3 long-time friends were questioned this Wednesday at the Bobigny criminal court about their unclear professional activities.
Of the three friends “sandbox”, only one has the license to be a sports agent. But on Wednesday, before the Bobigny criminal court, the two other actors struggled to define the limits of their activities which they charge without real detail.
First interviewed, Abdelkader K., black beard and dark clothes. Tried for illegal exercise of the profession of agent and money laundering in an organized gang, he defines himself bluntly “no longer a field man”who also holds a sports instructor diploma with a football option.
“No, I’m not an agent”affirms the one who trains the future talents that he has discovered through his activity of «scouting», an anglicism used to refer to those who spot players. The whole question of the trial, the judge clarified on Wednesday, is precisely to determine in what capacity and for what service the defendants received their remuneration, often calculated in tens of thousands of euros.
In between «scouts», business providers and agents, the borders are blurred and both the French Football Federation (FFF) and the courts are working to bring this nebula within the framework of the law. Only FFF license holders are agents and can put a player in contact with a club for a maximum remuneration of 10% of the amount of the signed contract.
In 2014, it is in the capacity of «scout» that Abdelkader K. discovers Dayot Upamecano, currently playing in the French team but who at 16, according to the defendant, presented technical shortcomings: “with his feet he was one-armed”. He and his friend Jalal B., also tried in court, then work together with the emerging talent.
Close to the player’s family, Jalal B., former international judoka, takes charge “the whole medical aspect, nutrition” when Abdelkader K. manages the aspect specific to football technique.
“Are you giving me a mandate Saïd?”
In 2018, it’s in quality “business providers” that the two friends signed an agreement with a sports lawyer, who then made Dayot Upamecano sign his first professional contract with the Austrian club Salzburg.
Feeling cheated by this first experience from which they each withdrew 240,000 euros while the lawyer received more than a million and a half, the two men then set up a «package» with their friend Lasana K., holder of the agent license since 2017.
Together the trio will manage “around ten players”, without managing to place them all in professional clubs. From 2017 to 2023, the SCO of Angers (L2) will prove to be one of their main business partners. On the phone, Abdelkader K. mentions “one or two moves to do” in the summer transfer window with Saïd Chabane, the owner and then president of the club.
“When you say to him ‘are you giving me a mandate, Saïd?’, is this an agent’s mandate you’re talking about?”the president of the court asks. “It’s just an expression, in football jargon, which says mandate says player,” he retorts. What about the amounts paid to him, via their respective companies, by his agent friend Lasana K. for his services?
“It’s a discussion between us,” he replies, “there are no grids”. At the start of his interrogation, Jalal B. maintains that the distribution of the money “was never a disagreement” between them. The court will continue to question him Thursday morning, as well as Saïd Chabane.
