Bernstein joins in outcry at ‘immoral’ agent payments
Former FA chairman leads Pogba backlash Midfielder has not been affected, says Mourinho
David Bernstein, the former Football Association chairman, last night called for the game to outlaw “immoral” agents’ fees amid a growing backlash over payments reportedly made during Paul Pogba’s move to Manchester United.
Bernstein joined the heads of the Football Supporters’ Federation and Manchester United Supporters’ Trust yesterday in condemning the alleged £41 million that Pogba’s representative,
Mino Raiola, is set to earn from the midfielder’s world-record £89 million switch from Juventus last summer.
That was after Fifa announced on Tuesday night that it was probing the controversial deal, the same day as details were published from a book which investigated the midfielder’s re-signing by United.
United manager Jose Mourinho has played down the idea that Pogba has been affected by the attention surrounding his transfer.
Asked if he thought the France midfielder would suffer a dip in his recent good form as a result of
Controversy: Paul Pogba was re-signed by United for £89m Fifa’s investigation, Mourinho said yesterday: “The question is simple. No.”
The chairman of League Two club Accrington Stanley, meanwhile, stood by his scathing attack on the Premier League over the Pogba transfer and accused it of threatening to withdraw solidarity payments it makes to his club after he spoke out.
Bernstein, chairman of the FA for two years until 2013, joined the chorus of disapproval last night, telling The Daily Telegraph: “If the situation is as portrayed and if those figures are correct, I think it’s absolutely terrible. “Football’s got to look at itself. How the average supporter feels when they read this stuff, I don’t know. Things like this are liable just to reduce the level of enthusiasm that people have for the game.” Bernstein, who this year joined several other former FA executives in demanding reforms to the governing body to curtail the “power of the Premier League”, added: “It is a connected syndrome. Maybe rules are being flouted, maybe not. I don’t know. But, fundamentally, I think it’s a massive problem and I think it does need to be looked at by football and, I presume, by the FA.
“Even if they are being done within the existing regulations, figures of those sorts of size in agents’ commissions are just immoral. It might not be illegal but it’s immoral.”
FSF chairman Malcolm Clarke, who is also on the FA council, said: “I am sure that most fans will be astonished and dismayed by the sheer scale of agents’ fees revealed in this and other big transfers, sums which are beyond the comprehension, let alone the reach, of fans who spend a lifetime working for a fraction of those amounts. This is just the latest example of greed and madness on planet football.”
A “frustrated” MUST chief executive Duncan Drasdo said any agent earning £41million from a transfer was, in his view, “obviously bad for the game”.
Accrington chairman Andy Holt said: “When every lower-league club is under water financially, it is not right, as far as I’m concerned, that an agent can be paid £41million for helping to arrange a transfer. Give me strength, come on, it’s obscene. I have expressed my opinion and I make no apology for that, but it seems you cannot criticise the Premier League.
“Their reaction shocked me. For them to threaten to end the solidarity payments to Accrington Stanley because I dared to express an opinion… well, it is the sign of an organisation that couldn’t care less what happens in the lower leagues and one which refuses to listen to anyone who questions the way things are done.”
Raiola could not be reached for comment last night but the chairman of the Association of Football Agents, which represents more than 300 intermediaries, said he was not fundamentally opposed to a cap on fees provided one also applied to player salaries and other expenditure in the game.
Mike Miller, a former chief executive of the International Rugby Board, added: “Of course, there’s going to be some rotten apples – as there are everywhere.
“So, if it makes sense to have a system where there are various caps and checks and balances, they should apply to everyone who’s involved and not just to one group.”