Secret agents

Agents - they have long been the bane of all football managers and chairman, and they are fast becoming an even bigger pain in the behind. In the last week, Argentina captain Javier Mascherano has effectively gone on strike at Liverpool as he tries to engineer a move to Barcelona. Reports suggest that he has already agreed on a contract with the Catalan club worth £90,000 a week. Which is interesting given Liverpool and their manager Roy Hodgson persistently turning down their approaches. If this isn't tapping up, I don't know what it, and it seems increasingly common for the potential buying club to bypass the potential selling club, and go straight to play. And agents undoubtedly play a part in this, if they think they can get their client a better deal.
First of all, let's look at the history of football agents. That history is not as long as you might think. The significant influx of football agents can be in some ways linked with the Premier League 'boom' of the early 1990s. Before then, many players either had no agent or were represented by family members, such as their fathers. This, subsequently led the clubs to generally have the upper hand and try and 'fleece' the players. With bigger money involved, football players started to get savvy, and agents became common practice. Nowadays, it is fair to say they do not enjoy a good reputation. A number of high profile Panorama programmes about the less-than scrupulous methods and dealings of some football agents (Sky Andrew and Pini Zahavi to name but two) and fictional programmes such as Footballers' Wives (which depicted the clubs' agent as a chain-smoking, man-eating woman named Hazel Bailey), along with films such as Jerry Maguire and Any Given Sunday (where besides the protagonist in the former, the agents in the films are hardly the heroes) have contributed to the bad image of the profession in the media and the public.
This image is not entirely unwarranted, but for the players themselves, their agents are possibly their most important contact outside of the club they play for, in an era where many of them are unprepared for the demands of the real world. As well getting the best deal for their client, they also have to deal with the player's sponsorship and endorsement contracts and any public relations work, as well as welfare advice such as financial planning and being the firs port of call for the player's family - almost a family liaison officer.
No-one is doubting that they play a crucial role in the development of a player. But it is an entirely different question to consider whether they are good for the game. As top agent Jonathon Barnett said, 'personal terms are one of the biggest factors to hold up a transfer.' This is due to player's growing sense of self-importance (not completely justified) and agents have definitely played a part in this. When the delectable Ashley Cole sought pity in his autobiography for almost crashing his car when his agent told him he was only being offered £55,000 a week as opposed to the £60,000 he was apparently offered by his club at the time Arsenal, he was shocked when condolences didn't come raining in. And who was his agent - Mr Barnett of course.
Cole and the whole furore over his protracted move across London to Chelsea sum up all that is wrong and unseemly with modern day football. A whole 18 months before he turned up at Stamford Bridge, he was spotted in a London hotel having a meeting with Barnett, Chelsea's Chief Executive Peter Kenyon and their manager Jose Mourinho.
It is situations such as this that has introduced a new phrase to football lexicon - tapping up. This is where a player talks to a potential buying club without said club agreeing a fee for said player with the potential selling club. The Premier League fined Cole £100,000, Mourinho £200,00, Chelsea themselves £300,000, and Barnett was fined £100,000 and had his license suspended for 18 months. So there were losers in this sorry mess, but that doesn't mean this kind of practice isn't commonplace, and show the seedier side of agents' work. This might have been the case with Mascherano - how can you agree a contract with someone without a transfer being a between the two clubs, if tapping up hasn't taken place? But Liverpool can hardly take the moral high ground, having been fined by the Premier League for making an illegal approach to former German international full-back Christian Ziege while he was still at Middlesbrough. The £20,000 Liverpool were fined hardly seems worth it considering he only spent one underwhelming year on Merseyside. The most recent allegation centres around Chelsea (again) and their pursuit of rated Brazil and Santos striker Neymar. But Chelsea are not the only club to be embroiled in this kind of scandal. Over the past decade, a host of transfers have drawn scrutiny from the authorities, and said Panorama investigation showed the likes of current managers Harry Redknapp and Sam Allardyce in a less than exemplary light. But Chelsea's apparently illegal dealings with Neymar have thrust football's most controversial (and highest profile) agent Pini Zahavi back into the spotlight.
He is football agents answer to Cristiano Ronaldo. He has been described as 'football's one and only super agent' in the Guardian and 'football's great Sevngali' in the Financial Times. Some accolade, but for all his wealth, where ever the Israeli goes, controversy follows. A number of his transfers have been called into question by the Premier League for apparent irregularities - the players involved being as diverse as Didier Drogba, Petr Cech, Fabio Rochemback, Collins Mbesuma and Yakubu Aiyegbeni. The report criticised his 'initial failure to disclose his involvement in the transfers,' and there 'were questions relating to his relationship with Barry Silkman.' Silkman is the agent who Silkman effectively acted as an intermediary to - but whenever dirt flew his way, it never stuck. He was also implicated in the equally controversial third-party ownership fiasco involving Carlos Tevez, Mascherano and MSI (Media Sports Investments). A similar issue arose this summer when Chelsea were trying to negotiate the transfer of Brazilian midfield player Ramires from Benfica, when it became apparent Zahavi owned 30% of the players rights. And while he is unlikely to be welcomed at Bramall Lane anytime soon, he again escaped censure - and the allure of his lifestyle and personality make it unlikely to increase the status of people aspiring to his standing in the profession.
Following so many high profile cases of 'tapping up' and malpractice by agents, both the FIFA and the FA have tightened the regulations agents need to comply by to become licensed. But looking on the FA website, it doesn't seem that difficult to become an agent in the first place. You apply to the FA in the appropriate 'application window' and assuming you pass the enhanced CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) check, provide the appropriate supporting documentation (which is commonplace when applying for any kind of loan, rental agreement or job application form), sit the exam for a fee of just £250 and, assuming you pass, and after you have signed a variety of professional documents, you can call yourself an 'FA licensed agent'. Hardly the arduous process of the Oxford entrance exam, and all you need to find after passing the exam is to find an agency willing to take you on (or more crucially, an unsigned potential young star who you spot playing Sunday league football.
Agents have been in the news once more this week following a report from the BBC detailing the increase in money spent on agents in the last season. Reports in the last week have stated that a record amount of money was spent by football league clubs on football agents in the last year. The figures released by the football league show a combined total of £12.7 million was spent on agents fee last season, and an increase of £3.9 million from the 2008/09 season. This has led to calls for their to be a reduction in the amount of money paid to agents. Chairman of the Football League Greg Clarke called for an end to the 'significant leakage of money out of the game to agents'. But it is hard to know how to police such a 'problem.' As long as the stakes are so high, and the importance of agents continues in its current trend, then there is not a great deal the Football League can do. This reminds me of the scenario every time after A-level results are released - they are too easy, but nothing is ever done.
As long as their fees continue to rise, they will be treated with scrutiny. There have been a variety of factors which have contributed to the power shift from clubs to players over the past couple of decades - supply and demand, Sky Sports, the Bosman, ruling, the incoming of the Premier League - but it is undoubtedly true that players reliance on agents is one of the most important reasons. But they will never be appreciated by anyone other than their clients, such is their persona.