Agents and athletes who are minors

An increasing interaction of sports agents with minor athletes has been an important trend in the sport industry. Academic research identifies malpractices of agents in dealing with minors highlighting a problematic nature of fiduciary relationship between these actors. Especially, minors’ exploitation by unscrupulous agents remains to be a major threat to their welfare. The efficacy of regulatory measures, as a primary tool deployed by sport governing bodies to safeguard minor athletes in the representation relationship, is undermined by challenges including limited oversight and sanctioning powers of the governing bodies over agents. Hence, criminal aspects of agents malpractices need to be addressed by public authorities and law enforcement agencies. A novel academic perspective on this topic utilises the United Nationals Convention of the Rights of the Child to examine the agent malpractices as risk to and violations of minors’ rights as children. This children’s rights lens also underlines agents’ responsibility to respect children’s rights which are the human rights of children, and allows the conceptualisation of a rights-based agent practice.