Football League draft regulations for agents

FL Chairman Lord Mawhinney firmly believes football agents need to be regulated after the report disclosing ‘agent fees’ was published. The Football League has published its report highlighting earnings of agents and has called for radical action to help govern this part of football. The League who have published their third Agents Fees Report, are increasingly concerned with how much money is leaving the game. The report states that member clubs spent more than £7.8m on agents' fees between July 1, 2004, and June 30, 2005.

The report also states that £2.3m was spent on fees in the first six months of this year an increase of £1.4m from the same period in 2004. The total represents nearly a third of the £25m that The Football League receives in television revenue. Championship clubs accounted for 87.5%, or more than £6.8 million, of the £7.8 million spent on fees in the last 12 months with Leeds United having spent nearly £1.9 million alone in the last year. That compares with Watford, who only spent £9,500 in the same period, while Crewe Alexandra was the only Championship club amongst just 13 in the whole Football League to commit no money at all to agents fees last year.

League One clubs spent a total of £595,870 on fees with Hull City, Sheffield Wednesday and Bristol City being the highest spenders last season. Five clubs in Blackpool, Colchester United, Huddersfield Town, Stockport County and Wrexham did not spend money on agents over that period. Only £325,020 was spent by clubs in League Two, with Southend United and Swansea City being the highest spenders in the division last season. Seven clubs Bury, Cheltenham Town, Kidderminster Harriers, Macclesfield Town, Rochdale, Rushden & Diamonds and Scunthorpe United did not pay agents' fees in that period.

"The issue of agents is going up the agenda. It came up at our annual meeting. There is a lot of strong feeling, a lot of unified feeling amongst the clubs that a regulatory framework is required," Mawhinney said. Calling for transparency throughout the industry, Mawhinney declared that the League and its member clubs will take steps of their own to introduce regulations, should no consensus be reached throughout the game.