It's a market worth $1 billion each year and involves thousands of professional players moving across borders to find new employers. And until now what little regulation existed has been confused and open to abuse, but that is about to change. FIFA is making its new online transfer register a requirement for most leagues later this year, fundamentally altering how players ranging from Cristiano Ronaldo to unknown Latin American teens can move to new teams in different nations. The system is remarkably easy, with clubs signed up to a Web-based network required to match the details of any international player transactions and upload proof of payment, identification of agents involved and other documents to confirm a player's new employer. The transfer monitor has been a long time coming. FIFA says years of poor oversight has led to rogue agents “owning” their clients and controlling their destinies, illegal payments between clubs and companies, and even money laundering through transfers of fictitious footballers _ practices that FIFA hopes its new system will stamp out. “The transfer market is one of the last places on the planet where you have billions of dollars and no one is really checking,” said Mark Goddard, head of the FIFA anti-corruption program. “It has basically been a jungle with no oversight, and that is changing.”
