Ask around – whether it is the chairmen with their obscene wealth, the head coaches with their furrowed brows, or fans simply clinging to hope on the terraces – they will surely all tell you the same thing – football agents, or intermediaries as they are formally known, are the real villains in the grandiose pantomime that has become modern football. They are the ones lurking in the wings, pulling the strings, the embodiment of everything broken in the game today.
However, is that assessment justified or is the reality more nuanced? Let us dig a bit deeper…
As the summer transfer window comes to the boil, agents are in their element. Boardrooms become battlegrounds, mobiles are abuzz with frenetic negotiations, and somewhere in the midst of all of this, these seemingly controversial figures are weaving their web of influence. It is true to say they have become intrinsic, not just to the players they represent, but to the entire structure of the sport itself.
Click-bait articles are never far from the action either, serving up fresh ‘breaking news’. Half-baked transfer stories, leaks from agents and counter claims from clubs with every cup of morning tea only serve to stoke the fires of public outrage. Take the agent of Jack Clarke for example. It was only a few short months ago that Clarke’s agent, Ian Harte (a former Black Cat himself) informed the Tippy Tappy Football Podcast, “Sunderland didn’t feel like they wanted to sell the player in the January window. The player has just obviously got to focus on what he’s doing at the moment, which is fantastically well, scoring goals, getting assists.”
Sounds reasonable. What is the problem with that you may ask?
Harte on Clarke
Unfortunately, Harte felt compelled to take matters a step further by adding, “But hopefully this summer we’ll probably see Jack moving. Where it may be, we don’t know just yet, but he’s in a good place.”
This is not a comment in isolation. Harte has form. He is not the only agent to fan the flames of discontent either.
Yet, here is the thrust of it – within the game agents are not the disease; they are a symptom. In a world where a footballer’s worth is measured not by the number of trophies they accumulate but by the zeroes on his pay-check, greed is the true currency of the sport. It is not surprising then, that agents thrive in this environment – they are products of what football has become. Indeed, they are not these predatory figures some would have you believe – they could better described as scavengers, scrambling around for their own slice of a very, very, very large pie.
This is the real issue at hand – the insatiable greed within this sport we all love. It underpins everything.
So when it comes to transfers, what about that agent cut we often hear spoken about? Well, the FA produced an annual report setting out agent fees within the national game. From the period 1st February 2023 to 1st February 2024 Championship sides paid out a whopping £61, 340, 767 to player intermediaries. For the avoidance of doubt this is literally earnings for ‘simply’ facilitating their client’s move from team x to side y. If you think this is obscene, Premier League sides forked out £409, 592, 929!
Yet, this is only possible due to the even more outrageous money that exists within the sport.
Premier League cash
With Premier League clubs swimming in cash – figures from the their own annual report state that each of the 20 sides are guaranteed – guaranteed – £91.7m in earnings through the ‘equal share’ arrangement via domestic and international TV revenue alone. This figure rises in increments of £1.7m the higher a side finishes up the table. Manchester City banked £176.2m for being crowned champions, a rise of 15% from the season prior.
In contrast, last season within the Championship Sunderland brought in £10.1m in the form of broadcast revenue, one of the highest in the division and behind only those basking in the after-glow of parachute payments.
However, let us make no bones about it – billions have flooded the game in recent years, filling the pockets of clubs, chairmen, players, and by extension, agents. The money is staggering. Naturally given the circumstances, it is also a breeding ground for potential corruption and avarice.
Against this backdrop, are agents any worse than any other element of the game? They working in the margins of a sport that, as scandals surrounding FIFA and UEFA in recent times has shown, is rotting from within. As the saying goes, football is quite simply eating itself.
We only have to look back to April 2024 when the Guardian reported on ‘Operation Clean Hands’, highlighting that, “An investigation into alleged bribery, money-laundering, forged transfer contracts and the involvement of organised crime at the highest levels of professional football that began in 2018 eventually implicated almost 60 agents, administrators, referees and coaches.” The Guardian went on to state, that the subsequent United Nations report estimated “…around $140bn is laundered through the game every year.”
The very people, like the late Sepp Blatter, former President of FIFA, who made obscene fortunes from the game, are also the ones who fall from grace, consumed by the very system they helped build. But it is crucial to remember – the same corrupt machine that chewed up and spat out Blatter et al has created a thriving financial environment that still continues to operate as if nothing has changed.
We only have to look at the 115 charges levied at Manchester City to understand that.
Sure, agents are part of the murky underworld of football, but can you really blame them solely for a greed that is so intwined within the game? They are merely feeding a ‘beast’ that is constantly starving for more and more.
Agency and a word of warning
Right now, somewhere, probably even within the Stadium of Light – a player is eyeing the exit, crowing about loving their life and loving the fans even more, while his agent negotiates the back door. But those decisions are not forced upon a player so who should take more of the blame here? The player themselves? Sometimes, yes. After all agents exist to serve the players – that is the essence of agency.
Yet, the hunger for ‘more’ is just simply within football’s DNA.
The beautiful game has become littered with ugly stories. The young millionaires who play it are often plagued by vices – gambling, drugs and alcohol. For some, the spoils of success are simply too much to handle. Like all ‘addicts’, if this is what they become, the need access to appropriate support is crucial.
Look at former Black Cat striker, Michael Chopra – just one of many cautionary tales. The former Premier League star was reportedly once £2 million in debt, hunted by loan sharks, and along with the much good, a clear example of what football is also capable of doing. Back in 2013 Chopra described the culture of excess in the Guardian, “We would take thousands of pounds onto the bus, anything up to £30,000. It might change hands playing cards on the bus; we would go to the bank before and take out the money. It was part of team bonding.”
And when the game is over, when the roar of the crowd fades and the steady pay-cheques stop, it can – for some – get worse. Just ask David James, the former England keeper who declared bankruptcy in 2014 after earning an estimated £20 million during his career or Emile Heskey who similarly struggled despite playing at the highest level. In fact, a report from the Daily Mail back in January 2024 carried a statistic from Xpro, an organisation supporting ex-professional players, claiming that, “An estimated 40 percent of professional footballers go bankrupt within five years of retirement, and many more struggle in later life.”
Support is needed
Efforts have been made to tackle these issues in recent years but perhaps still not enough. That said, PFA Wellbeing Data released recently says, “During the 2022/23 season, over 500 current and former PFA members benefitted from this support. Of these, around a quarter (24%) of males used the service to seek support for addictive behaviours and gambling, while almost a third (27%) of female members sought general emotional support”
But, footballers are often thrown into the whirlwind too soon, too fast and guidance may or may not be there. It may, or may not be immediately sought if at all. The moment a young professional steps onto the pitch, they need someone trustworthy at their side. But let’s not absolve the players of responsibility for each and every occasion of any potential misdemeanour. If they are making poor choices, ultimately – however difficult – it is arguably on them to change their course. Like it is for each and any one of us in similar circumstances.
This is where a good agent (some do exist) does more than just secure a contract; they guide, they mentor, they steer their client through the chaos. Perhaps this dynamic has also helped make agents more powerful than ever, sometimes – in the case of Jorge Mendes and Rafaela Pimenta even overshadowing some of the clubs they deal with themselves.
Their role has become simply monumental.
So if good agents do exist who is there to ensure professional standards are upheld? The landscape agents operate under shifted eight years ago, and perhaps not for the better. FIFA scrapped the global licensing system for agents on April 1, 2016, leaving each country to fend for itself. The result? A Wild West of intermediaries, some no doubt lacking the credibility young players desperately need.
The late Mel Stein, former chairman of the Association of Football Agents, saw it as a giant step backward at the time, “The licensed football agent will be a thing of the past. Intermediaries will no longer be required to pass an exam to qualify. In theory, anybody can become one, provided they have an ‘impeccable reputation ‘ – essentially, they are without a criminal record – have no conflicting interests, and in England pay £500 to register with the FA.”
More recently however, FIFA appeared willing to address the issue. Back in October 2023 football’s global governing body was introducing regulation, to require aspiring agents to sit written exams, change the way in which they are paid and contentiously, a limit on agent fees.
Unsurprisingly, FIFA were hit with lawsuits by the agencies who claimed it was all ‘anti competitive.’ The Financial Times covered this in some detail if of further interest.
Where are things at presently? You may be shocked to learn the agents’ legal challenge was successful and the cap on agent fees does not currently apply in England.
Conclusion
Whichever football regulations come and go, agents will keep brokering deals. That much is certain. It is up to the players to choose wisely who they let into their own corner.
When faced with an experienced, reliable agent versus one who is all about lifestyle and serving themself, you would think the choice would be obvious. But the underbelly of the sport has always been murky, irrespective of any regulation. Remember when a BBC Panorama investigation in 2006 revealed agents bragging about illegal payments to managers to push through dodgy transfers? The game has long since suffered from this problem.
Former FA Chief Executive Brian Barwick vowed to root out the rot back then, telling the Evening Standard, “These are serious allegations made by Panorama, and we are determined to investigate them fully. It is vital for the integrity of the game and for every football supporter that we do this. We will work closely with the Premier League. As with any investigation, we will ensure our inquiries are exhaustive and thorough. If we find evidence of corruption, we will act on it. We recognise our responsibility.”
So, in assessing it all, surely agents are just people, no better or worse than anyone else. Some may be saints others sinners. But they all play in the same sandbox. In the end, if the reputation of football is tarnished (for all the good it can do surely we can all accept it is), it is not just the agents who are to blame it is the game itself and those in the positions of power who have allowed it to happen.
‘Don’t hate the agent/player – hate the game?’ As football supporters in love with the sport, we will always struggle to do that.
Feature image by Sergey Nivens via Shutterstock
