Why not have a Golden Fleece award for football’s best agent?
nglish football’s glitterati gathered at the Grosvenor House hotel last night to celebrate another triumphant year at the Professional Footballers’ Association awards, but amid the backslapping of honours season, one faction of the game has been sorely overlooked.
When the prizes were given out, there should have been greater recognition for the modest kingpins of football. Instead, the sport’s agents have become the most humble yet underappreciated folk in the profession.
They have made monumental strides since the beginning of the Premier League yet sought no acclaim, nor congratulation. Each season their success is noted with minimal fanfare, with their contribution apparent only in startling but quietly published financial results.
This month we learnt this most conscientious industry raised a staggering £220million from English transfers between February 2016 and January 2017, a 38 per cent increase on 2015-16. The attention barely survived the 24-hour news cycle. Such lack of gratitude is a travesty. As the new TV broadcasting deal took effect and many clubs – amid several protests – opted to freeze the price of season tickets, mercifully they found their expanding budgets accommodated another massive increase for these misunderstood and vitally important contributors to the transfer market. Rather than brag, these selfless servants remain in the shadows, identities largely kept from public view as they ensure supporters have no means of knowing where to direct their applause for those facilitating the capture of that second-choice left-back they had craved. In the light of the most recent financial results, surely this exceptional contribution has gone without commendation for too long. Let us not think of them as agents anymore. Let us give them the title they would prefer. Let us call them ‘player welfare officers’. Without their advisers, it is believed many Premier League players would earn as much as £10,000-a-week less (on average, top-flight players now earn £2million a year) and would have no means or understanding of how to secure a boot deal or a private booth in their favourite nightclub. Those pesky clubs with their inflating TV revenue would be free to exploit their playing staff by offering paltry salary increases of just a couple of thousand pounds a week, redirecting their resources to other less important areas of the business, such as more affordable ticketing. There is no compelling argument to say that the £174million paid in commission at Premier League level could have been invested more wisely. Obviously it is essential that the clubs, rather than players, meet the costs of these spiralling agent fees.
The biggest representatives have been too sheepish about their accomplishments, and – presumably to respect the privacy of these shy souls – the clubs are reluctant to offer detailed accounts about who made most money.
There have been compromises. Since last season the FA has created an online database where it is possible to see which agent and company charged your club a commission during the past year. and which player they represented.
Every supporter interested in where the money is going should study this, so they are more fully acquainted with the names, even if they will never see the faces.
Unfortunately, there are limits to the scrutiny. The database neglects to itemise the bill, so one will never know how much of the £19million that Manchester United paid agents went to Mino Raiola, or if Peter Kenyon has made more from Chelsea since he left than he would had he remained as chief executive.
That is a shame, as there will be some outstanding candidates for the much-coveted “Agent of the Year” in 2017, the award for which Jorge Mendes is usually a shoo-in. Supporters of United, Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool will have to get by without more detailed knowledge of who to thank for delivering so many wonderful players over the years.
So too Newcastle fans, who must have been wondering where to direct their pats on the back when the figures were released. For years we have heard how Mike Ashley’s sole interest is sucking every last drop out of the Toon Army, yet there it is in black and white – a £10.4 million bill to agents in pursuit of promotion.
A dedicated Premier League award is the best way to acknowledge this enviable success story, and the PFA the most appropriate organisation to campaign for it given so many of its players – still paying that £150-a-year annual subscription – could not function financially without their advisers’ guidance.
Never mind the Golden Boot for the Premier League’s most prolific striker, what about the “Golden Fleece” for the most affluent agent.