Agents for me are one of the main problems in modern football.
Agents somehow achieve the wonderful feat of clubs paying them when players move. In fact agents get money if players are sold from selling clubs and then money from buying clubs, just think about that ?? On top of this all but the strongest player lets the agents dictate to him and he will follow exactly what they say (see Gareth Barry’s interview for the NOTW as proof). I mean you would think the player pays the agent out of his own pocket for organising a no doubt wealthy move ?
Well today figures for between Oct 2010 and September 2011 show a total of £71.8M paid to agents. Of this we had paid some £3.1M in a time when we brought Bent, Hutton, Given and N’Zog and I suspect paid more when we sold Downing and Young then maybe paid in sales.
The point being of course that this money gores out of the club to agents who often just unsettle their players, place stories in the press and generally cause a nuisance. To put it another way a quarter of the total gate revenue goes to these people with no real benefit. For example both Darren Bent and Stewart Downing are represented by Wasserman (LINK) and the more aware of you may be aware of a topic on this that was discussed a few months ago.
The corruption I mention is that we have no idea how much is paid to which agent for which player. The fans are kept in the dark, relationships hidden because the truth is that the fans would hate every single bit of it if it was known. The links and relationships between clubs and certain agents, managers and certain agents would suddenly see the corruption at the heart of the game.
The serious media ignores this because the truth is uncomfortable for all involved.
Aston Villa News 24/7
Would be interesting to see how much Carlos Tezez agent Kia Koorbchian has made out of his short stay at West Ham, Man Utd and Man City. He never stays long and his moves are always controversial. Why aren’t these figures published when a player moves?. How on earth are they allowed to get away with this.
Even more of a scam!
Remember that Tevez is actually ‘owned’ by Joorbachian and a few ‘associates’ – somehow WHam got clobbered for taking part in this deal, whereas ManUre and Citeh have avoided any sanctions.
This set up is apparently quite common is S America – guess that the drug barons have to launder their money somehow…
West Ham got clobbered because they cheated to stay up, simple as, they knew what they were doing, they lied throughout.
Yes the set up is common in South America and will be interesting what is made public in the Redknapp trial.
I have read and heard on the net that the FA have totally cooled on Redknapp because it will not paint a rosy picture guilty or not.
Agree with the sentiment, but it’s too much to expect agents’ deals to be made public in each transfer.
These guys are the scum of the earth – in all other branches of ‘showbiz’ the agent is paid directly by the ‘talent’ – say 2o% of gross annual earnings. As usual, football is a mug for agreeing to pay agents rather than leaving the player to do so, and it’s just another leak of money [our ticket money, Sky subs, etc.] out of the game and gone for ever.
it is only too much if the clubs are in league with the agents.
So club A wants a player to go to ‘profit’ from them so pays agent S of their best player to spread stories to benefit both. Make the club looks like he tries but leave it in no doubt the player wants to go.
Lets say the club A pretends played P is negotiating a new contract
this helps raise the price to club Z who buys player P and a few goes to agent S from both clubs for doing the deal that could have been done much easier.
nice little earner eh ?
especially if club a employs agent S to be the agent to most of their players
Eh?
On another note, I see Bruce is the first PL manager to be sacked this season. A crying shame it wasn’t our own McTwat McLeish… Soon though we hope!
You’re spot on Ian, but I really wonder about some of the “ethics” of managers, when a certain scot was manager of newcastle he conducted a particular deal with an old glasgow employer that smacked all ends up.
will have to check back who you mean but there is a reason at Spurs Harry is not allowed anywhere near a transfer
only those with something to hide would not disclose agents payments in each and very deal
I think the Boumsong deal was very good business for Rangers, very good business.
ah, was trying to think of a Daglish signing and see what you mean after checking Wiki and other blogds, very dodgy …
the agent involved is no shock
Remember the Rooney legal case involving a particular agent, and the appearance of the same ‘manager’ with a supporting cast of some of the most unsavoury underworld ‘characters’ that you could imagine?
[...] mess and confusion around agents. I have already spoke of the influence of Wasserman at Villa in THIS PIECE and it is clear that unless the authorities clamp down on this the game will be totally ruined, if [...]