer windows," as well as each clubs’ total spend on agents, under new regulations imposed by FIFA. The Premier League and Football League have in the past "published tables detailing the total amount spent on agent fees by clubs over the course of a season but the FA will introduce much greater detail by naming the agents whose names are on the transfer paperwork of every given transfer." The new protocol "raises the prospect that the size of individual fees paid to certain agents could be guessed at, especially for those clubs who only complete one or two significant deals" (London TELEGRAPH, 4/2).
New Japan FA VP Takeshi Okada "fired a warning shot," urging the Japanese football community to "have the courage to change if it wants to retain its current status in the world game." Japan’s two-time World Cup coach spoke for the first time as the JFA’s No. 2 man "after being wooed" by new President Kozo Tashima. Okada’s condition for taking the job was that "he did not have to forfeit his duties as owner of FC Imabari in the Shikoku Soccer League, to which the JFA agreed." Okada: "He told me he wanted to change Japanese football and that he needed my help to do it" (KYODO, 4/1).
Europa League runners-up Ukrainian Premier League side Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk has been banned from European competition for "one season by UEFA for breaching financial regulations." UEFA confirmed that Inter Baku, from Azerbaijan, and Romania's Targu Mures have "also been given one-season suspensions" along with the club. UEFA said that the bans would "apply to the next season in which the clubs qualify for European competition and would be in force for the next three campaigns" (SKY SPORTS, 3/31).
