The Agent's Best Friend

[localny]

Liverpool pay £14.3m in agents’ fees to remain top of Premier League table

• Manchester United second in table at £13.8m, with Manchester City third
• Premier League clubs paid out £130m in total - an increase of £15m

From the Guardian
Jamie Jackson
Monday 30 November 2015 11.38 EST

Christian Benteke was Liverpool’s big signing of the summer at £32.5m from Aston Villa.


Arsenal spent £7.6m more on agent fees in this year’s two transfer windows than they had done in 2014, with Manchester United’s outlay also rising nearly £6m during the same period.
Arsenal’s £11.9m and United’s £13.9m spend for the January and summer windows of 2015 contributed to the total of £129.9m paid out by the 20 Premier League clubs. This was an increase of nearly £15m from the total that went to player representatives in the January and summer windows of 2014.

In 2015, there were 172 incoming transfers and loans in the Premier League, 542 new or improved contracts, and 573 outgoing transfers and loans. This made a total of 1,287 transactions, each of which could have generated a payment to an agent, according to Premier League figures.

Arsenal’s increase in fees for 2015 came after only three additions to their squad – Gabriel Paulista, for £13.5m, and Krystian Bielik (£2.4m) in January, plus Petr Cech (£10m) in the summer.

The markedly lower £4.3m spent by Arsenal in the 2014 windows came despite the arrivals of Alexis Sánchez (£30m), Danny Welbeck (£16m), Calum Chambers (£16m), Mathieu Debuchy (£12m) and David Ospina (£3m) in summer of that year.

However, the rise 12 months later may be due to some agent fees being staggered across the length of an individual player’s contracts. When an incumbent player signs fresh terms with the club his representative can also again receive a fee.

And players leaving the club may also trigger the settling of a lump sum of monies owed to representatives. In July Lukas Podolski left Arsenal for Galatasaray for £1.8m.
United’s increase in spending was due to all of these factors as Louis van Gaal, bought five players in the summer (Sergio Romero arrived on a free transfer). Anthony Martial (£36m), Morgan Schneiderlin (£25m), Memphis Depay (£24m), Bastian Schweinsteiger (£13.5m), and Matteo Darmian (£12.7m) were acquired in the summer window.

United’s biggest sale was the £44.3m received in August from Paris Saint-Germain for Ángel di María, only one season into the five-year contract signed by the Argentinian. Javier Hernández (£7.3m), Jonny Evans (£6m), Nani (£4.25m), Robin van Persie (£3.84m), and Rafael Da Silva (£2.5m) also left the club.

There are also agent fees still being paid for the purchases of Marouane Fellaini (£27.5m) and Juan Mata (£37.1m) under David Moyes in summer 2013 and January 2014, respectively.
Liverpool’s £14.3m spend was the highest in the two windows of this year ahead of United’s, and Manchester City’s £12.4m, though this latter sum was lower than the £12.8m paid to agents by Sheikh Mansour’s club in 2014.

In the summer Brendan Rodgers, then the Liverpool manager, bought Christian Benteke (£32.5m), Roberto Firmino (£29m), Nathaniel Clyne (£12.5m), and Joe Gomez (£3.5m) for the Anfield club. Tottenham nearly halved their expenditure on agents’ fees, down £5m from 2014.
Promoted Watford paid £1.6m to agents in the summer. José Manuel Jurado (£6m), Etienne Capoue (£5.7m), Steven Berghuis (£4.6m), Valon Behrami (£2.5m), José Holebas (£1.8m) and Juanfran (£1m) were signed by the top-flight newcomers.

The total spent on agent fees by the 24 Championship clubs in 2015 was £26.1m, with £3.2m in League One and £1m in League Two the outlay in these divisions.

The biggest payers of agent fees in the Championship were Cardiff City (£2.8m), Fulham (£2.7m), QPR and Reading (both £2.3m). Bury, of League One, and the League Two club Accrington Stanley made no payments to any agent.

For more information (than you would get in a Red Astaire article)
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/nov/30/liverpool-agents-premier-league

 

[Red Astaire]

Quiffer McQuifferson!

 

[cloggypop]

You should have bumped your one. It's vanishing now.

 

[localny]

You should have bumped your one. It's vanishing now.

yeah @Red Astaire

 

[localny]

I think all these fees are really just because we went on the spending spree. Historically, have we been top of the heap?

 

[cloggypop]

Well, I don't think the likes of Jorge Mendes are completely transparent with their fees myself.

 

[cloggypop]

But this localny thread is a much nicer layout on Tapatalk.

 

[Red Astaire]

But this localny thread is a much nicer layout on Tapatalk.

You slut!!!

 

[Red Astaire]

it's all in the time stamp girlfriend. 4 minutes late. You snooze, you lose!

Snooze my arse - I won buy 4 mins! Losers moan about time stamp - Winners go home and fuck the prom queen!

 

[localny]

Well, I don't think the likes of Jorge Mendes are completely transparent with their fees myself.

of course not. This is just what's reported.

 

[localny]

Snooze my arse - I won buy 4 mins! Losers moan about time stamp - Winners go home and fuck the prom queen!

Dude, you've been watching too many American movies

 

[localny]

Format, link source cited, photo, - sure this is like reading a great novel. Bin that Red Astaire excel spreadsheet mods.

 

[localny]

It's got a picture, it attributes the source clearly. and It's easy to read on TAPATALK. time to take down Red Astaire's Excel Spreadsheet Mods.

 

[localny]

But this localny thread is a much nicer layout on Tapatalk.

Well said.

 

[Red Astaire]

It's got a picture, it attributes the source clearly. and It's easy to read on TAPATALK. time to take down Red Astaire's Excel Spreadsheet Mods.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

My post (first, better and with informative chart, with original link to source) Your post - (Last, worse and then had to edit it in a feeble need to gain respect of said post!)

Your honour (mods) I rest my case.

 

[cloggypop]

Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

My post (first, better and with informative chart, with original link to source) Your post - (Last, worse and then had to edit it in a feeble need to gain respect of said post!)

Your honour (mods) I rest my case.

You probably should have done it in your thread.

 

[localny]

Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

My post (first, better and with informative chart, with original link to source) Your post - (Last, worse and then had to edit it in a feeble need to gain respect of said post!)

Your honour (mods) I rest my case.

Me think he doth protest too much. The people (Cloggy as a sample) have spoken. The most tapa-talk friendly post has won

 

[localny]

anyone actually know any agents?

 

[Frogfish]

I don't get this Tapatalk thing .... everything opens nicely on my phone without it so what's the big deal ?

 

[Woland]

Yep. Mobile friendly site is fine. Fuck you tapatalk splitters.

 

[Arn]

If you want a top class player then you must pay/bribe the agent. Looks like our owner understand that now. Some idiots at another site laughed at me when I explained how the transfer market works. I don't laugh at them now because it is sad that it is all about money but they probably now understand how the transfer market works.

Bribe the agent and he will tell his client how fantastic the club is.

 

[Modo]

I blame Rodgers.

 

[localny]

the count said: ↑

Did @localny post one liners in about twenty threads just to get this one relegated to page two and in doing so boost his own duplicate one?
​

Red Astaire said: I've risen above it count (literally)

Come on lads, how could you suggest such a thing.

 

[localny]

On the sadder side of the Agent Story... here's a tale from Kenya

Families getting conned by fake sports agents, says charity
By Agencies, Citizen Digital
Published on 2 November 2015

African families are handing their life savings to false agents who promise their sons a career with a European club but instead leave them abandoned on the street, says a charity which deals with the problem.

Jean-Claude Mbvoumin, a former Cameroon international who heads the Culture Foot Solidaire group, also warned that Africa is awash with ramshackle, unlicensed soccer academies which exist primarily to prepare children for a move abroad.

“In Africa, you have thousands and thousands of academies for which the main goal is to transfer young players to Europe,” he said on the sidelines of the Play the Game conference.

“They just want to make money, they don’t care about the health of the children,” he added referring to academies which are often little more than a dusty pitch by the roadside.

“Anyone can set up an academy with a small pitch, two or three poor-quality balls, and you have 50 young players running here and there,” he said.

“There is no changing room, no stadium, no office, no address; they have their office in a suitcase.

“You can have some guys with a phone and computer; they have an email address, they have one coach who doesn’t have the skill or qualification to train.”

The best players are offered a contract by an agent and are asked to pay from 3,000 to 10,000 euros ($3,301.80 to $11,006.00) up front to cover visa and travel expenses.
But instead of a lucrative contract with a glamorous club, they are often abandoned on the streets. To make matters worse, the family fortune is also lost.
“The whole family invest in football, because they know that if he (their son) makes it as a professional, he will become a millionaire,” said Mbvoumin, adding that some families even sold their houses to raise money.
“Relatives all club together because today, in Africa, it’s a complete project for the whole family. Children are removed from school just to train in an academy with no contract, no idea of what will happen tomorrow.
“We need the prosecution of the traffickers, the people who take advantage of the dream of football to traffic minors,” he added.
Mbvoumin, who said he received several calls a day from families asking for help, said there needed to be more co-operation between governments and police forces and that soccer’s world governing body FIFA needed to be more proactive.
He suggested FIFA should set up a task force to deal with the issue.
FIFA said it had introduced tougher rules on international transfers, especially those involving players under 18 which are only authorised once a long list of requirements have been fulfilled.

VULNERABLE YOUNGSTERS
“The protection of minors is of major importance for FIFA,” the ruling body said in a statement.
“Young footballers are vulnerable to abuse and exploitation when they are in a foreign country without the appropriate controls.
“For FIFA, protecting the appropriate and stable development of a minor as a whole should prevail over purely sporting interests.”
FIFA said the basis of the regulations on the protection of minors goes back to an agreement signed in 2001 between itself, European soccer’s governing body UEFA and the European Commission and that the rules had been developed over the years.
FIFA added that its electronic Transfer Matching System (TMS) had dramatically cut down on minors moving abroad.
Mbvoumin, however, said TMS was a good idea in principle but only applied to official academies and clubs.
He added that another problem was the lack of opportunities to play football in Africa.
“I played before crowds of 60,000 people in Cameroon. Officially, I was an amateur but I was paid. It was a very good time for me and I was happy to play in Cameroon,” he said.
“Nowadays in Cameroon we have professional football but only in name; in fact, the players are poorer than when I was playing. So everyone wants to leave the country and that is one of the problems.”

Source: http://citizentv.co.ke/sports/families-getting-conned-by-fake-sports-agents-says-charity-104755/

 

[Frogfish]

Very sad. But where there's money there's corruption and exploitation.

It's a pretty horrible, fucked up, world we live in.

 

[manwithnoname]

If you want a top class player then you must pay/bribe the agent. Looks like our owner understand that now. Some idiots at another site laughed at me when I explained how the transfer market works. I don't laugh at them now because it is sad that it is all about money but they probably now understand how the transfer market works.

Bribe the agent and he will tell his client how fantastic the club is.

I find it hard to believe that the transfer market, the exchange of players for money, is actually all about money.

I thought there was another driving force of the transfer market.

 

[localny]

Very sad. But where there's money there's corruption and exploitation.

It's a pretty horrible, fucked up, world we live in.

Yes sadly. Where's the goodness. Corruption everywhere, including people even bumping their threads for personal gain. Disgraceful

 

[localny]

Agents' fees: West Brom's Richard Garlick says costs harder to control

By Simon StoneBBC Sport
It is getting harder to keep agents' costs down in the Premier League, according to West Bromwich Albion.
Apart from the promoted clubs, the Baggies spent the least amount on agents in the top flight last year.
They paid £3.34m to players' representatives - part of an overall £130m across the Premier League.
"It is certainly getting harder in terms of agents trying to jump into deals," said Richard Garlick, football administration director at West Brom.
Liverpool spent £14.3m, the most on agents in the 12-month period to the end of September 2015, with Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal next on the list.
But those clubs also pay higher transfer fees and wages, of which a percentage goes to agents.
Garlick said West Brom have managed to keep their costs down since returning to the Premier League in 2010 by using the club's preference for a sporting or technical director model.
"We don't need agents to act for us because we can deal club to club," he said.

West Brom signed striker Salomon Rondon from Zenit St Petersburg for a club record fee of about £12m in August
Why else do clubs need to use agents?

Top clubs may use agents to approach sides about their players in order to protect their identity, and prevent the potential for prices going up purely because of the club's name.
Others may be given commission to keep a price down for the buyer or push it up for the selling club.
An agent of a player may link up with another agent with better contacts in another country.
"If you walk into a room and there are five people sat around a table your heart tends to sink," said Garlick.
"The problems tend to arise when you are dealing with a foreign player. He might have an agent who is not well known in the UK who buddies up with an agent in this country. The commission gets split and not many agents are happy to accept that.
"There are other times when you can have up to 12 people contacting you about a certain player.
"In the back of your mind you might be thinking it doesn't feel good but your own manager is really keen to get the player.
"That is when you have to make a judgement call and if necessary, you have to be prepared to walk away."

Raheem Sterling signed for Manchester City from Liverpool for a fee that could reach £49m
The fees will continue to rise

The three clubs promoted into the Premier League [Bournemouth, Norwich and Watford] last season spent the least on agents.
Of the seven clubs in the Championship who spent more than £1m in agents' fees, only Nottingham Forest and Derby are not receiving top-flight parachute payments.
Wigan, who were relegated to League One last season, are also receiving that source of income, which explains why their 35 deals cost them £1.46m in agents' fees.
And as the Premier League TV money spirals - with the 2016-19 TV deal worth £5.1bn - the costs will increase.
"The transfers will get bigger and so will the fees," said Neil Patey, football analyst at Ernst & Young.
"The huge TV increases don't mean fees have to go up, but unless clubs decide as a group not to pay more in wages and transfers, the agents will get more as well."

 

[localny]

I'm finding it harder and harder to disassemble all these pieces. Owner, buys clubs - owns economic rights to players. Works with Agent, Mendez, who's fee-generating ways are legendary... what is going on here with this purchase - the Neville appointment just puts this into the limelight for me.


Peter Lim: Salford City investment not connected to third-party ownership
• Billionaire to buy 50% ‘philanthropic’ share from Class of 92
• He owns economic rights of two players on loan to Valencia
• Stake to be acquired in Northern Premier club

Peter Lim says his decision to invest in the Northern Premier League division one north club Salford City is ‘philanthropic’. Photograph: Stephen Morrison/EPA
David Conn

Monday 29 September 2014 06.01 EDT Last modified on Monday 29 September 2014 19.50 EDT

The Singapore billionaire Peter Lim has said his investment in Salford City with the five “class of 92” former Manchester United stars has nothing to do with third-party ownership of players, in which Lim is involved at Valencia.
Lim, who is in the final negotiations of a protracted takeover at the Spanish club, owns 100% of the economic rights in two players, the Spanish striker Rodrigo Moreno Machado and the Portuguese midfielder André Gomes, via his company Meriton Capital. Both were playing for Benfica, from whom Lim’s company bought them in January, for €30m and €15m respectively. In the summer, Benfica loaned the players, now owned by Lim, to Valencia, a club Lim will buy once he reaches agreement with their main creditor, the Spanish conglomerate Bankia.
Jorge Mendes, the agent, transfer intermediary and adviser to third-party ownership (TPO) funds, is a close friend of Lim and has been significantly involved with the acquisitions of Rodrigo and Gomes, as well as other moves to Valencia. The coach, Nuno Espírito Santo, was the first player whose transfer Mendes brokered, in 1997, and Mendes still represents Nuno.
The class of 92 – Gary and Phil Neville, Ryan Giggs, Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes, who graduated through Manchester United’s ranks to glittering football heights – announced last week that Lim has agreed to take a 50% share in their purchase of the Northern Premier League First Division North club Salford. It raised the question about whether Lim’s intention is to use Salford, where the former United stars have pledged to build a productive academy, as a partner club in his growing football activities. Third-party ownership of players is banned in English football because of its perceived damage to the game’s integrity and players’ individual rights, and on Friday, following Uefa pressure, Fifa pledged to ban the practice worldwide.
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A spokesperson for Lim emphasised his involvement with Salford is “philanthropic”, motivated by his interest in developing young players and has nothing to do with Valencia, Mendes or TPO.
“The only reason for Peter’s investment in Salford City is aligned with his personal philanthropic interest in youth development,” the spokesperson said, “and of course his support for the members of the class of 92.”
The former United quintet said when announcing the deal they had known Lim for 10 years – initially this was through his ownership of United’s Red Cafe Asian franchise. He is already involved with the group in building a hotel, called Hotel Football, near Old Trafford at a reported cost of £23m.
Lim made his millions investing in shares and he supports training of young footballers in the Singapore Sports Foundation, where he is said to have invested substantially. Lim’s spokesperson stressed he was not intending to develop a business in TPO.
“Our involvement in the third-party ownership of players is not a long-term one,” the spokesperson, based in Singapore, said. “The case [sic] was mainly due to our acquisition of Valencia. We had submitted our offer to acquire Valencia in December 2013 and did not expect that it is a long and protracted one. We invested in the economic rights of Rodrigo and André during the January 2014 transfer window and it was solely for Valencia in mind.
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“After the official support from the Valencia CF Foundation to sell the club to us (but before reaching an agreement with Bankia), the two players were on loan to Valencia for one year while we are trying to complete the transaction.”
The Neville brothers, Giggs, Scholes and Butt have not commented on the third-party ownership element of Lim’s activities but are thought to consider it irrelevant because of the TPO ban here and because Salford City, in northern English semi-professional football, inhabit a different world from Mendes and Valencia.
The former United stars took over Salford this year as part of developing a broad portfolio of interests and activities now their playing days are over. Such projects include the eponymous film that has branded them collectively the “class of 92”. A unifying theme is to positively acknowledge their roots, including a strong connection with Salford – Giggs still lives in the city; Scholes was born there; United’s Cliff and Littleton Road training grounds, where they were all schooled in football, are in Salford.
The five have addressed concerns about whether British players have the same opportunities to progress as they did – Gary Neville has said publicly he does not believe he would be given a chance in United’s first team if he were coming through now. At Salford, they have pledged to build an academy that will develop young British players.
The ambition is to take the club from the raw lower reaches to the Football League, a journey almost certain to involve a move from the historic, but basic, ground at Moor Lane.
Fleetwood Town, who have been promoted from two divisions below Salford, the North West Counties League first division, to League One in a decade, are explicitly a role model. That project has cost Fleetwood’s owner, Andy Pilley, more than £10m, and the Class of 92 said they always wanted a partner who would share the cost of Salford. Hence the billionaire Lim’s investment, which is, they say, a comfortable fit.

 

[cloggypop]

You big quiffer from other threads localny!