FIFA licensed agents in Nigeria: how to check a genuine one

On 4 June 2026, the candidates who sat FIFA's football agent exam at the end of April found out whether they had passed. The test is short and unforgiving. Twenty multiple-choice questions, 60 minutes, a pass mark of 75 per cent. Since 2025 FIFA holds it only once a year. For a young Nigerian player looking for representation, that is the first thing to understand. A genuine agent is someone FIFA has licensed, and FIFA keeps the list.

Why we removed the old list

This page used to carry a long list of names, phone numbers and addresses presented as FIFA licensed agents in Nigeria. It dated from 2021, before FIFA rebuilt its system. We could not verify those entries. Some of the people on it may no longer work as agents. Publishing private phone numbers that nobody can check helps nobody.

So the list is gone.

What replaces it is better. FIFA's legal pages link to a public directory of every agent it has licensed. The wording is plain: it gives access to “all Football Agents licensed by FIFA”. Search it by name before you sign anything, and if the person who approached you is not there, walk away.

How to check an agent before you sign

Most of the damage in Nigerian football is done before a contract is ever signed, at the stage where a player or a parent is asked to trust someone they met at a trial or on social media. A few checks take minutes.

• Ask for the agent's full name and find it in the FIFA directory.
• Get the representation agreement in writing and read who pays the agent.
• Take independent advice before signing, from a lawyer or a players' union.
• Be wary of anyone who asks for money to arrange a trial abroad.
• If the player is under 18, expect extra paperwork; a genuine agent will know it.

None of this is complicated. It is just rarely done.

Players' unions have been blunt about the scale of the problem. Marshall Munetsi, the Zimbabwe midfielder, spoke for FIFPRO's Global Player Council: “We cannot talk about a problem anymore; I would rather call it a crisis.” He added that players have to take their own responsibility.

That was a player talking, not an official.

What FIFA changed, and what is still on hold

FIFA's Football Agent Regulations came into force on 9 January 2023, when registration opened on the new Agent Platform. From 1 October 2023, players, coaches and clubs were only supposed to use licensed agents. The licence, the exam and the rules protecting minors are the parts that matter most to a player in Lagos or Enugu.

The money rules had a harder time.

FIFA wanted to cap what agents earn. The plan was up to 10 per cent of the transfer fee for an agent acting for a selling club. On a player's pay, the cap was 3 per cent above 200,000 dollars a year and 5 per cent below. Courts in Germany and Spain issued injunctions, an FA tribunal in London ruled against the cap in England, and on 30 December 2023 FIFA suspended the fee cap and several payment rules worldwide while the European Court of Justice looked at the case.

In May 2025 an Advocate General at that court gave a non-binding opinion. Rules of this kind can be justified, he said, but FIFA has to prove they are proportionate. We could not confirm whether a final judgment has since been delivered, so treat the cap as suspended until FIFA says otherwise.

Our view

The licence is not a guarantee of honesty. It is a minimum.

Shina Philips, a FIFA licensed agent in Nigeria, has called on the NFF to expose colleagues who lean on national team coaches, telling The Guardian that “any agent that is caught in the act of bribing coaches should be exposed to the public and arrested”.

For families, the safest route usually runs through a structured academy rather than a stranger with a WhatsApp number. Our guides to football academies in Lagos and football academies in Abuja list the ones we could verify. Same rule there. Check first, sign later.

This article was most recently revised and updated 27 seconds ago