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The world football governing body has set the date for the next test with the new licence becoming compulsory from October 1
Kenyans who wish to join Christopher Ochieng, Feisal Noor, James Otieno and Feisal Swaleh as licensed FIFA agents have until July 31 to apply for the agents’ exam which will next be administered online on September 20.
The four were among five Kenyans who sat for the exam last month and were consequently certified after passing the rigorous test.
Reports last month revealed that almost half of would-be football agents failed the FIFA exam after the world governing body revealed that only 52 percent, 1,962, of the 3,800 candidates, passed the first test which was taken by candidates from 138 different member associations across different time zones.
Those who failed the exam can sit it again at the next test with the new licence becoming compulsory from October 1 following this transitional period.
There are currently around over 15,000 licensed agents in the world and many long-standing representatives did not have to take the new exam as they already qualify under FIFA’s “legacy” agreement.
The new set-up is designed to crackdown on unscrupulous agents but also cut down on the growing trend of family members representing their kin.
FIFA are confident that the new qualification and rules will make it much harder for family members to use an agent as a “front” to sign off on deals while they effectively run the show having often been paid huge sums for the privilege.
There were an initial 6,586 applications for the exam but only 3,800 actually paid the Ksh50,000 to sit the exam which took an hour and featured 20 multiple choice questions.
According to media reports, some agents believed there was a “cheat code” because candidates were allowed to take in electronic reading material and they could simply press “control F” on a keyboard to search for the answers.
But FIFA, who gave candidates a 528-page document to study before the exam, insisted that it is not that easy as they still have to apply the relevant information to each answer.
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