Agents make more than £2.5billion from transfer fees in just five years, reveals damning Uefa report
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FOOTBALL agents have been skimming an incredible £2.5billion from the game over the last few years, research has shown.
Uefa have released "eye-watering" stats that show that agents have taken about 13 per cent of the revenue from transfers between 2013 and 2017.
Mistrusted by fans and clubs alike, a top agent can get his or her player a bumper increase in salary and a series of performance-related bonuses.
European football's governing body describes the findings as "eye-watering" and fans will no doubt have stronger language to use than just that, at a time when ticket prices and TV subscriptions are higher than ever.
Famous "super-agents" such as Jorge Mendes and his Gestifute agency, Mino Raiola - who has been in the press in recent days - Kia Joorabchian and Jonathan Barnett are all regularly discussed in transfer dealings.
While Uefa's research stretched across all areas of the game, the research showed it is the commissions of football middle-men football that has ballooned the most.
Uefa said: "Across 2,000 reviewed transfer deals, agent commissions averaged 12 to 13 per cent but with significant fluctuation.
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"The typical agent commission for smaller deals of less than €100,000 (£88,500) was 40 per cent, with the typical commission dropping to a still eye-watering nine per cent for transfer deals of €5m (£4.43m) plus.
"The agents' commission analysis covers clubs that have competed in Uefa club competitions between 2014 and 2017 and includes clubs from 37 Uefa member associations.
"The sample is strongly representative as it covers at least 100 different player transfers for clubs from each of the six most active countries and at least 50 transfers for another ten of the countries that are active in the transfer market.
"The transfer deals also include selling clubs from 84 different countries, including clubs in 47 Uefa member associations, 15 CAF (African), ten AFC (Asian), nine CONMEBOL (South American) and three CONCACAF (North and Central America and Caribbean) member associations.
"This representative sample more or less mirrors the activity highlighted in the transfers section of this report."