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FIFA's new regulations for football agents will come into full force on 1 October 2023, and from then on it will not be possible to act as an agent unless you have passed the exam or have been exempted from the exam due to licensing as a football agent from before 2015.

For players, clubs and agents, the new regulations involve major changes, and it is important for these groups to familiarize themselves with the changes in order to safeguard their own interests and to ensure that one does not violate FIFA's regulations, as this may result in sanctions from FIFA.

If a dispute should be handled by domestically, either by ordinary courts or domestic sports tribunals or by international sports tribunals, such as FIFA’s football tribunals, will primarily depend on whether the dispute has an international dimension. Many national football associations have established domestic sports arbitration systems, handling domestic sports related disputes, i.e. where all the parties to the dispute are based in the same country. A football dispute with an international dimension will normally be handled by FIFAs football tribunals.

On 28th February 2022, as a consequence of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine four days earlier, FIFA and UEFA decided to suspend all Russian teams from FIFA’s competitions. The far most important consequence of the decision was that Russia’s representative team was eliminated from the FIFA World Cup 2022.

In a media release from the Court of Arbitration for Sport 18 March 2022, CAS confirmed that the President of CAS’ Appeals Arbitration Division had rejected the request filed by the Football Union of Russia (FUR) to stay, for the duration of the CAS proceedings, the execution of the FIFA Council’s decision to to suspend all Russian teams and clubs from participation in its competitions.

On 10 November 2021, FIFA released the awaited 2021 edition of its Commentary to the Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players (RSTP). The new edition of the Commentary on RSTP will replace the first Commentary edition released in 2007.

The main aims of the FIFA Clearing House is to increase the transparency of the transfer system, to protect its integrity and reinforce solidarity mechanisms for training clubs. These aims are sought to be reached by establishing a clearing house that centralise, process, and execute all payments related to transfers, hereunder transfer fees, solidarity contribution, training compensation and intermediaries/agents’ fees.

A cheaper, faster and less risky alternative to court proceedings and arbitration is sports mediation. Through sports mediation, it will be possible to achieve good solutions also in cases that involve several parties and have a high level of complexity.

The nature of sport is such that quick resolution of disputes and disciplinary cases is essential, as an award would have little or no effect if not rendered quickly. Sports competitions and tournaments will not be put on hold to await the outcome of disputes or other legal processes, and such cases must be resolved quickly and fair. CAS has established fast track procedures that aims to reduce the time of a procedure in cases where that is essential, to meet these challenges.

To fully understand the framework that FIFA and confederations, hereunder UEFA will, have to comply with when making decisions that affect football clubs, football associations, players and other stakeholders within the football family, it is necessary to have an understanding of the relationship between the parties.