Town spending on agents is down
The latest publication of spending on agents' fees by Football League clubs has revealed that clubs committed a total of £21.7m during the 2011/12 season.
Championship clubs accounted for £18.7m of this total, with League 1 and League 2 clubs spending £1.8m and £0.9m respectively. Clubs committed to pay agents in 702 (22%) of the 3,144 player transactions that took place.
Five clubs did not spend any money on agents’ fees during 2011/12 (Hartlepool United, Accrington Stanley, AFC Wimbledon, Barnet and Crewe Alexandra) while a further 22 clubs spent less than £25,000.
Huddersfield Town spent £39,266 less than during the 2010/11 season; in 2011/12 Town spent £213,343 (2010/11: £252,609) with agents on 35 player transactions (2010/11: 46 player transactions) during the course of the 2011/12 promotion season; that number includes 15 new transfers , seven new contracts, three cancelled contracts and 10 loans.
Agents were involved in the summer signings of Danny Ward, Oscar Gobern, Tommy Miller, Anton Robinson and Simon Thomas whilst the January moves of Kallum Higginbotham and Murray Wallace also involved agents, as did the negotiations for Jack Hunt’s new contract this summer.
Huddersfield Town Chief Executive Nigel Clibbens commented:
"As we has said before, like it or not, agents' fees are inherent in the game especially when a club is looking to recruit high-quality players from the upper echelons of the football pyramid in competition with other clubs.
“As a Club, like all things we try and look after every pound and maximise value for money.
"Almost without exception agents have played a positive role in our dealings in both the recruitment of players and assisting in their departure. It's down to each individual club to get value for money and control what they pay - if clubs don't like the involvement of agents they can refuse to deal with them, but it will impact on players going to their club!
“However, we have a financial structure and budget in place and we control our costs comparatively well.”
During the 2011/12 season the biggest spenders in npower League 1 were Sheffield Wednesday with £332,620; Charlton Athletic is second with £265,170 and Milton Keynes Dons third with £249,180. As per the 2010/11 campaign, Town were fourth in the spending list.
To view the full Football League report in PDF format, click HERE
