The point is Bangkok is that any solicitor who works in the area of employment law can negotiate a contract of employment, you don't need an agent to do that! Finding a player is the job of scouts who are employed by football clubs, they find the kind of player a club wants and needs, an offer from a club can be directed at another club directly, if they allow access to a player, an offer can be made to him! Agents complicate an easy process, they are the middlemen who take a percentage of the signing on fee, which can be millions in some cases, for what ? These are people employed by players, if they want to pay them that is up to them, but this should have nothing to do with the clubs themselves, as I said agents have to much power, and a club has no option to go through them if they want a player! As mentioned some players don't use agents, which for my mind is a good thing, you don't need a degree to know if a deal is right for you, and with something this important I wouldn't want it being handled by a third party who has their interests at heart instead of mine, in their position!
Fair point. Not aimed at anyone in particular. Everyone's entitled to their own opinion and I have no problem with that. I love a good debate, as it also helps me to learn. But when you get comment that are just plain wrong and have no basis in fact, then that's what I call a numpty comment. So if people can back up their arguments, then that's great. I may disagree but will still respect your point of view. Sometimes I will even realise that my views are wrong because something will come up that I hadn't considered. And that's all I'm trying to do - get people to look at issues from a different angle. But you show irrefutable evidence that the world is round, some people will still claim it's flat, just because they refuse to listen. There are some great debates on here and I love them but there's also a lot of nonsense. Anyway, I retract the last numpty comment. Apologies.
This seems to suggest that the problem is the players not the agents. So you should be blaming the players. I agree that the power has tipped to far in their favor, but that just means it's even more important for the clubs to stand up to them. I'm not saying it's easy, but Swansea have partly managed it by not paying mega-money like some other clubs. So it can be done, it's just that most clubs don't seem to care. One final point, which I think is very important, is that if you got rid of agents, then clubs would just spend the money on something else. Maybe the players would get the extra money instead. Football finances would still be in a mess and then people would just look for the next easiest scapegoat. I like your Arthur Conan Doyle comment, but in reality things are more complex and many people in a situation are to blame. But for some reason most people like to just pick one and try to stick all the blame on them. So maybe clubs are to blame because they didn't treat players well to begin with. And maybe the players are to blame for expecting such high wages. And maybe the agents are to blame as well. or maybe (and most likely) it's a combination of things and you (and others) are just trying to single out one group. If agents disappear, then who will you blame next. I know, let's blame the fans. If they didn't pay £30-£100 to watch a match then none of this money would be floating around in the first place. There you go, a new scapegoat. The fans. LOL.
Bangkok, I don't blame the agents personally - they're just people who've found a profitable niche and are milking it for all it's worth like anyone else would - but would you not like to see a radical overhaul of the game in which they were deposed? You do have a point about fans paying too much by the way; ideally English (edit: and Welsh!) fans would boycott matches more often to drive prices down, but the real evil is the excessive TV money which in my opinion needs to be capped along with wage and transfer fees.
Whilst I don't agree with the comment made, lets face it you are not going to spend thousands taking someone to court, just complain about the comment and have it removed!
First innacurate insults.... to which I returned with my own, and now you move onto threats. Wow, you are a real class act Bangcock. If you don't like it, don't start it. SIMPLES!
Yes I think something needs to be done but I don't think that demonising one element (the agents) is the way to do it. There are lots of things wrong and removing agents won't help. Football is big money and that's what attracts people who want a part of it. The only thing that makes it big money is the fans willingness to pay for. I realise the fans are in a difficult position, because they want to see their teams play. But everyone has a choice in all of this. That's all I'm saying. I haven't heard any argument on here that makes me things removing agents will help in any way. The most likely outcome would be that the players got the money instead. So what then?
It won't cost me anything because the perpetrator will be the one to pay. It is completely out of order and I refuse to put up with such libelous accusations.
Wow, youre a real nice guy aint ya. You can give it but didn't like it back. I am sure you are a stand up pillar of the Thai community, however you made a highly innacurrate statement about me and my inability to gain employment first.
Well its been Jenkins long standing position to take no **** from scumbag agaents, for example Neil Sang who represented trunds and robbo was banned from the Liberty after the way he was representing the players with our club, its a shame that the post article was taken down, but here is the 606 link back in 2008 http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A37018118 And I disagree removing agents will help, they are unregulated side of the football business, they follow no rules except the fifa ones which are completely useless, I mean just about anyone can become registered, completely pathetic! And as salary caps are coming in, the way that clubs can only spend 55% of their income on salaries, I can see that the agents will squeezed out of the game, and will become bit parts , probably like an accountant instead of earning massive commission based agents who do nothing useful!
Authoritarian approach: - Ban agents - players negotiate and propagate for themselves - Cap wages - Ban image rights and loophole bonus payments - Limit transfer fees - Limit matchday ticket prices (banded and proportionately obviously) - Limit TV payments - Limit offshore investments - More stringent F&P persons test - Stricter homegrown rules and reinstatement of 90 minute rule It's certainly not something you could achieve overnight and it doesn't look like something that the footballing free market is going to move towards by itself.
I beg to differ, you obviously don't know what is involved, how can you sue someone for libel when you don't know who that someone is? You would need first to ask for the comment to removed, and then maybe if its not removed then you have grounds for suing the site owner. But there you have a huge problem, the wording of vbulletin's terms of use says that any comments made are those of the poster, the site owner has the right not to release any information to you under the terms of use, and is not liable for those comments, actually the terms of use also says that the property of posts are not yours once made. It would make more sense just to ask that the comment is removed.
Part of me regrets you didn't want to take it further as it would be an interesting case . You would have to go before a judge who would rather be off playing golf, regarding the slandering of your anonymous pseudonym on a thread read by a few other faceless pseudonyms. Despite your original assumption that I cannot get a job, I actually deal daily with whole litigation process of UK civil law ... I am actually a negotiator by day! LOL anyway from me to you I send a ........
Guess I'm insane then. Agents might take cash out of football, cause trouble for club/player relations but lets face two important facts: 1) They deal with contracts and allow players to concentrate on their football. 2) Many youngsters only get their first club because they are signed to an agent - they open doors at the grass root level. So for me they are ok. They are overpaid imo, and their wages should come from the player's end of the deal not the clubs, but apart from that I think they play a valuable role in the game.
Chris we are all insane mate, we are footy fans but there is a world of difference between an agent acting for a kid at grass roots level, and an agent who made millions from the ronaldo transfer, what job did they do to warrant such huge sums? And with the Graham transfer, how much did we pay his agent so we could speak to him? Whatever it was I would have preferred to have paid Watford that money, yes it costs us the same, but at least then the money stays within the game.
