CSPPA to cease player agency services

Following a report by HLTV.org which showed that members of the Counter-Strike Professional Players' Association (CSPPA) had been doing player representation, the organization has announced it will no longer provide agency services, with CEO Mads Øland cutting ties with the Danish Elite Athletes Association (DEF).

The CSPPA says that Mr. Øland "resigned his unpaid position with the Danish Elite Athletes Association", adding that "no CSPPA employees will be involved in agency activities" in DEF or elsewhere by the end of August.

The player association stresses that it will refrain from providing agency services for their members in the future, but notes that the "perception of what a players' association can and should do to help its players varies considerably across the world", which makes its task as a global association a "special challenge".

"CSPPA will continue the hard work to further and protect CS:GO players' collective interests and to develop collective agreements and benefits for our members," the CSPPA added. "In line with other players' associations across the world, the CSPPA will also continue to provide general support services to CSPPA members as part of the membership benefits provided to all members."

The announcement comes after an HLTV.org article detailed conflict-of-interest concerns related to the fact that CSPPA employees had been involved in player representation through DEF, which received a percentage of salary and individual sponsorship agreements in return.

In the article, it was revealed that several ESL Pro League partner teams had demanded that the issue be addressed as a prerequisite for further cooperation with the CSPPA, which had also come under fire by Flashpoint for several reasons, including its involvement in the failed Heroic - FunPlus Phoenix transfer in March. Sources close to the transfer told HLTV.org that the CSPPA’s interference in negotiations was one of the reasons why the deal fell through.

In a statement, the CSPPA claimed that it only provided agency services to Astralis' members and team coach Danny "⁠zonic⁠" Sørensen. However, HLTV.org revealed that players from other teams had been approached by CSPPA employees with transfer enquiries in recent times.

According to a recent article from Dexerto, the CSPPA has been in discussions with Flashpoint over a three-year deal that will see the player association receive an undisclosed amount of funding from B Site, the league's parent company. The CSPPA has also reached several agreements with ESL/DreamHack since the start of the year, including a framework agreement for the ESL Pro Tour and an Event Minimum Standards.