The African Football Intermediaries Association was launched in Sandton, Johannesburg, yesterday hoping to emulate the success of its South African version, which has negotiated a maximum 10% cut in contracts for agents.

Paul Mitchell, a spokesman for Afia and for its local version, the South African Football Intermediaries Association (Safia), said he hoped the new body would represent the interests of agents on the continent - intermediary is Fifa's new official term for agents.

Mitchell pointed to how Safia successfully went to court to interdict the 3% cap the SA Football Association attempted to impose on South African intermediaries last year.

A new deal was negotiated, passed by Safa's national executive committee in December, that the minimum cut for an agent would be 3%, with a sliding scale that could be negotiated between intermediary, club and player of up to 10%.

"Collectively we [Safia] formed a group and held discussions with Safa.

"Through those, we've now managed to come to some common ground in relation to the guidelines Safa have just put to everybody," Mitchell said.

"The main bone of contention was because it was a fixed, flat 3%, and that could have been the end in football to intermediaries or agents.

"To be fair, the South African Football Association have taken on board what we said and have tried to come back with a set of rules that finds common ground between what they want and what we want.

"And it hasn't gone back to court. It looks like we're in agreement with what Safa came back with."

The SA Football Association approved the sliding 3% to 10% remuneration at an NEC meeting on December 11.