PL Agents' fees

[Dirk Gently]

Last year the Premier League Clubs paid over £70m in fees to agents.

Total money spent on agents (from Oct 08 - Sep 09):

Manchester City - £12,874,283
Chelsea - £9,562,223
Liverpool - £6,657,305
Tottenham - £6,066,935
Wigan - £5,527,548
Arsenal - £4,760,241
West Ham - £3,576,972
Portsmouth - £3,184,725
Bolton - £3,166,611
Everton - £2,008,407
Sunderland - £2,007,040
Aston Villa - £1,708,374
Blackburn - £1,610,885
Hull - £1,599,188
Manchester United - £1,517,393
Fulham - £1,469,258
Wolves - £1,235,703
Birmingham - £974,982
Stoke - £716,042
Burnley - £468,398

To put this into perspective, the wealth that the Premier League shares with the FL, to support the other 72 clubs within the pyramid, is £31.8m a year.

[sheshnu]

Isn't there pretty much a revolving door at Stoke every transfer window? They've done well not to give so much to agents. Not surprised at the top 4 names on that list.

Dirk, does that 31.8 million figure include the parachute payments?

[Dirk Gently]

Dirk, does that 31.8 million figure include the parachute payments?

Nope, because I count them as being payments to a specific club (effectively PL prize money, in a strange way) - but the point is that the parachute payments aren't for distribution, just for a certain clubs (unless a relegated club goes back up in the first year, in whcih case their parachute money is shared amngst other CCC clubs not reciving parachute money).

It does include £5.4 million which can only be spent on youth development (i.e. academies), and £4 million for community activities, though.

FTR, the PL's TV income is £2.7 billion over 3 years.

[sheshnu]

I have no real concept of how much money that is or what it will pay for. Any of it. The point is that agents are getting a much thicker wedge than all the clubs in the FL put together I suppose; I just can't decide whether the PL has a duty to look after the rest of us or not.

[papereyes]

I'd be more interested to see the value of agents fees vs transfer fees spent over the same period.

[Smoking Kills Dancing Doe]

Massive lol at REdknapp today when asked about the fees.

I don't know about things like that, I just leave it up to the board.

Ok Harry.....

[handbags_harris]

I have no real concept of how much money that is or what it will pay for. Any of it. The point is that agents are getting a much thicker wedge than all the clubs in the FL put together I suppose; I just can't decide whether the PL has a duty to look after the rest of us or not.

As far as I understand it, the Premier League has a duty to look after it's 20 "shareholders". It has no duty to look after any other facet of the football pyramid. It is up to the FA to ensure that what the Premier League does is best for football as a whole.

[Dirk Gently]

Correct, but there is a recognition, even in teh Premier League, that one of the strengths of English football is the whole pyramid, not just the tip of it. The PL is dependant to a certain extent on the FL and pyramid clubs for player development etc.

[Hoop Blah]

I notice they don't publish, or at least make such a big deal about, the same figure for the amount of money paid to players over the same time.

That would put the agents fee's into perspective.

[Dirk Gently]

I notice they don't publish, or at least make such a big deal about, the same figure for the amount of money paid to players over the same time.

That would put the agents fee's into perspective.

They don't publish it, but it's available......

In 2007/08 the total PL wage bill was £1.2 billion - an average of £60 million each.

PREMIER LEAGUE WAGE BILLS 2007/08 (2006/07 in brackets)
Chelsea - £172.1m (£132.9m)
Manchester Utd - £121.1m (£92.3m)
Arsenal - £101.3m (£89.7m)
Liverpool - £90.4m (£77.6m)
Newcastle Utd - £74.6m (£56.7m)

The average of non-big 4 clubs was £44.73m. When we were last there, our wage bill was £33m, for comparison.

In the same season, Championship clubs' total wage costs were £291m, up by £32M. (i.e. an average of £12.1m, or just 27% of the average of non-big 4 clubs in the PL)

[Tony Le Mesmer]

Massive lol at REdknapp today when asked about the fees.

I don't know about things like that, I just leave it up to the board.

Ok Harry.....

lol, he was the first thing i thought of when they announced this

[Hoop Blah]

I notice they don't publish, or at least make such a big deal about, the same figure for the amount of money paid to players over the same time.

That would put the agents fee's into perspective.

They don't publish it, but it's available......

In 2007/08 the total PL wage bill was £1.2 billion - an average of £60 million each.

PREMIER LEAGUE WAGE BILLS 2007/08 (2006/07 in brackets)
Chelsea - £172.1m (£132.9m)
Manchester Utd - £121.1m (£92.3m)
Arsenal - £101.3m (£89.7m)
Liverpool - £90.4m (£77.6m)
Newcastle Utd - £74.6m (£56.7m)

The average of non-big 4 clubs was £44.73m. When we were last there, our wage bill was £33m, for comparison.

In the same season, Championship clubs' total wage costs were £291m, up by £32M. (i.e. an average of £12.1m, or just 27% of the average of non-big 4 clubs in the PL)

I guess I really meant they don't show it in comparison when they complain about the money 'going out of the game' to the slimey agents.

You can also probably add on another 10% or so to those wages to get it to cover the same season (08-09 instead of 07-08).

I don't really have a problem with the agents taking a cut. I don't like the way the can unsettle a player to try and earn more cash through moving their players around, but in terms of the job they do in helping clubs buy or sell players they perform a reasonable service.

It's still a lot of money though!

[Wide and Wonderful]

Last year the Premier League Clubs paid over £70m in fees to agents.

Total money spent on agents (from Oct 08 - Sep 09):

Manchester City - £12,874,283
Chelsea - £9,562,223
Liverpool - £6,657,305
Tottenham - £6,066,935
Wigan - £5,527,548
Arsenal - £4,760,241
West Ham - £3,576,972
Portsmouth - £3,184,725
Bolton - £3,166,611
Everton - £2,008,407
Sunderland - £2,007,040
Aston Villa - £1,708,374
Blackburn - £1,610,885
Hull - £1,599,188
Manchester United - £1,517,393
Fulham - £1,469,258
Wolves - £1,235,703
Birmingham - £974,982
Stoke - £716,042
Burnley - £468,398

To put this into perspective, the wealth that the Premier League shares with the FL, to support the other 72 clubs within the pyramid, is £31.8m a year.

Footballers are high maintenance with large egos and probably all think they should be playing for the top four. Agents can work in favour of your club by managing that player and painting a more positive picture of what your club has to offer when compared against another club. But it will cost you!

What is interesting is that Manchester United don't seem to be being held to ransom. It appears that they are using their reputation to negotiate with agents - "Your player should want to play for us, we will give him the chance to perform on the world/european stage. If he doesn't like it, then he can go and sign for Fulham/Wolves etc" Chelsea and Liverpool seem to be being charged over the odds and are not making the most out of their status.

Man City in their desperation to attract top quality players need to pay the agency fees to get the agents influence on the players who would otherwise be looking at joing L'pool, Man U and Chelsea. "if you can get Robinhon to sign for us, we'll give you 35% of the signing on fee, please! Please! Please!

Everyone else is scrapping over the other good players and need the agents influence to get players to join them.

Agency spend (with a few exceptions - pompey, stoke and Man Utd) seems to reflect on their current league position, or is keeping them higher up the league than you would expect (Wigan for example)

Unfortunately, due to the attitude of players, agents are a necessary evil in football to get your club the players that they want.

[prostak]

Total money spent on agents (from Oct 08 - Sep 09):
West Ham - £3,576,972
Portsmouth - £3,184,725
Bolton - £3,166,611
Hull - £1,599,188

These are the most alarming four, for me. Given the extremely precarious nature of their finances, you'd have thought agent fees would be one of the first places to pare back spending. West Ham in particular again delayed submitting their accounts this week, and I think I'd want that 3.5m explained by the board were I a fan. Bolton have spent under 10m and brought in a couple of loan players in the relevant period - what kind of mark-up is being made there? Given that they were one of the implicated parties in the BBC investigation a few years back, that doesn't look great.

[Dirk Gently]

Total money spent on agents (from Oct 08 - Sep 09):
West Ham - £3,576,972
Portsmouth - £3,184,725
Bolton - £3,166,611
Hull - £1,599,188

These are the most alarming four, for me. Given the extremely precarious nature of their finances, you'd have thought agent fees would be one of the first places to pare back spending. West Ham in particular again delayed submitting their accounts this week, and I think I'd want that 3.5m explained by the board were I a fan. Bolton have spent under 10m and brought in a couple of loan players in the relevant period - what kind of mark-up is being made there? Given that they were one of the implicated parties in the BBC investigation a few years back, that doesn't look great.

Agreed, but when a club is tryng to get rid of high-earning players to cut thewage bill they often use agents - they can be used by clubs to tout players out just as much as they can be used by players to get into clubs.

[prostak]

when a club is tryng to get rid of high-earning players to cut thewage bill they often use agents

That would seem appropriate enough for Portsmouth, but going on memory none of the other three have been doing this. Bolton released some reserves, Hull offloaded Dean Windass twice (albeit once on loan). I'm becoming ever more curious over when football's unsustainable financial model will finally collapse.

[Dirk Gently]

when a club is tryng to get rid of high-earning players to cut thewage bill they often use agents

That would seem appropriate enough for Portsmouth, but going on memory none of the other three have been doing this. Bolton released some reserves, Hull offloaded Dean Windass twice (albeit once on loan). I'm becoming ever more curious over when football's unsustainable financial model will finally collapse.

There certainly are changes coming - if nothing else in regulation and goverenance.

There's a big fight coming, with the PL insisting they will govern themselves, their way, and the FA & UEFA determined that goverenance will be applied to all clubs ..... battle lines are being drawn. That's why you see so much anti-Platini propaganda in the papers that depend on the PL and whose journalists get wined and dined every month at PL dinners.

Meanwhile the FL are doing their own thing (pretty well, too, I think, with some great ideas) and being ignored by everyone esle....