The licence in one picture

Module 0: Orientation · lesson 1 of 4 · 7 min

Module 0: Orientation

Lesson one gives you the whole route to a licence on one slide, then fills in the detail that trips people up: the annual window, who can apply, and what FIFA checks before and after the exam. Module one teaches the rules behind each step in depth. Here, we want the map.

Start with the problem

The year of the online exam

  • In spring 2025, 16,117 people applied for a FIFA football agent licence, more than ever before.
  • The exam was the first held fully online, with live invigilation, on 18 and 19 June.
  • By exam day, 9,148 candidates were scheduled to sit it, and 7,745 turned up.
  • Results came out on 3 July. After reviews, 1,406 had passed.

“FIFA received the highest number of licensing applications in its history.”

Decide before you continue: Where did the other 14,711 applicants fall short?

Write down your answer and your reason. You will return to it after the lessons.

Source: FIFA Football Agents Report · December 2025 · Football Agents Report, pp. 7–11

From application to licence

FFAR art. 4

  1. Apply in the window. On the FIFA Agent Platform, in the annual window FIFA sets by circular.
  2. Eligibility checked. By FIFA’s general secretariat. If you are eligible, FIFA invites you to sit the exam.
  3. Sit the exam. Twenty questions in 60 minutes, online and invigilated.
  4. Get your result. Within 30 days of the last exam session. If you fail, you have three days to review.
  5. Pay within 90 days. The annual licence fee, or the application is void.
Transcript

Here is the whole route. You apply on the FIFA Agent Platform during the annual window. FIFA’s general secretariat checks your eligibility, and if you are eligible, FIFA invites you to sit the exam. You sit twenty questions in sixty minutes, online. Results arrive within thirty days of the last exam session, and if you fail you have three days to review your attempt. Pass, and you have ninety days to pay the annual licence fee. Five steps, and a deadline at almost every one.

One window a year

FFAR art. 6

Since 2025 FIFA has held one exam a year, and accepts applications only in a window it announces by circular.

For 2026, circular 1956 set the window at 20 January to 6 March, with exams on 28–30 April and 5–7 May if needed.

Miss the window and you wait a year. The 2026 window opened the day before its circular, so check the Platform from early January.

Transcript

Timing matters more than most candidates realise. Since 2025, FIFA holds one exam a year, and it only accepts applications during a window it announces by circular. For 2026, circular 1956 set the window from the twentieth of January to the sixth of March, with exams from the twenty-eighth of April, and more in May if needed. It called those the only exam sessions of the year, so miss the window and you wait a year. The 2026 window opened a day before its circular was issued, so check the Platform from early January.

Who can apply

There are no formal educational or professional requirements for a licence.

There is no exemption for lawyers, accountants, former players or coaches.

The only exemption is for people licensed under a national system FIFA recognises (so far France and Italy) before the FFAR came into force.

Transcript

Who can apply? Anyone who meets the eligibility requirements. FIFA sets no formal educational or professional requirements. Just as clearly, it gives no exemption based on your profession: lawyers, accountants, former players and coaches all sit the same exam. The only route around the exam is a national law licence that FIFA has recognised under article twenty-four of the regulations, and only for people who held that national licence before the FFAR came into force. By December 2025, FIFA had recognised two: France’s, in 2023, and Italy’s, in 2025.

What FIFA checks, and when

Before the exam

  • A complete application, made in the window
  • Every eligibility requirement in article 5
  • The exam fee, paid by FIFA’s deadline
  • The mandatory readiness check, in FIFA’s period

After you pass

  • The annual licence fee, within 90 days
  • Then the fee and CPD every year, by 30 September
  • Eligibility, at all times
Transcript

FIFA checks different things at different points. Before the exam: a complete application, your eligibility, payment of the exam fee by the deadline FIFA gives you, and the mandatory readiness check. After you pass: the annual licence fee within ninety days, then every year the fee and your CPD by the thirtieth of September, and your eligibility at all times. Notice that almost everything on this slide is a deadline or a form. None of it is hard. All of it is easy to miss.

Check your understanding

Question 1. Which of these candidates is exempt from the FIFA football agent exam?

Choose one answer.

Question 2. You miss the application window by two days. What can you do?

Choose one answer.