Gino Culbertson is a football agent who fell out of love with the game after becoming “disillusioned” with the murky world of the football industry. He spoke to VAVEL UK about his journey into the game, the politics behind the agency vortex and his new venture with Pro-Vision Football.
Football agents are everywhere to be seen in today’s modern game; a transfer can sometimes involve a number of agents, some for the buying club, a handful for the selling club and then possibly an agent or two for the players themselves.
In 2015, FIFA changed the agency rules meaning anyone and everyone had the opportunity to apply to become a football agent. Prior to 2015, there had been around 500 registered agents in the United Kingdom, but by 2018, the figure was somewhere between 3000-4000 FA registered intermediaries.
Becoming a football agent has never been so popular. It seems that whilst some play the pantomime villain in the elaborate show that is the modern football world, agents are an integral part of keeping the production running.
Read the full article here: https://www.vavel.com/an-insight-into-the-football-agents-world-from-ginoculbertson.html
How Culbertson got into the agency game
“I am an original FIFA agent, I passed the FIFA panel back in 2000. This was when you had to pass the panel and put a £100,000 bond up in Zurich. There were only about 40-45 of us (agents) back in those days, and instead of the FA and FIFA making it more difficult for people to become agents, they made it easier. It has allowed a lot of people to come into the industry for the wrong reasons. In fact around 85% of agents don’t do any deals and now to become an agent/Intermediary, you pay £500 and say that you are a fit person.”
“My background was finance and banking, but I love football and a lifelong fan of Juventus, having spent time with what is regarded as their greatest ever team in the early eighties, and the nucleus of the winning World Cup squad in 1982. My son-in-law was a World Champion Motocross rider and he had lots of contacts in Derby. He just said to me one day,” With your passion for football and your background and my contacts, why don’t we start up an agency?”
“I crammed for six months, learning all the FIFA statutes and regulations. I was based in London so I was driving down to London at 5am every morning and I just taped all the information on cassette tapes, and I would listen to them on the eight hour journey every day.” He adds,” Eventually I got my license and we started at Derby County. I had about nine players there and I am the only agent to have five players that came through the youth team and all played together in the first team. The BBC also did a documentary on me some years ago following me for a week and showing as they put it, ‘a good agent’ looking after his players.”
Read the full article here: https://www.vavel.com/an-insight-into-the-football-agents-world-from-ginoculbertson.html