da betobet： The mere mention of the words ‘football agents’ usually makes the blood of most football fans around the country boil. The not universally liked characters are often at the centre of football news, which is especially the case around the recent transfer deadline day.
da mrbet： Last week it was revealed that Football League clubs spent a total of over £16 million on agents’ fees last season, an increase of £4 million on the previous year. This is an incredible stat considering the effect the economic crisis is having on the beautiful game.
With the pressure for teams across the leagues to break even or even survive, the money paid out to agents is often a large expenditure that many fans would like to see change. Whilst it is unrealistic to think that over the foreseeable future no clubs will ever pay out an agent fee again, the fees being shelled out are a major point of concern for many clubs.
But it is not only the money side of agents that is often criticised for having a detrimental effect on the game. How often do we hear ‘reports’ from agents that other teams are interested in their players or their star players are looking to leave? For a short time last season Manchester United faced the incredible prospect of losing star striker Wayne Rooney. Reports surfaced that Rooney wanted to leave Old Trafford but with the help of his agent Paul Stretford he made a shock u-turn and instead signed a lucrative new deal. Questioning the legitimacy of Stretford’s intentions (and Rooney himself, with players not completely blameless in the football agent mess) is not a hard task.
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One answer to the continuing problem of agents and specifically the money involved is caps. The Guardian revealed late last year Fifa’s plans to implement a 3% of the total fee cap for agents, with an overall limit of £1.25 million. This move would present a shift in the pattern for clubs shelling out a lot of money to often greedy agents, with suggestions it could save clubs nearly £60 million. However, it is still unclear whether any such practices will be put into place in the near future.
But do agents just have a part to play in modern football? With the often chaotic nature of the transfer window (and deadline day especially) agents provide the source to bring in that one new player a club has been craving or they present a club’s best chance of getting rid of that overpaid player that they desperately need to shift off their books. Only eight clubs across the Football League didn’t pay agents fees during last season, a stat that shows football’s reliance on the good or bad service agents provide.
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There is a clear need for transparency when it comes to agents, their practices and the fees being played to them. A cap on agents’ fees would be an obvious solution to the growing problem that agents are having in the beautiful game and whilst it may not yet have got as far as them ruining the game, football agents are likely to continue to be a hated but unfortunately commonplace feature of modern football.
Do you think football’s hierarchy should implement agent fee caps? If you want to read more of my bite size, 140 character views and thoughts follow me on Twitter @jennyk5