Football Observer

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Guardian/David Conn

Premier League clubs revealed to have spent £70m on agents• Figures published for last two transfer windows
• Manchester City pay out most in fees at £13m

The first publication by the Premier League of the amount its clubs spend on agents revealed that more than £70m was paid out in the year from 1 October 2008 to 30 September this year. That period takes in transfer windows in January and this summer. The figures also included any amounts paid to agents on deals done in previous years.

Manchester City, who spent around £170m in transfer fees during the year, under the ownership of Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, were by some distance the largest spenders, paying out £12.9m in agents' fees. Chelsea were the next highest, having paid £9.6m, while Liverpool, surprisingly given Rafael Benítez's relatively quiet transfer dealings, paid £6.7m. Other big spenders were Tottenham Hotspur, at £6.1m; Wigan, at £5.5m; and Arsenal, at £4.8m.

All the clubs were asked by the Premier League to publish their figures on their websites but few were accompanied by detailed explanations and none included breakdowns of the total figures or named individual agents or deals. The Premier League explained that the payments were made by clubs directly to agents for bringing players in, renegotiating their contracts or for facilitating their sale.

Payments to agents for negotiating salary packages must come out of the players' wages, under Football Association regulations, but clubs can pay the agents on the players' behalf as an administrative service. The Premier League made it clear that the total included such payments made by clubs.

City issued a fuller statement than most other clubs – their spending largely explained why they topped the list. City's chief financial officer, Graham Wallace, said the figure related to payments for 35 players and included instalments paid on deals signed in previous years.

"The level of player acquisition over the past year has been unprecedented as we have sought to rebuild our playing squad," Wallace said. "Squad building at this level and within such a short time frame is unlikely to be repeated."

Chelsea issued a brief statement but declined to make any further comment or provide an explanation. Most clubs similarly issued details on their websites, as agreed with the Premier League, but despite the publication of the list, none contained an explanation of how the level of agents' payments is arrived at.

The Football League has been publishing the amounts paid by its clubs to agents since voting to do so in September 2003, in a move aimed at promoting transparency and reducing the amounts paid. Premier League clubs are understood to have been motivated by similar considerations now. The overall figure is certain to raise concerns about financial excess in England's elite league and questions about what agents actually do for their money.

The Premier League clarified that the £70.7m represented the total instalments paid on 803 separate transactions carried out by its 20 clubs, but released no further explanatory detail. As with the Football League's method of publication, there was a club by club list of amounts paid to agents, but no breakdown of payments according to which deals they related to, or which agents were paid.

All transfer fees and payments to agents must be made through the FA, but almost no detail finds its way to the wider public. Of the deals done during the period, only the £900,000 which Chelsea said was paid to Pini Zahavi when Wayne Bridge moved to Manchester City in January has been publicly confirmed.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/nov/30/david-conn-premier-league-agents


Premier League Official Site

Premier League statement Figures have been published regarding payments to agents for the period 1st October 2008 to 30th September 2009.

The figures published below are inclusive of:

• Fees paid to agents by Clubs in respect of acquiring and/or renegotiating Player Registrations.

• Fees paid to agents by Clubs on behalf of players in respect of acquiring and/or renegotiating Player Registrations.

• Fees paid to agents during the defined period relating to previous transaction costs (i.e. Player Registrations prior to 1st October 2008) that have been amortised over the length of a Player Contract.

• Fees paid to agents by Clubs to facilitate the outward transfer of Player Registrations.

Player Registrations (transactions) include:

• Domestic permanent transfers.
• International permanent transfers.
• Domestic temporary transfers (loans).
• International temporary transfers (loans).
• Extension of existing Player Contracts.
• First professional registration.
• Free transfers.

Premier League

Arsenal £4,760,241
Aston Villa £1,708,374
Birmingham City £974,982
Blackburn Rovers £1,610,885
Bolton Wanderers £3,166,611
Burnley £468,398
Chelsea £9,562,223
Everton £2,008,407
Fulham £1,469,258
Hull City £1,599,188
Liverpool £6,657,305
Manchester City £12,874,283
Manchester United £1,517,393
Portsmouth £3,184,725
Stoke City £716,042
Sunderland £2,007,040
Tottenham Hotspur £6,066,935
West Ham United £5,527,548
Wigan Athletic £3,576,972
Wolverhampton Wanderers £1,235,703

Total (across 803 transactions)
£70,692,513

http://www.premierleague.com/page/Headlines/0,,12306~1891147,00.html


Independent/Sam Wallace

Agents cost Premier League clubs £70m a year

City spent £13m in fees – while Chelsea come second despite signing only one major new player United show how to do business without middlemen

Manchester City paid a staggering £12.87m in fees to agents over the last two transfer windows, it emerged last night, the highest of any Premier League club. The revelation came as English football's top teams disclosed that collectively they have paid the game's middlemen £70.6m over the last 11 months.

The 20 Premier League clubs released the figures yesterday in a drive towards greater transparency but it was City's payments that showed the hidden costs of their efforts to break into the top four. Over the last two windows they have signed Gareth Barry, Carlos Tevez, Emmanuel Adebayor, Kolo Touré, Joleon Lescott, Roque Santa Cruz, Nigel De Jong, Craig Bellamy, Wayne Bridge and Shay Given, spending millions along the way in agents' fees.

It is also understood that the agents' fees for the Robinho deal from Real Madrid, which took place in the summer transfer window last summer was also included in City's £12.8m figure. Officially the figures are for the period from 1 October last year to 30 September but some fees, like that for Robinho, were paid later on in the year and therefore fall within this survey.

Privately, City admit that the sums are big but point out that this was "an unprecedented squad-building exercise that is unlikely to be repeated". The figures include fees paid to agents for renegotiating existing players contracts, for loans in and out the club and even free transfers – which generally command an agents' fee.

For the period concerned City either bought, sold or renegotiated contracts for 35 players. Stephen Ireland, Michael Johnson and Micah Richards all agreed new deals within that timeframe. The £12.8m also includes the fees that were paid to agents to get rid of the Brazilian midfielder Elano to Galatasaray.

In second place were Chelsea who have spent £9.56m despite their relative inactivity in the transfer market. They bought Yuri Zhirkov, from CSKA Moscow for about £18m, and Nemanja Matic in the summer transfer window and acquired Ross Turnbull on a free transfer. Daniel Sturridge joined from City for a compensation payment. In January only Ricardo Quaresma on loan from Internazionale and the youngster Gokhan Tore from Bayer Leverkusen joined.

Nevertheless, Chelsea spent the vast majority of their agents' fees on renegotiating contracts for existing players including Florent Malouda, Didier Drogba, John Obi Mikel, Ashley Cole, Michael Essien, Michael Mancienne, Salomon Kalou, Alex and John Terry, although it is not clear whether the captain used an agent. Frank Lampard's new deal was agreed in the summer of last year and it is likely some of the fee to his agent Steve Kutner would have been included in these figures.

The industry standard for agents is to be paid 5 per cent of a player's contract over the duration of that deal. For a player like Barry, earning around £120,000-a-week in a five-year contract (that's about £31m in total) will earn his agent about £1.5m in fees. Barry's agent is his friend and former fellow Brighton and Hove Albion trainee Michael Standing who has no other clients.

The next clubs after City and Chelsea in the list were Liverpool (£6.65m), Tottenham Hotspur (£6m), West Ham United (£5.52m) and Arsenal (£4.76m) but remarkably Manchester United come out as disproportionately low in the table in 15th place.

Incredibly only Burnley (the lowest with £468,398), Stoke City, Birmingham City, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Fulham paid less to agents than United. The club's chief executive David Gill does have a reputation as one of the best negotiators in the business and a check of United's deals and contract renegotiations over the last two windows gives a clue to their low costs.

They have signed only Zoran Tosic, Michael Owen, Gabriel Obertan and Antonio Valencia over the last two windows but they have signed up a lot of players to new deals including Edwin Van der Sar, Gary Neville, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Darren Fletcher and Rafael Da Silva. Wayne Rooney's expected new contract, when his agent Paul Stretford comes to the table in the new year, is unlikely to be quite so cheap in terms of agents' fees.

Wigan Athletic (£3.57m), Bolton Wanderers (£3.16m) and Hull City (£1.59m) all paid more than United. It reflects the difficulty of getting players to sign to the less fashionable non-London clubs where agents – especially those from overseas – expect to be well paid to "persuade" their clients to sign.

Sources at West Ham indicated the club's high fees were a result of up to 12 contract renegotiations, including new deals for senior players such as Carlton Cole and Scott Parker. Dean Ashton, the one-time England striker, now sadly contemplating an injury-enforced retirement, signed a five-year deal last summer and his agent's fees were paid within the timeframe of the report.

The 20 Premier League clubs voted to publish the fees because they felt the system needed greater transparency. Two years ago they voted that players should pay their agent's fees from their own pocket but that was found to be unworkable. It is understood that £70.6m figure includes clubs paying P11d "benefit in kind" taxes for players to cover work done for them by agents.

Additional reporting: Dominic O'Shea

The powerbrokers The main movers and shakers

Kia Joorabchian The 38-year-old Iranian-born, British-based businessman is a university dropout and frontman for Media Sports Investments, a firm with undisclosed backers, that made millions from "owning" Carlos Tevez and others. He's not a registered agent, although his sidekick, Nojan Bedroud, is.

Pini Zahavi The Israeli "super agent", 66, is a former journalist who has made a fortune estimated at £60m from brokering deals including Rio Ferdinand's £30m move to Manchester United from Leeds in 2002, the sale of Chelsea to Roman Abramovich in 2003 and the sale of Portsmouth recently to Ali al-Faraj.

Jonathan Barnett Barnett's first sporting clients were not footballers but cricketers Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and then Brian Lara, who introduced him to a property developer, David Manasseh, in 1993. Barnett and Manasseh started the Stellar Group just as the Premier League went astral.

Jerome Anderson Formed his Sport Entertainment and Media Group (SEM) in 1984, having had a background in financial services and as an adviser to players including Charlie Nicholas. Forged close links with Arsenal especially while building a multi-sport agency that now works in rugby, golf and boxing too.

Colin Gordon Former journeyman striker, 46, who played for Swindon, Reading and Birmingham among others, and whose KeySports Management represent more than 60 players including Theo Walcott and David James. Said in an interview this year: "Are agents corrupt? Not all – but the majority [are]."
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/agents-cost-premier-league-clubs-16370m-a-year-1831694.html


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The Times/Matt Putzenson

Figures reveal nothing about agents’ real earnings - Commentary: Matt Putzinson

The headline figure may have been startling but, actually, yesterday's disclosure of the £70,692,513 given to agents told us nothing. If they had been brave, the Barclays Premier League clubs would have revealed how every penny was spent.

Because without that detail, how are we — and paying fans — able to work out which of it was spent wisely? Some of it must have been.

Five per cent of the fee to an agent who brings you an ace goalscorer? Great business. The £500,000 that was promised to Jimmy Bullard’s agent when the player moved from Fulham to Hull City? Baffling, given that Bullard was not exactly hot property and that, with a £5 million fee, that cut was 10 per cent.

Between 2003 and 2005, Manchester United published precisely how much they paid agents when they signed a player or agreed a new contract. We found out that Ruud van Nistelrooy’s representative Rodger Linse had a £2.5 million fee agreed when the striker joined United in 2001; Cristiano Ronaldo’s agent, Jorge Mendes, was paid £1.13 million on his £12 million move in 2003; Paul Stretford received £1.5 million when Wayne Rooney signed in August 2004; £680,000 went to agents when Kléberson joined United for £5 million in August 2003.

The agents hated it, obviously, but it was a refreshing burst of transparency. Now we have a list full of anomalies and that raises more questions than answers about how the £70 million was spent.

A sport that does not disclose transfer fees as a matter of course is acting like it has something to hide.

The Premier League argues that publication will force every chief executive and chairman to stop, however briefly, and consider their performance relative to their rivals. That much may be true. But whether they do anything about it is a matter of personal choice. There are no rules to prevent bad practice because there are barely any rules at all when it comes to football transfers.

Fifa once issued a “guideline” that agents should receive 5 per cent of a transfer fee, but a club over a barrel before deadline day may agree more. Less commonly, a club in a strong bargaining position may haggle less.

In this unregulated world reside good and bad executives, decent agents and spivs, players who know where every penny is going and those who are blissfully ignorant that an agent is diddling them out of a small fortune. As long as the £30,000 a week is landing in their bank account, what do they care?

Gary Neville would rid the world of agents altogether, certainly when it comes to personal contract negotiations. But let us accept that they serve a purpose. A world that employs headhunters, recruitment consultants and insurance brokers recognises the need for middlemen, however reluctantly.

Where football does not help itself is in the lack of regulation. Fifa is considering scrapping all controls on agents so that anyone can become an “intermediary”, which is hardly progressive.

The system of transfer windows turns what is already a hugely competitive industry into a frenzy of activity in which good sense often goes out of the window in the rush to sign a player in the minutes before deadline.

Then there is the issue of whether the players themselves should pay the agents. Some clubs continue to argue strongly for it, others believe they can save money on tax by keeping the present situation.

All they can agree on is that the £70 million is too much. “Do we like spending it? Of course we don’t. But somewhere along the line we let the agents get too powerful,” said one exasperated chairman.

The first thing they can do is be more transparent. It is one thing to publish the total; another entirely to let us judge how it has been spent.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/c....icle6938311.ece