Since March 1st 2017, the DNCG (National Directorate of Management Control) in France are allowed to look at how agents operate in France, and look at all of their paperwork.
This means the ‘financial watchdog’, if you want to call them that, can analyse any document that has been used to ‘accomplish a mission’, which includes receipts from meals with club presidents.
Out of 450 licensed agents, the DNCG decided to take a closer look at five of them, including Joaquim Batica, who oversaw the loan transfer of Wolves defensive midfielder Prince Oniangué to Angers in January.
The Congo international has started five of the seven games his new club have taken part in, although their form has remained very similar, with the SCO currently 19th in Ligue 1.
Why are the DNCG looking at the Wolves’ midfielder’s agent in particular?
L’Equipe state he often uses intermediaries from outside the European Union, and with some agents (not necessarily him) often handing up to 90% of their commission to said (mostly unqualified) intermediaries, who help put deals together, they want to ensure everything is done within the rules.
For Stéphane Canard, the president of the football agents’ union, who is all for this procedure, it’s all about ensuring agents aren’t the only ones targeted: “We want the DNCG to seize the accountability of lawyers, European agents who receive a provisory licence and cover certain intermediaries, as well as families, who are more and more influential and who clearly get compensated, which is very much forbidden.
“There are people who work, who aren’t allowed to do so, and who are never controlled. There is a clear disloyal competition.”
As for what happens for the agent who helped save the 29-year-old’s stagnating Molineux career, no one knows yet. Nuno Espirito Santo probably isn’t counting on Prince Oniangué for next season, so the agent will likely have to negotiate another Wolves transfer.
The DNCG are still taking a good look at the mass of paperwork handed to them, with one of the five agents stating it took him three weeks to put the dossier together, and a decision will be given soon.
