|
The
Agents
Football
agents are the scourge of the soccer world, they are the lepers
and bloodsuckers that will kill the game we love. That is
the general conception. However when you look a little deeper
at the business of the agents you find more questions than
answers. There are 969 official FIFA agents around the world,
with each having to have bought a licence from the worlds
governing body for £43,500. This money is a form of
bond to insure that these agents word within the rule &
regulations outlined by FIFA. These rules can be seen at:
http://www.fifa2.com/scripts/runisa.dll?M2:gp::67173+PA/reg/index+E
When you
look closer at the list of agents, various statistics come
up, and even more questions, why are there 179 agents in England
yet none in Ireland. Spain (86), France (88), Germany (82)
and Italy (54) are along with England, the heart of the world's
game as far as professional leagues are concerned. Certainly
with respect to the amount of money involved. Yet England
has twice as many agents than any of the others.
Then you
look at a country like Australia (20), who has as many agents
servicing their game, as nations like Holland (23), Argentina
(19) and Portugal (24). Now I know that there are a number
of players from the socceroo's plying their trade in Europe,
but surly not enough to sustain the business of 20 agents.
On the other side a country like Argentina, former world champions,
and one of the largest exporters of football talent has just
19 agents. Therefore the question is, is there other people
who do the agents job but are not registered, and not having
to work under FIFA guidelines.
Socceritis.com
is a UK generated website, so I thought I would look at the
English issue a little closer. 179 agents have the FIFA endorsement
and are serving the needs of footballers in England. However
there are over 3500 registered players in the English game.
Therefore 19.5 players per agent is the ratio, however I wonder
if in-fact there are a large number of players who remain
un-represented. With no disrespect I would doubt there is
much money to made from a journeyman player playing for say
Kidderminster Harriers, but surly these are the type
of players who need the expert services of an agent even more
than say Owen or Beckham.
One other
interesting aspect of this subject is the "family agent".
Juninho of Brazil, is represented by his father, and of course
the infamous Anelka brothers who have managed to move their
brothers four times in five years for millions. Neither players
are represented by FIFA agents.
As I did
some research for this article I phoned 15 of the English
agents, I had just one question, which I hoped to get answered.
How much do you make from a player? I was not asking for anything
too specific, certainly no names or personal details. In the
end I was not that surprised that none of them were willing
to talk about such things. A journalist at a national newspaper
told me that the commissions could vary from 5% to 25% depending
on a number of factors. Also within a contract levels vary
depending on the nature of a deal, a sponsorship or endorsement
can carry a higher rate. However as has always been the case,
player transfers are still a major source of revenue for the
agencies, although all the companies I spoke to deny they
encouraged their clients to move clubs.
Questions
rather than answers, murky water, a degree of secrecy and
a hell of a lot of money is the over-riding impression you
get when looking at agents, and while the advice their give
to players is probably very needed, the real question is are
football agents really a good thing for Football?
We would
love to hear your opinions……
Email
us at: info@socceritis.com
|
