Is there too much greed in our beautiful game? The rapid rise of football agent fees
Fears are growing further nationwide after the latest yearly figures for agent fees in the Premier League were shared by the Football Association.
What has increased the worry for most is the rapid rise between present day and just ten years ago, with figures tripling for some ‘top 6’ Premier League sides.
In 2012/13, English giants Manchester United spent just £4.32m on agent fees, even less than Sunderland who now play their football in League One. Comparing the Red devils’ figure ten years later in January 2022, they spent £29m in the year of 2021, nearly seven times more.
When reacting to the agent fees across England published by the FA in February 2021, one user on Twitter said: “Just think how many schools and hospitals you could build with that — it’s sickening.”
Another user said: “Absolutely bonkers money, I’m in the wrong game.”
Ex-Premier League agent and Crawley Town CEO Erdem Konyar managed many successful professionals, taking them from North Cyprus and into Europe’s top leagues, including the Premier League, where he was agent to Ex-Nigeria international Emmanuel Emenike, who once joined Fenerbahce for €15m.
Speaking on his experience transferring Emenike to West Ham United, Konyar said: “Agents are much more involved in all transfers across Europe in recent years, even when we took Emenike to West Ham in 2016 there were dealings with me as the agent that were different to those five or ten years before.”
Konyar also told us his views on the rise of agent fees over the last ten years: “There has been a substantial growth due to more and more players opting for agencies to deal with their transfers and contracts in global markets, the agents know that there is simple money to be made within these deals, especially in those that negotiate higher fees for higher profile players like in the Premier League.”
Football writer Seb Stafford-Bloor highlighted the normality of ludicrous agent fees speaking on Erling Haaland’s €40m agent commission for his transfer to Manchester City on Twitter: “That figure attracting so little attention just shows how normal it has become.”
The fees are not only on the rise at the top level, but are also now booming in the lowest tier of English professional football. In League Two, three sides spent over £100,000 on agent fees in 2021, only one of those clubs (Salford City) spent the same amount one year before.
Agent fees continue to boom throughout football, but as Stafford-Bloor emphasised, has the footballing world succumbed to the absurdity of agent fees, with some now, as highlighted with Erling Haaland, matching whole transfer fees.
