LIVE Transfer Talk: Neymar lined up as Lionel Messi's replacement in Barcelona

15.54 GMT: Soccer transfers are a murky business. Gab Marcotti asks if FIFA can clean it up?

Agents in football are nothing like Jerry Maguire. It's not that they don't develop heartfelt bonds with their representatives: Mino Raiola, who represents Paul Pogba, Erling Haaland and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, famously has no written contracts tying him to his clients but relies on handshakes instead. No, the difference is that in Maguire's world -- and in most U.S. sports -- agents are paid by players for representing them in contract negotiations, whether with sponsors or clubs. In football, they still represent players in contract negotiations with teams, but agents typically get paid by the teams, not the players they're representing.

Moreover, for many agents, a big chunk of the business comes during the transfer window when they act directly for clubs as intermediaries.

In most football leagues outside MLS, players under contract aren't traded and because they have guaranteed deals, they can't be released. So their contracts are bought and sold for cash, which means there's plenty of business to be had representing either a club looking to sell a player or a club looking to acquire a player. You can get paid for that, too.

If it's a player you represent, you get paid twice. And though this is rare, you can hit the trifecta and get paid by all parties involved: buyer, seller and the player.

Such a system is evidently rife with potential for conflicts of interest and malfeasance. But last week, FIFA unveiled a raft of new regulations aimed at limiting such practices while increasing transparency, mandating licensing and putting a cap on the commissions an agent can earn for an individual transfer. It appears certain they will be approved next spring and come into effect in September 2021.

14.30 GMT: Former Barcelona director Javier Bordas has told Mundo Deportivo about the number of targets that the club missed out on recently.

Bordas spent a decade at Camp Nou from 2010, first under Sandro Rosell as president and then Josep Maria Bartomeu.

A move for Borussia Dortmund striker Erling Haaland was rejected "because they told me he wasn't a Barcelona style player," while a deal was in place to sign striker Alvaro Morata before he moved to Atletico Madrid from Chelsea. "It was a loan with a purchase option, but we did not get to formalise anything because Atletico found out and given the relationship Juanma Lopez [his agent] and Morata had with Atletico, they took him away," Bordas said.

The biggest miss, however, was failing to sign France forward Kylian Mbappe for €100m in 2017; instead choosing to spend €105m on Borussia Dortmund winger Ousmane Dembele, who has struggled with injury.

"When we were to sign Dembele, agent Josep Maria Minguella called me to tell us Mbappe was within reach," Bordas added. "I spoke with Josep Maria Bartomeu and he told me to look at him.

"I called Mbappe's father and he told me that we was not going to go to Real Madrid because Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Gareth Bale were there and that instead he could go to Barca because Neymar had left.

"The president of Monaco preferred that he signed for Barcelona so as not to reinforced PSG, a direct rival. And it could have been done for €100m. [Technical secretary] Robert [Fernandez] preferred Dembele and Pep Segura supported him. The explanation was that Mbappe plays for himself and Dembele plays for the team, and since a winger like Ney had left, Robert preferred a winger more than a finisher."

Mbappe moved to PSG from Monaco on loan, then for €180m the following summer and has become one of the best young players in the world.

13.48 GMT: Those in charge of football have angered one FC TV pundit.