The Roar
The Roar

Advertisement

The ugly side of modern day football 

Paul Pogba's record re-signing with Manchester United. (Supplied)
Roar Guru
8th April, 2017
19

Premier League clubs paid a staggering 174 million pounds (287 AUD) to agents between February 2016 to January 2017. The new figures released by the FA, show the vast amount of money leaving the beautiful game every year.

Manchester City out laid the most money to agents and intermediaries, a figure of 26.2 million (43 million AUD) pounds was paid by City. This was mainly down to the arrival of Pep Guardiola in the summer of 2016.

The Spaniard oversaw the signings of John Stones, Gabriel Jesus and Leroy Sane, Claudio Bravo, Nolito and Ilkay Gündogan, who combined cost an eye-watering 170 million pounds (280 AUD).

Second was Chelsea who spent 25 million (41 million AUD) on agent fees. This was once again down to a new manager, Antonio Conte, and the signings he made. The arrival of Marcos Alonso, Michy Batshuayi and the re-signing of David Luiz all contributed to the fee.

Manchester United were third as they paid 19 million pounds (31 million AUD) on agent fees. A large proportion of this amount was probably given to Mino Raiola, who is Paul Pogba’s agent. Raiola was reported in the British press of making close to 20 million pounds off the Pogba deal.

How much did your team pay on agents?
Arsenal £7,415,321
Bournemouth £10,156,567
Burnley £2,567,268
Chelsea £25,051,431
Crystal Palace £5,998,074
Everton £5,081,134
Hull City £1,916,525
Leicester City £5,359,409
Liverpool £13,792,355
Manchester City £26,286,988
Manchester United £19,000,973
Middlesbrough £2,478,379
Southampton £6,321,036
Stoke City £5,442,113
Sunderland £5,833,611
Swansea City £4,330,533
Tottenham Hotspur £7,167,773
Watford £6,292,751
West Brom £4,248,605
West Ham £9,486,390

I, like many other fans, understand that agents and fees are just a part of modern football we have to accept. However, seeing these agent’s fees and how much money leaves football does disappoint me.

What concerns me most is the fact this money never finds its way into grassroots football, it just fills the pockets of all ready rich agents.

Advertisement

The cost of supporting football clubs is a topic frequently discussed, I will concede that clubs and the Premier League have made steps in the right direction to decrease the costs.

However, with the large amounts of sums floating around football, I think more should be done.

It’s important to reward the passionate fans who supported their team every week, the last thing football needs and especially the Premier League needs is to create a divide between fan and club.

close