Fotbollsspelarnas upplevelser av agenter efter agentlicensens avreglering

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this study has been to investigate how the deregulation of the agent license has affected football players' experiences of agents in general, the trust in agents and the experience of the agents' competence and professionalism. To gain an understanding of the football players' experiences, the Rational Choice theory was chosen, where the Principal Agent theory was used to explain the results of the study. Previous research that dealt with competence and professionalism in the agent industry, trust and confidence between the player-agent and research on the deregulation of the agent license and the agent regulations were also used to explain the football players' experiences.  To investigate the football players' experiences, semi-structured interviews were conducted with six professional football players who were active in either Allsvenskan, Superettan or in foreign professional leagues by the 2020 season at the latest. Five of the interviews were conducted on Zoom and one through a physical meeting where the recording was performed in the mobile application AVR X. The study shows that the interviewees perceive the agents who were licensed before the deregulation of the agent license and the agent regulations as more professional and competent than agents or intermediaries who became active after the deregulation.  The interviewees who have had agents for longer periods experience greater trust and confidence in agents in general than players who have had longer periods without agents. The study also shows that these players to a greater extent perceive agents as competent enough to trust them to handle their negotiations with clubs and sponsors. On the other hand, most of the interviewed players are negative in regards of signing contracts with agents. The study showed an interesting aspect regarding external influence on the interviewed players' opinions about agents, namely that although they can be influenced by the sports director's opinions but mainly because negative publicity of the agent can lead to bad relationship with the employer and possibly affect the player's career. The interviewed players can be influenced by other players' opinions about the agent, but in the end, their own opinion and relationship with the agent is most important. Media is the external factor that affects the interviewed players' opinions about agents the least.    Key words: deregulation of the agent license, trust, competence, professionalism.