Intermediaries are never popular in any market: think estate agents. Their function is to transmit information between potentially large numbers of buyers and seller more efficiently. Of course, whether they do that fairly or seek to exploit their possession of information or distort it to disadvantage the other parties to the transaction is an interesting question.
Intermediaries are never popular in any market: think estate agents. Their function is to transmit information between potentially large numbers of buyers and seller more efficiently. Of course, whether they do that fairly or seek to exploit their possession of information or distort it to disadvantage the other parties to the transaction is an interesting question.
It is certainly a charge that has been laid against football agents who have been described in a number of unflattering ways, ‘leeches on the game’ being among the politer phrases. It is therefore perhaps no surprise that Premiership clubs paid £71.8m to agents this year, the highest figure since they were first made public three years ago. The 2009 figure was £70.7m and that for 2010 £67.1m.
Not surprisingly, the highest amount was paid by Manchester City (£9.6m) followed by Spurs (£7.6m), Liverpool (£7m), Chelsea (£6.4m) and Newcastle United (£6.4m). For Chelsea the figures are a decline on £9.3m and £9.6m in the two previous financial years, but are still regarded as too high by the club as they aim for financial self-sufficiency. At the other end of the spectrum, Swansea City spent only £248,000 and Wigan Athletic £659,000. Manchester United paid out £4.5m.
There was a striking increase at Blackburn Rovers in the first year of ownership by Venky’s to £4.3m compared with £1.6m in each of the two previous years. This is only slightly less that Arsenal spent (£4.6m) and whether it represents value for money is open to question.
Joey McBarton’s agent Willie McKay is reported to have earned a seven figure sum for brokering his transfer from Newcastle to QPR, but defends this as a fair return on what he regards as a £10m player.