The Football League's latest Agents' Fees Report has revealed that Town spent £113,200 on agents during the six months to the end of December 2008. That figure was down on the £125,000 paid out during the same period in the previous year.

Town carried out 19 transactions during the period covered, although precisely how many of those deals involved agents is not revealed. They were 10 new registrations or transfers, the updating of six contracts, one cancelled contract and two loans.

Overall, Football League clubs paid £5.7 million to agents between August and December 2008, down on the £7.9 million in the same period of 2007.

In the Championship there were 578 (635 in the same period in 2007) player transactions with 88 (151) involving payments to agents, leading to a total spend of £4,809,035 (£6,684,759).

Football League chairman, Lord Mawhinney says that in the current financial climate the reduction in payments is a good thing: "Given the severe economic recession, it is encouraging to see these figure declining.

"Part of this decrease is likely to be a consequence of the new agents' regulations introduced by the FA. These prohibit clubs from making one-off payments to players which they then use to pay their agent's fees. The upshot is that, in some cases, agents' fees will have been absorbed into player salaries instead.

"I am encouraged that the FA took the decision to suspend this element of their regulations during the recent transfer window and I would encourage them to continue to do so.

"Overall, I believe the publication of agents' fees, along with the more recent decision to prohibit the practice of 'dual representation', has brought much greater levels of transparency and integrity to the transfer system.

"To most people it will seem sensible that where agents are working on behalf of players, they get paid by players. And when they work for clubs they get paid by clubs."

The full report can be downloaded here

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