FA move to ban West Ham agent deal
THE FA are proposing a change to their regulations that would ban West Ham from having football agents as sponsors of their women’s team because of a ‘potential conflict point’.
Sportsmail revealed in January that the club had left itself open to such an accusation when Unique Sports Management became shirt sponsors for their Women’s Super League side. The agency, run by agent Will Salthouse, counts England captain Harry Kane among its stellar clients and has been involved in a number of West Ham transfer deals. The FA had initially approved the arrangement but the report in this newspaper prompted the governing body to investigate the finer details of a deal believed to be worth in the region of £250,000. They are now looking at a rule change that would mean intermediaries are ‘prohibited from entering
any form of sponsorship agreement with a club’. West Ham vice chair Karren Brady has written to Premier League clubs ahead of today’s shareholders’ meeting in London looking for support to oppose the change. However, she could find clubs agree with the FA in viewing such arrangements with agents as inappropriate. According to Brady’s letter, seen by Sportsmail, the regulation change would not preclude an agent from purchasing commercial hospitality packages from a club. She questions whether there is much of a distinction between that and sponsoring a women’s team, when buying a box at a stadium could prove more expensive. She also argues that, when money going out of the game to agents is rising to astronomical figures, here is an example of intermediaries putting something back in. Brady says the club ‘recognise the concern the FA have regarding a potential conflict of interest’ and confirms a number of agents are paying between £10,000 and £50,000 a season to sponsor a team run by Jack Sullivan, the son of West Ham co-owner David Sullivan. USM are known to be the biggest sponsors with their logo on the back of the women’s team shirts. Last year Sullivan Snr made a personal request to a number of agents requesting their support of his son’s venture.