Sky: Premier League footballers could be forced to pay agents

[Kapardin]

Clubs rely on agents just as much as players do. That is why they are able to get such big fees.

That's exaggerated. Mendes and Raiola do wield influence at some clubs, but it's not like they are indispensable.

This would be excellent if it happens. Let's see if Raiola's clients would feel obligated to move to a new club every year just because the fat cnut wants a pay-off each time.

 

[Cassidy]

That's exaggerated. Mendes and Raiola do wield influence at some clubs, but it's not like they are indispensable.

This would be excellent if it happens. Let's see if Raiola's clients would feel obligated to move to a new club every year just because the fat cnut wants a pay-off each time.

Somehow you just know that it will work something like the club paying the player, who thus in turn pays the agent.

Also it totally ignores the fact that clubs often employ agents to act as intermediaries. Which probably shouldn't be allowed

 

[Red_toad]

Then the players would ask the club for astronomical wage to compensate for the fee they pay to the agents. One could say the club can play hard ball and refuse but when they essentially are going to pay the same amount of money out of pocket as before to have a star player, it makes no difference.

I can't see it.

If agent A charges massive fees, the players aren’t going to mind paying it? I’m sure they don’t care when it doesn’t affect their earnings. But once it’s coming out of their back pocket, maybe they’ll be a tad more selective about who they employ.

 

[RedPnutz]

Exactly the first thing I thought of when I saw the thread. Either way, the agents win.

But if the payment is not upfront then agents have to wait over the duration of the contract to be fully paid. Of course, they could get paid at another club but not many clubs could have those wage structures.

Perhaps if the agent fees were structured (e.g.; say $5m for a 5-year contract) like such: 0.5m first year, 0.5m second year, 1m third year, 1.5m fourth year and 1.5m fifth year but weighting the payouts heavily at the back end it may discourage agents from turning their clients’ heads easily.

 

[Laurentiu amt]

But if the payment is not upfront then agents have to wait over the duration of the contract to be fully paid. Of course, they could get paid at another club but not many clubs could have those wage structures.

Perhaps if the agent fees were structured (e.g.; say $5m for a 5-year contract) like such: 0.5m first year, 0.5m second year, 1m third year, 1.5m fourth year and 1.5m fifth year but weighting the payouts heavily at the back end it may discourage agents from turning their clients’ heads easily.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this might have some strange effect on players leaving clubs, especially big clubs.

My tired brain will think something along the lines of:
-> Pogs signs for United and he needs to pay Raiola a 5M fee over 5 seasons
-> Pogs will ask for a bigger salary - we being Man United - we afford it -Paul can pay Raiola over 5 years
-> If Raiola wants to take Pogs to Barca, Barca need to offer the guy a bigger paycheck for Raiola to gain a bigger amount of $/year from Paul.
-> Also Raiola could ask for his pay percentage to increase everytime Paul negotiates his contract.

Overall this will enforce more power to big clubs over agents. As long as you pay the bigger salary -> the agent earns more -> Is less determined to take your player to another club(unless they pay a much higher salary) . Am I being a bit to idealistic?

 

[RedPnutz]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this might have some strange effect on players leaving clubs, especially big clubs.

My tired brain will think something along the lines of:
-> Pogs signs for United and he needs to pay Raiola a 5M fee over 5 seasons
-> Pogs will ask for a bigger salary - we being Man United - we afford it -Paul can pay Raiola over 5 years
-> If Raiola wants to take Pogs to Barca, Barca need to offer the guy a bigger paycheck for Raiola to gain a bigger amount of $/year from Paul.
-> Also Raiola could ask for his pay percentage to increase everytime Paul negotiates his contract.

Overall this will enforce more power to big clubs over agents. As long as you pay the bigger salary -> the agent earns more -> Is less determined to take your player to another club(unless they pay a much higher salary) . Am I being a bit to idealistic?

More or less accurate. If the agent payments were front-loaded then agents would readily move the players after the initial years. If the payments were back-loaded, the agents will forego the bigger payments in the later years if they move the players around too quickly. Of course the new club can always pay more but the agents will always “lose” the later bigger payments if the players move too early.

I think it might allow clubs to buy more players. While transfer fees and agent fees are probably amortized over the duration of a player contract, actually paying the agent fees out of the players’ pocket over a period should help cash flow.

 

[Ibrahimorich]

Though I do understand that agents are necessary to ensure players don’t get taken advantage of by clubs, I always thought that it should be the players who pay them, after all they’re primarily looking after their players interests.

I think agents are looking after their own interests first and are actually taking advantage of both the players and the clubs.

In the Raiola/Pogba/Man Utd example, only Raiola wins really. Juve and United both lose money and Pogba potentially gets paid less because so much money went to the agent.

The agent's job should be to facilitate dialogue between club/player, negotiate wages and help sort out the player's accomodation etc, not cream as much profit from all parties as possible.

FIFA should look into putting a cap on agent fees using some sort of formula that takes into account the transfer fee and player wages.

 

[tenpoless]

UEFA might as well provide agents for footballers or put a cap on their salaries and how many players an agent could have. That's the only way to prevent agents from having too much power. If it's still between the players, the clubs and the agents without any cap then it means nothing. They are like 3 separate entities with their own interests. The big problem is when an agent is stockpiling young (and inexperienced) talents and persuade them to move for his interest (aka money). It's disgusting.