FA FINE: Arsenal received a £60,000 fine after breaching football agent regulations.

The breach was in relation to the player transfer of Calum Chambers. It took place for an undisclosed fee from Southampton (Saints) in July of 2014.

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The FA Rules and Regulations

The fine followed an FA rules and regulations irregularity by Arsenal Football Club.

They admitted part of the breach but denied involvement in an additional violation. The independent regulatory commission could find no proof to substantiate the second charge.

The agent, Alan Middleton of Cassius Sports Management, got fined £30,000. He was also given a suspended three-month ban for his role in the matter – despite his denial.

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FA ‘Partial’ Fronting Rules

They disclosed the official reasons for the sanctions as an incident case of ‘partial’ fronting. In simple terms, it means that the transfer involved an unauthorized and unlicensed agent.

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Arsenal Football Club Response

The response from Arsenal Football Club stated: “We acted in good faith throughout in this transfer. We had no reason to believe that the player’s representative was not authorized for his involvement in the transfer negotiations.

The FA fully recognized that there was no intention to mislead on Arsenal’s part. We have improved our procedures to prevent this happening again”.

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The Agent’s Response

The agent received a warning about his future conduct. He also received a substantial fine and sanctioned for breaching the regulations. The FA confirmed his suspension from all agency or intermediary activity will last for a period of 3 months.

Even so, the ban got suspended for 18 months from October 23, 2015. That is providing he does not commit a contrary offence to the agent or the FA Rules and Regulations on working with intermediaries during this time.

Mr. Middleton responded to the outcome by stating: “I am pleased that the FA commission found that the only case to answer was a minor procedural error. It was a genuine oversight by ourselves and Arsenal Football Club.

As a company we take our responsibilities extremely seriously. It was pleasing to see that the commission acknowledged that at all times we acted in the best interests of the player and co-operated fully with the commission’s investigation.

Lessons have been learned! We have implemented measures going forward that would ensure such an error could not happen again.”

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