PFA Chief Gordon Taylor Launches Scathing Attack On ‘£100M A Year’ Agent Fees
Chief believes clubs should rely on agents less…
Chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association Gordon Taylor has hit out at the rise of agent fees over the last few years.
Taylor believes the presence of agents is damaging the progression of the England team and cannot understand why clubs are continuing to use agents instead of the PFA, who have nine FIFA-licensed player management agents.
“I find it hard to understand why more clubs don't use us instead of agents,” he told the Daily Mail.
“We've got accountants and lawyers, we know the rules inside out and we're transparent. You know where the money's going with us. We fund our charity, free legal advice to players, insurance and a host of other things. What do agents spend their money on and how does that help the game?
“We'll still be here after the deal's done and still be accountable. Some agents, if football died tomorrow, would be doing something else by next week. They've got no interest in the future or health of the game, it's about making money for themselves.”
Taylor is unhappy at the handling of the transfer window by FIFA and believes not all deals made by agents are in the best interest of the player involved.
He said:
“FIFA found that to monitor agents was too difficult and too hard to keep up with and now we look like we're reverting, for practical purposes, back to virtually no regulation at all.
“Certain clubs have well-established relationships with certain agents and they won't want to change that, regardless of where it means the money is going.
“I've seen all manner of problems, through the issues of third-party ownership that arose out of the Mascherano and Tevez cases, through to some odd contracts elsewhere, which have made life difficult for players whose clubs have gone into administration.
"And we've had calls from the parents of children as young as eight, concerned because agents have been getting in touch. That's not right, either.”
Taylor says more clubs should use the PFA to handle transfers as any money generated would stay in the game.
He added:
“The money we'd get from deals would go partly into youth development because that's what's needed.
"If we want a better national side, as everyone says we do, someone has to fund all the youngsters we all seem to agree we need. The money's there to do it but it's allowed to leave the game, into the hands of agents.
“I don't want to knock anything in my country but when I look at the Premier League and levels of debt, and then I look at Germany and the way they run things with kids coming through and the way it has benefited the national side, I know who does things better. We need to learn from them.
“We want to get the 2018 World Cup and we want it to be a big success. We need every penny the game can spare to fund that. If you've got £100 million a year going straight towards making agents richer, how does that help? We must stop throwing the money that we do out of the game and straight into the hands of agents. It can't be right.”
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