| This is going to be an interesting battle over the next couple of years on 09:05 - Mar 31 with 1171 views | bluelagos |
I think people have had enough of the power of agents. Their fees (What was the share of the Pogba transfer, £40m of £80 paid?) are increasingly ridiculous.
Most of us are used to working in industries where an agent / wholesaler / trader makes a margin, say 5 maybe 10%. To effectively double the cost of a transfer, when the transfer could easily happen anyway, am struggling to see what value they add.
The only real value is in representing the player and maximising his contract. Surely a system where a player retains an agent and pays him the value he thinks he's worth (from his salary) would suffice. Football clubs don't need agents to find other players, that is what scouts are for. |  |
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| This is going to be an interesting battle over the next couple of years on 09:12 - Mar 31 with 1134 views | MrTown |
Agents have a role in football, whether fans like or not is a different matter, but players employ agents because they know they need them.
I'm not sure it is correct to regulate how much an agent earns etc, they are running a business, and not many other businesses are capped at what they can earn - (could be wrong but can't think of any off the top of my head), so why should the sports management industry be any different. |  |
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| This is going to be an interesting battle over the next couple of years on 09:22 - Mar 31 with 1104 views | WeWereZombies |
An interesting idea from Raiola “These regulations are about power and that is clearly what FIFA wants,” - because it would be shocking if the body in charge of the sport had the power to regulate it, wouldn't it?
Also, "...FIFA has observed a growing number of abusive practices, widespread conflicts of interests, and a market driven by speculation rather than solidarity and redistribution across the football pyramid..." Well, FIFA have got that right but, post Sepp Blatter, is their credibility too tarnished to instigate reform? |  |
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| This is going to be an interesting battle over the next couple of years on 09:23 - Mar 31 with 1098 views | LeoMuff |
I would love to see the back of agents, very unhealthy influence on the game. However the clubs are just as greedy, if they formed together as a group and said no agent fees to be paid from here on, a player pays them out of their own pocket, it would be fine, but they won’t as they want the best players to themselves. |  |
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| This is going to be an interesting battle over the next couple of years on 09:26 - Mar 31 with 1077 views | WeWereZombies |
| This is going to be an interesting battle over the next couple of years on 09:12 - Mar 31 by MrTown |
Agents have a role in football, whether fans like or not is a different matter, but players employ agents because they know they need them.
I'm not sure it is correct to regulate how much an agent earns etc, they are running a business, and not many other businesses are capped at what they can earn - (could be wrong but can't think of any off the top of my head), so why should the sports management industry be any different. |
Football agents should feel lucky they are allowed to charge anything at all...
https://www.london.gov.uk/what-we-do/housing-and-land/improving-private-rented-s | |
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| This is going to be an interesting battle over the next couple of years on 09:30 - Mar 31 with 1067 views | HARRY10 |
Agents are a convenient way of leeching money out of the game to managers, directors etc
Agent hires person for 'consulting works, that person hires manager etc for personal appearance elsewhere
Monies end up in a Monaco bank account named Rosie |  | | |
| This is going to be an interesting battle over the next couple of years on 09:31 - Mar 31 with 1055 views | Guthrum |
| This is going to be an interesting battle over the next couple of years on 09:12 - Mar 31 by MrTown |
Agents have a role in football, whether fans like or not is a different matter, but players employ agents because they know they need them.
I'm not sure it is correct to regulate how much an agent earns etc, they are running a business, and not many other businesses are capped at what they can earn - (could be wrong but can't think of any off the top of my head), so why should the sports management industry be any different. |
However, most businesses have rules against monopolies. Yet in sport, agents get exclusive long-term control over certain in-demand assets.
My personal view is that the pendulum has swung a very long way in the direction of player - and therefore agant - power. The expense of that is threatening the future of the industry itself, with lower level clubs now collapsing quite regularly under the financial strain. Unless there is a controlled adjustment, something more drastic and less ordered may ensue.
The players don't really care about killing the goose which laid the golden egg. If football is shattered in ten years time, their careers will have finished anyway. Sharp practices of the mega-agents (highlighted by things like the Sala incident) overshadow the work of more ordinary ones. Fans are torn between hating agent fees draining their clubs' resources and the driving lust to have the best players in their team at all costs.
Fifa wants to do something sooner rather than later, but the mega-agents are not going to go quietly. |  |
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| This is going to be an interesting battle over the next couple of years on 09:32 - Mar 31 with 1051 views | MrTown |
They shouldn't charge anything at all...?
That's so silly it is non-start debate. | |
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| This is going to be an interesting battle over the next couple of years on 09:34 - Mar 31 with 1045 views | bluelagos |
| This is going to be an interesting battle over the next couple of years on 09:12 - Mar 31 by MrTown |
Agents have a role in football, whether fans like or not is a different matter, but players employ agents because they know they need them.
I'm not sure it is correct to regulate how much an agent earns etc, they are running a business, and not many other businesses are capped at what they can earn - (could be wrong but can't think of any off the top of my head), so why should the sports management industry be any different. |
The laissez faire argument you make falls down at a couple of places imho.
Firstly, there is no free market aspect here, open to anyone to undercut etc. You are I need to be registered accepted and I think pay $50k to be an agent. So it is not open to all.
Secondly, agents, like many other crooks, effectively operate as a cartel. The fees, for basically introducing 2 parties are ridiculous. And the clubs are fcked cos they have little choice. You want Pogba, it'll be £80m. Juventus only want £40m but it's £80m, cos the agent says so.
In a free market those fees would be driven down. In football they are driven up.
Where is the free market in that scenario? The agent has influence over the player (Who could of course change) and over the club. He effectively has the veto over any transfer if he sees fit.
All of this inflates transfer fees, there is little argument over that. They also inflate salaries. Now the salaries, ok, the players win there. But the fees? That is you and me paying for that. Clubs make less money - cos they pay more for players. So pay on the gate is increased.
And the selling club is no better off. Juventus only got £40m selling Pogba, not the £80m Man U paid. | |
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| This is going to be an interesting battle over the next couple of years on 09:37 - Mar 31 with 1034 views | bluelagos |
| This is going to be an interesting battle over the next couple of years on 09:32 - Mar 31 by MrTown |
They shouldn't charge anything at all...?
That's so silly it is non-start debate. |
I would simply make it that any fees are only payable by the player. Let the agent represent the player as best they can, get the best deal they can for the player and take a cut of it as agreed with the player.
I'd leave them solely to a role of representing a player end of. Transfers simply don't need agents. Clubs are quite capable of scouting (if buying) and putting a player on a transfer list if they want to sell. | |
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| This is going to be an interesting battle over the next couple of years on 09:38 - Mar 31 with 1032 views | WeWereZombies |
| This is going to be an interesting battle over the next couple of years on 09:32 - Mar 31 by MrTown |
They shouldn't charge anything at all...?
That's so silly it is non-start debate. |
You appear to have taken seriously an off-hand remark and the result of a quick Google on 'limits to agent's fees' throwing up a fairly unrelated example of capping the money an agent can take from a practice. You could have done that Google yourself and produced more substance for your argument, instead you react petulantly. I think we can all see where you are coming from...and possibly what your profession is. | |
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| This is going to be an interesting battle over the next couple of years on 09:38 - Mar 31 with 1032 views | Guthrum |
| This is going to be an interesting battle over the next couple of years on 09:23 - Mar 31 by LeoMuff |
I would love to see the back of agents, very unhealthy influence on the game. However the clubs are just as greedy, if they formed together as a group and said no agent fees to be paid from here on, a player pays them out of their own pocket, it would be fine, but they won’t as they want the best players to themselves. |
Precisely the issue. And most fans have the same drive. | |
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| This is going to be an interesting battle over the next couple of years on 10:56 - Mar 31 with 961 views | Basuco |
| This is going to be an interesting battle over the next couple of years on 09:30 - Mar 31 by HARRY10 |
Agents are a convenient way of leeching money out of the game to managers, directors etc
Agent hires person for 'consulting works, that person hires manager etc for personal appearance elsewhere
Monies end up in a Monaco bank account named Rosie |
Payments to agents to make a deal happen have long been accepted by clubs as "part of the fee" where this money ends up we can only guess at. |  | | |
| This is going to be an interesting battle over the next couple of years on 11:38 - Mar 31 with 887 views | X0Y0 |
| This is going to be an interesting battle over the next couple of years on 09:37 - Mar 31 by bluelagos |
I would simply make it that any fees are only payable by the player. Let the agent represent the player as best they can, get the best deal they can for the player and take a cut of it as agreed with the player.
I'd leave them solely to a role of representing a player end of. Transfers simply don't need agents. Clubs are quite capable of scouting (if buying) and putting a player on a transfer list if they want to sell. |
I think they should be mostly responsible for maximising a players brand value and marketing revenues (e.g. social media, appearances). Having said that, recruiters are common place in other markets, though the dynamics are clearly different so maybe it's not a fair comparison.
If agent income is restricted to being paid by player salaries, would it result in players increasingly chasing the highest possible salary at every oportunity? I'm imagining the Downes scenario playing out every transfer window for all of the talented youth players in lower divisions. | | | |
| This is going to be an interesting battle over the next couple of years on 12:02 - Mar 31 with 845 views | bluelagos |
| This is going to be an interesting battle over the next couple of years on 11:38 - Mar 31 by X0Y0 |
I think they should be mostly responsible for maximising a players brand value and marketing revenues (e.g. social media, appearances). Having said that, recruiters are common place in other markets, though the dynamics are clearly different so maybe it's not a fair comparison.
If agent income is restricted to being paid by player salaries, would it result in players increasingly chasing the highest possible salary at every oportunity? I'm imagining the Downes scenario playing out every transfer window for all of the talented youth players in lower divisions. |
If agent income is restricted to being paid by player salaries, would it result in players increasingly chasing the highest possible salary at every oportunity?
You think they don't now? Some may sensibly play a long term game, (better to progress at club A than sit on the bench of club B) but am sure plenty of footballers do all they can to get as high a contract as possible. And no issue with that tbh. Many only have like 15 years if lucky to earn. | |
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