ZURICH: One of the consequences of being a formal licensed football agent has emerged with FIFA punishing Mino Raiol for his outburst at Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini over the World Player awards writes KEIR RADNEDGE.

Dutch-born Italian-based agent Mino Raiola has been fined 5,000 Swiss francs plus 1,000 Swiss francs costs by the world football federation which had jurisidiction over Raiola because of his licence.

Raiola manages the commercial contracts of stars including Paris Saint-Germain’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Milan’s Mario Balotelli, Paul Pogba and Mark Van Bommel.

Last October, in an interview with the Stockholm tabloid evening newspaper Expressen, Raiola said he wanted to see Ibrahimovic properly recognised in the outcome of the 2012 award.

Ibrahimovic was the only Swedish player and the sole representative of French league football who had beem named in the ‘long list’ of 23 players from which a shortlist of three was chosen ahead of the annual FIFA Gala in Zurich in January.

Raiola said then: “This prize is important only if Zlatan wins it. This would prove it to be a fair and independent award. If he does not win it that would only reinforce the impression that it is a politically corrupt prize.

“If you want the prize to be taken seriously then the best player should win it – and that has been Zlatan, for many years now . . . if not, then to hell with it.”

Ibrahimovic won a league title in three different countries for eight successive seasons with Ajax (2004), Juventus (2005 and 2006 – albeit both revoked), Internazionale (2007, 2008 and 2009), Barcelona (2010) and Milan (2011).

‘Lack of transparency’

Having concluded that particular rant, Raiola attacked what he considered as the lack of transparency and skewed values within football’s governing bodies.

“FIFA and UEFA are exactly the same rubbish . . . the letters may be different but they both stand for anything but transparency. They could be described as a mafia organization in the way they hide things.

“If the Swedish government were like UEFA then the Swedish people would stage a revolution.”

One reason for Raiola’s anatagonism towards Platini was because of the UEFA president’s open concern about PSG’s sudden rise to mega-rich status after the takeover by Qatar Investment Authority.

Ibrahimovic eventually came 10th in the world player poll which Lionel Messi topped for the fourth time in a row.

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