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Mino Raiola Tells FIFA & EA Sports They 'Abuse Player Rights' In Most Extraordinary Rant Yet

Mino Raiola Tells FIFA & EA Sports They 'Abuse Player Rights' In Most Extraordinary Rant Yet

Raiola first started a war of words last year.

Daniel Marland

Daniel Marland

Football agent Mino Raiola has continued his feud with FIFA and EA Sports - by claiming the governing body and game publisher abuse their rights.

Last year saw the Dutchman start a war of words with FIFA FIFA over agent fees being capped and turned his fury towards the game as well.

He has threatened to 'delete' the popular franchise and is furious with how they profit off players.

Raiola told talkSPORT: "I think we can, they think we don't, but I think we can! Because there is a difference in the collective rights they said they bought.

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PA

"They buy collective rights from clubs that say they have it, but they use it on an individual basis and in most countries this is forbidden.

"We think that they are abusing rights of players, that they are not being bought from clubs and the club doesn't own them."

Raiola represents Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Erling Haaland and Paul Pogba among others in the footballing world.

He added: "If you want to buy a Paul Pogba card or a Zlatan Ibrahmovic card, you have to pay a certain amount but they send you 10 cards and you need to be happy that if in one of those 10 cards is one of the players you wanted.

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EA Sports

"So, there is a betting component, a lottery in that game and this is not what this game should be about."

Gareth Bale is another player who has questioned usage rights, with EA Sports claiming it is down down to license providers FIFPro.

Raiola also claimed FIFA try to target agents as a way to cover their own issues.

He said: "To break away the attention from the real problems FIFA has, they started to attack the agents as a group, with regulations which are nonsensical," Raiola said.

"Because we take too much money out of the game or we are worthless or we are criminals to take away the problems from them.

"I think they have to take away the attention from their own problems. Don't forget you're talking about an organisation that has - I think - 15 of them in jail in the US for corruption and other things.

"And strangely enough, if you look at the history of FIFA, of the last 20 years, it was not only one scandal.

"So, it was not, 'Oh okay, it happened one time there were 4 or 5 rotten apples in the basket and we cleaned it'. No, it is a systematic problem in FIFA, so if it's a systematic problem in FIFA we can almost say it is their way of doing things in FIFA.

"So, they needed a scapegoat, they needed a black skinned sheep and we were the ones, you know? That's okay, but we don't want to give up without a fight."

Featured Image Credit: Zlatan Ibrahimovic/Instagram & talkSPORT

Topics: Football, FIFA, EA Sports, Mino Raiola