Volleyball Agents Enter the Italian National Federation's Statutes: Disrupting the Game or Levelling the Field?

The^[1] Italian Volleyball National Federation (FIPAV) approved, on 22 February 2025, a new version of its Statutes^[2], where, pursuant to art. 72, Agents are now recognised within the FIPAV’s legal system. As explicitly referenced therein, the future FIPAV Agents’ Regulation will abide by the provisions contained in the Legislative Decree n. 37/2021 (D. Lgs. 37/2021), a state source of law, mandatory for Sports Agents in Italy, whose application to FIPAV is a significant development.

FIPAV’s reform is only beginning. The inclusion of art. 72 in its Statutes may appear a modest step, but the shape of the forthcoming agents’ regulation is already largely predictable: agents’ activity will be governed primarily by mandatory state law that has been in force in other Italian National Federations (NFs) for some time.

Therefore, the volleyball Agents’ activity in Italy will be drastically overhauled, as it will need to comply with a complex, multi-level legislative framework, filling a long-standing regulatory void that has been only partially addressed since 2014 by the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB), whose set of rules^[3] does not apply at a domestic level. The Italian volleyball market faces fundamental change as a result, both methodologically and in terms of integrity, since the new legislative framework applies to Athletes and Clubs as well as to agents.

Across most sports, agent regulation has historically been left to governing bodies alone. France is the principal exception, where state law provides the foundation for the profession. Since 2018, Italy has followed a similar path: the Italian legislature assumed authority over the profession, initially through Law n. 205/2017, art. 1, para 373^[4] — though that law applied only to football, basketball, cycling and golf. It required agents to hold a licence and to enrol in the Sports Agents’ Register maintained by the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI), grandfathering licences issued before 31 March 2015 — ie the FIFA deregulation date. The law delegated to CONI responsibility for establishing, among other things, the licencing process, the objective and subjective requirements to practise as an agent, the Sports Agents Commission’s disciplinary powers, and the formal and substantive requirements for a representation agreement. The NFs were in turn required to adopt their own regulations consistent with the CONI Sports Agents’ Regulation^[5], with little to no regulatory autonomy. This dynamic has been promptly implemented in the football and basketball sectors.

The D. Lgs. 37/2021 and its implementing decree n. 218/2025^[6] (Implementing Decree) have recently entered into force. They largely replicate, while also superseding, the framework established by Law n. 205/2017, art. 1, para 373, and extend and strengthen many of its provisions. The most significant change concerns the personal scope of application: whereas the 2017 law applied only to certain NFs, D. Lgs. 37/2021 and subsequent instruments are mandatory for every NF — extending the agents’ regulatory framework across all Italian sports.

Considering all the above, the discipline that will be described hereinafter will find application solely once the FIPAV will terminate the regulatory shift initiated by the amendment of its Statutes. The following analysis will, therefore, explain the content of D. Lgs. 37 /2021 and the implementing decree, as it contains the non-negotiable discipline.