Trinidad and Tobago could lose World Cup qualifying points over fielding a player-agent

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Player agent Andre Boucard.
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The embattled Trinidad and Tobago FA, currently ruled by a FIFA Normalisation Committee, could face the embarrassment of losing points from its recent World Cup qualifiers for playing an ineligible player.

Trinidad and Tobago are drawn in a group with St Kitts and Nevis, Guyana, Puerto Rico and Bermuda, a group they would ordinarily be expected to romp through without too much difficulty.

Having opened with a win against Guyana, the Trinidadians followed up with a draw against Puerto Rico, and in doing so brought on registered player agent Andre Boucard.

Boucard, who last featured for Trinidad and Tobago in March 2017, but, aged 36, had not played for at least seven months before his call-up by coach Terry Fenwick.

Trinidad and Tobago registered Boucard as playing for Maidstone Utd in England’s sixth tier, though a search of records shows no indication of his registration.

However, he was registered as a player intermediary with the English FA.

English FA rules expressly prohibit an agent playing competitively in the elite professional and semi-professional tiers of the game.

Rule 1.2 of Appendix II in the English FA rules states; “An Official (as defined by the FIFA Statues or any successor hereto) or a Player cannot be an Intermediary. An Intermediary becoming an Official or a Player shall have his Registration suspended for as long as he remains an Official or a Player.”

Boucard was subsequently pulled from the list of English FA player-agents and his license temporarily suspended.

The English FA say their rules mirror those of FIFA and while the conflicts that would arise with a player also being an agent are obvious, FIFA’s own rules don’t specifically mention players cannot be agents, though the wording implies that is the case.

However, FIFA’s rules are very clear over sanctions that would be applied if an ineligible player took part in an official match. In this case the sanction would be to forfeit the game. (www.insideworldfootball.com)

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