A Belfast football agent has joined an elite list after passing a FIFA exam that half of candidates failed.
Football's governing body have revealed that only 52 per cent, 1,962 of 3,800 applications, passed the first test.
Hundreds recently took the exam at London's ExCel Centre from 138 member associations.
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A new worldwide FIFA licence is the central part of FIFA's Football Agent Regulations, with those who failed being offered another bite at the cherry this September when a second sitting of the exam takes place.
The new licence will become compulsory from October 1.
One agent who passed the exam first time out is Lee Mudd. The Belfast man works for world leading agency CAA Sports, who include Real Madrid's Raphael Varane and Spurs forward Son Heung-min on their books..
It is understood the 41-year-old - who has internationals Jordan Thompson and Liam Donnelly amongst his clients - is the first agent in Northern Ireland to pass the FIFA test.
Mudd can now add the FIFA qualification to his CV, but many other agents across the planet have complained about how tough the exam is with a pass rate of 75 percent.
There are currently around 2,000 licensed agents in the UK and many long-standing representatives did not have to take the new exam as they already qualify under FIFA’s “legacy” agreement, reports the Irish Mirror.
But the new set-up is designed to crackdown on unscrupulous agents but also cut down on the growing trend of family members representing their kids.
FIFA are confident that the new qualification and rules will make it much harder for family members to use an agent as a “front” to sign off on deals while they effectively run the show having often been paid huge sums for the privilege.
There were an initial 6,586 applications but only 3,800 actually paid the £300 to sit the exam which took an hour and featured 20 multiple choice questions.
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