The amount spent by Championship clubs on agents fees in the 2013/2014 season

[Bozza]

47 transactions for us at an average of £7969 a pop

This is what I don't get about football. Why don't the players pay their own agents? If I want to buy a house from someone, I don't pay their solicitors' fees: the vendor pays their own. I understand that not all these "transactions" are player sales, many are contract renewals etc, but why on earth don't the players pay their own agents to negotiate these deals? I

If you're in any kind of profession, you are likely to have used an agency for a change of job at some point, and it doesn't take much of a salary for your employer to have to pay an £8k fee to the agency.

 

[Creaky]

And if a club pays the agent's fee, surely that would be a tax deductible expense for the club?

HMRC will get their wack when the agent declares the income and then pays PAYE [Corp tax] on their earnings [profits]

You are right but for some reason HMRC won't allow any deduction if footballers pay the agents directly.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

One big reason is the way in which HMRC treat footballers.

Actors pay their own agents but those payments are allowable as a business expense - i.e. payment is made out of income before tax. HMRC don't allow footballers to claim payments made to agents as an allowable expense so most contracts include a clause making the club liable for the agents costs.

Fair enough. I'm not saying the players wouldn't find a way round it anyway even if they did have to pay their own agents. It just struck me as odd.

 

[Triggaaar]

Would it not be simpler to **** the agents off and the players union deal with contracts,I'm sure they could do just as good a job for probably half the cost

Has NSC starred out w@nk?

 

[Sheebo]

have i read that right? we spent £420k which was £450k less than the year before??!!

Gus used to moan a lot to get his own way & wouldn't care what the cost was to agents... Is my guess...

 

[GT49er]

Players engage agents to get them the best deals, don't they? Then surely they should pay them for doing the job for which they were engaged. If players are now refusing to sign deals unless the club pays the agent, then surely we need the clubs to act collectively (and I know this would be a very difficult thing to actually do) and just say, 'No' - that could put an end to this; providing they ALL signed up to it, and no-one went down the brown envelope route......hmmmm.....tricky.

Maybe FFP will succeed in bringing this about (he says, more in hope than expectation).