Recruiting through Instagram, burner phones & more: the effects of new FIBA agency rules / News - Basketnews.com

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On January 1st, 2022, FIBA officially introduced several changes to the rules that govern the activity of the FIBA agents that represent the players. And we're talking about some major changes that will most likely change the landscape of European basketball in terms of the relationship between players and agents.

These substantial changes were already announced in the summer of 2021, but they became effective only at the beginning of 2022, and they're already producing some noise.

"Players can now interrupt the contract with their agent with just a 30-day notice, so you'll see a lot of players changing agency quite fast," a FIBA agent told Basketnews.

"Since the beginning of the new year, one of my clients has been approached by two different agents through social media. It's going to be even wilder than before," another FIBA agent explained to our website.

The use of social media to recruit players is becoming a new reality, several agents told BasketNews. With players having a strong social media presence and often being active on their phones, the agencies are using social networks like Instagram and Twitter to attract new players much more than before.

"Instagram is often used as a recruiting tool", another FIBA agent told Basketnews. "I know several recruiters that work for major agencies that use Instagram a lot to text players and let them know that there might be a better place for them in a new agency."

"Recruiters try to be players' buddies and social media are often the main path to player's ear", European GM told BasketNews. "I'm not exactly a fan of this strategy, I can understand when small agents try to do that, but when bigger agencies also act like this, I don't find it very fair."

Another agent, though, disagrees with the opinion that this type of strategy is not ethical.

"We live in the social media era, everyone uses Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. Companies look at social media profiles of their candidates to have a better understanding of them, so why agencies shouldn't do that? It's a new reality", a FIBA agent told Basketnews.

The path followed by FIBA looks like a clear adaptation to the NBA model. One of the major changes is that from now on, the agents' fees will no longer be paid by the teams but by the players, just like in the NBA.

FIBA has also decided to approve another element that is pretty common in the NBA, players being represented by more than one agent. A procedure that has been tolerated for a long time is now officially approved by FIBA.

"With players having to pay the agents' fees by themselves, you will see a lot of cases in which the agent will cut down his percentage to make himself more attractive for the player," a FIBA agent told Basketnews.

"If I know that I'm in a bidding war with other agents, it's easy to predict how it's going to end: to have a bigger chance to represent that player, I'm gonna tell him 'when you sign the contract with the team, you're gonna give me only 5% instead of the 10%", another FIBA agent explained to Basketnews.

While these changes may align FIBA on the same model followed by the NBA, they also create a market in which there'll be very few rules and a lot of 'unfair' competition.

FIBA removed a rule, which was initially included in section E of the agents' rules, that stated that an agent 'must never approach a player who's under contract with another agent so as to persuade him to break his contract or not to adhere to the rights and duties contained in that contract'.

Let's be clear: agents poaching clients from other agents has been common in the basketball environment for years, even with that rule in place. But the fact that FIBA decided to remove that provision from their rules completely speaks clearly of their preference to have a free market for the agents, even if that means that some 'shady moves' will become even more frequent than before.

"Trying to steal clients from other agents was already a common practice, now it'll become the new reality. It is what it is, if you're in this business, you know that something like that can happen," a FIBA agent explained to Basketnews.

"There has never been real protection from FIBA to avoid these kinds of situations, now it's just like they give up on trying, they cannot contain these moves, so they refuse to do anything about it. To be completely honest, I don't blame them; it's the nature of this business," another FIBA agent told Basketnews.

The general feeling around these rules changes is that the players will be more empowered in their decision process, favored by shorter terms to get out the contracts.

"Players will probably have more power now. They can get out of the deals with the agents sooner, and having to pay the agents' fees personally, you'd need to have even a better relationship with them. Otherwise, you won't see your money," another FIBA agent told Basketnews.

"Bigger agencies will benefit a lot from these new rules, they already had most of the power on the market, now they'll basically have full control. They can spend much more money than smaller agencies or independent agents, and their recruiting will become non-stop," the same agent added.

"You can already see some of these 'behind the back' moves happening. I know a player that, since January 1st, has received at least 100 calls from a recruiter of a very important agency, they've been incessant in trying to recruit him".

"Obtaining the phone number of a player it's not that difficult if you're in this business, you ask to a couple of persons, maybe use a favor or two, and you have the number. At that point, it's a lot easier to try to recruit the player, even if he's not really interested in leaving his current agent", a recruiter told Basketnews.

Some agents understand the need to do business but they also agree on the fact that other agents or recruiters can cross the line sometimes.

"I know the business that I'm in, but at the same time, I think there are some boundaries. Calling a player 30-40 times a day to try to convince him to leave his current agent, I don't think it's a cool thing to do. Looks like stalking more than recruiting to me", a FIBA agent told Basketnews.

While some of these situations were already a 'common' practice, the general feeling around several people in the industry it's that they'll become much more frequent than before.

"I wouldn't be surprised if they'll become even more frequent now", another FIBA agent told Basketnews. "Now you have shorter deals and virtually no protection on those agents' contracts, so I believe that 'shady' moves will only increase".

If you're a small agent, there's no way you stop your client from leaving in that scenario unless your client is so loyal that he'll keep riding with you, but that's a very rare thing," another FIBA agent told Basketnews.

Among most agents, though, there's a concern that has been there for several years and that FIBA hasn't really tackled teams' freedom to be late with payments and not really getting punished because of that.

While the activity of the agents is very well regulated, there's the feeling that the clubs are way too protected when it comes to late payments or missing payments.

"The whole BAT system just doesn't work," a FIBA agent told Basketnews. "Teams can make partial payments to keep having the possibility of registering new players, then they miss a payment, a new BAT procedure is open, but in the meantime, teams can still operate like they're in the clear. They're too protected."

"As of right now, they're all focusing on the fact that now players will pay the agents' fees, but that's kind of silly to me," the same FIBA agent explained to BasketNews. "With the previous rules, if a team was late with payments, there was no way that the agent had received his fee before the player had received his money, no way, trust me."

Another agent explained to our website that the clauses about the delays of payments are basically worthless: "FIBA's approach in those situations is always the same, they ask the team to pay, and the player must patiently wait for the money, but when the money doesn't arrive, they don't really do anything. Trying to obtain a letter of clearance from FIBA for late payments is almost impossible."

So, while FIBA's work in some sectors, like a clear distinction of management and placement services and a limitation of agents' conflicts of interest in some situations, looks promising, the general feeling around the agents' environment is that these new rules will only benefit few stakeholders and will transform an already very competitive world into a wild west.

Even club executives don't look particularly happy now they are no longer requested to pay the agents' fees.

"For the clubs, it's actually not great news," a European GM explained to Basketnews. "We don't have to pay the 10% fee to the agent anymore, but now, basically, we're going to spend more on the players' salaries because they have to give the 10% to the agents, it's the same thing. Clubs won't benefit from this change."

However, Zalgiris GM and president Paulius Motiejunas welcomed such changes.

"We took these changes positively," Motiejunas said to BasketNews' Lukas Katilius. "We think that this way, there will be more justice. The relationships between a player and an agent were usually harmful to the club."

"Overall, we think that this is a good thing, which makes everything more accurate because it's a relationship between two people (player and agent). They should settle things between themselves, not the club," Motiejunas added.

Recruiting through social media, a non-stop competition to sign the best players, quick changes, and lots of foul play. Agents better be ready for a serious challenge.

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