FIFA Ethical Recruitment Guide
The FIFA Ethical Recruitment Guide provides the essential guidelines to ensure ethical and responsible recruitment in football. This practical guide helps prevent abuse and exploitative practices by clarifying risks, best practices, and expected behaviours in order to protect players, promote transparency, and strengthen integrity in recruitment processes.
Last updated: 23/01/2026 Try for FREE
What is the FIFA ethical recruitment guide?
The FIFA ethical recruitment guide is an official document that is now part of the educational material for the FIFA agent exam. As its name suggests, this guide was designed to support player agents in managing conflicts and disputes related to recruitment, particularly when transactions involve minor players.
With the integration of this document into the educational content, FIFA’s objective is to ensure that an agent is not only seeking athletic performance or financial gain for their clients. They must also act as a guardian of the player's rights and contribute to the proper functioning of FIFA’s regulatory framework.
Ethical recruitment is not just a responsibility – it’s your superpower. - FIFA
What does the FIFA ethical recruitment guide contain?
The FIFA ethical recruitment guide serves as a reference to ensure that the recruitment process aligns with the regulatory framework imposed by FIFA, especially when minors are involved. This document supports sports agents during player recruitment to ensure professional conduct with complete transparency.
The FIFA ethical recruitment guide is structured as a comprehensive educational document, organised into several modules and annexes. It includes:
- Introduction: presentation of the guide, its objectives and methodology
- Unit 1: Introduction to ethical recruitment in football
- Unit 2: Legal frameworks and regulations for ethical recruitment
- Unit 3: Ethical principles in recruitment
- Unit 4: Best practices for recruitment
- Checklist 1: Ethical decision-making framework
- Checklist 2: Ethical recruitment checklist
- Annex 1: FIFA football agent code of conduct
- Annex 2: FIFA football agents ethical communications guide
What you need to know before reading the FIFA ethical recruitment guide
Before focusing fully on the content of the FIFA ethical recruitment guide, it is useful to understand one key concept. Ethics in football is an everyday reality.
The document first explains that a licensed FIFA agent influences a player’s career path, especially when the player is young. It is a true all-encompassing support during the most decisive years of a career.
A distinction is also made between two types of ethics:
- Personal ethics: corresponds to a person’s values, beliefs and culture
- Professional ethics: corresponds to FIFA regulations, national laws, and the expectations of the FIFA agent profession
Unethical recruitment puts not only the player at risk but also the agent. Such practices can damage an agent’s reputation or expose them to legal or disciplinary consequences.
Key information about the FIFA ethical recruitment guide
The guide particularly highlights the real risks observed in unethical recruitment situations.
FIFA outlines many fraudulent and abusive practices that can arise during the recruitment process, including:
- Misrepresentation
- Misleading contracts
- Unjustified advance payments
- Poaching through financial incentives
- Bribes and corruption
- Conflicts of interest
- Financial exploitation
- Human trafficking
The FIFA ethical recruitment guide references a study conducted by FIFPRO (2023). This study reveals that over 70% of players surveyed had been contacted by someone claiming to be an agent, and a significant portion received unfulfilled promises (trials, contracts).
FIFA ethical recruitment guide: preparation for the FIFA exam
Mastering this document during preparation for the FIFA agent exam is a real asset, as it reinforces the foundational knowledge expected during the exam.
Here’s how the FIFA ethical recruitment guide is connected to the exam preparation:
- Understanding the risks and misconduct in recruitment: the guide details unethical practices and their consequences for both players and agents’ reputations.
- Protection of minors: FIFA makes this a top priority and stresses that agents must act as protectors of their minor clients.
- Transparency and honesty in communication: the exam requires candidates to adopt a professional approach, whether when dealing with clients or sports management teams.
- Mastery of the FIFA regulatory framework: this document reminds candidates that agents must comply with a dual framework – the FIFA Football Agent Regulations and national laws.
Additional resources beyond the FIFA ethical recruitment guide
To prepare for the agent exam, the FIFA ethical recruitment guide alone is not enough. Explore other resources and important documents that can help you prepare for the FIFA football agent exam. Articles and explanatory videos can offer additional perspectives.
Moreover, theoretical courses can enhance the overall understanding of the subject. To put this knowledge into practice, interactive questions help test what you’ve learned. Finally, to assess your level under conditions similar to the official exam, SportsAgent Institute also offers mock exams for training.
Download the FIFA ethical recruitment guide PDF
Thorough preparation for the FIFA agent exam requires an in-depth understanding of the FIFA ethical recruitment guide, as outlined earlier.
To download the FIFA ethical recruitment guide PDF: FIFA ethical recruitment guide
Documents from the FIFA agent exam study materials
The FIFA ethical recruitment guide is an essential document, but it must be used alongside all the other subjects and circulars included in the study materials for the FIFA agent exam.
FIFA ethical recruitment guide, in summary
The FIFA ethical recruitment guide is a vital resource aimed at supporting player agents in adopting responsible, transparent practices that comply with international standards. Designed to address real-life disputes on the ground, this document emphasises a fundamental point: the protection of young players, especially minors, to prevent abuse, exploitation and recruitment misconduct.
By studying the FIFA ethical recruitment guide, current and future agents can better understand the professional standards expected, enhance their credibility, and act with integrity in all their professional duties. It is also an essential tool for anyone preparing for the FIFA agent exam, as it helps master the key principles of modern recruitment: transparency, fairness, and compliance with the regulatory framework.