QPR's Agents Payments: Up more than 40% From Year Previously

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Yesterday, the amount football clubs paid to agents was released, for the period July 1- December 31, 2006. In this six months period, QPR paid to agents almost £187,340 - up from the £131,600 the same period the previous year. A number of other clubs were even more high-spending or had a bigger percentage increase. Some didn't. See list below.

(See also - QPR Report - Agents Fees

[Report on Agents from July 1, 2005-December 31, 2005 - Agents Report

[Some past spending for the YEAR, July 1, 2004-June 30, 2005: QPR paid £320,935 to Agents]

See last year's reported amounts re individual agents payments as reported by The Standard on Rivals - Standard Report

This past summer, on his return from Italy
OFFICIAL SITE - STATEMENT FROM CHAIRMAN, GIANNI PALADINI
Having just returned from the R's pre-season tour of Italy, QPR Chairman Gianni Paladini can't wait for the big kick-off....
"I urge all fans to treat such rumour-mongers with the contempt and scepticism they deserve. They have been claiming we would go into administration every week for the past year .... They predicted we would spend all the Club's money on agents' fees when we have spent less than nearly any other club in this division. ...Gianni Paladini QPR

In an interview with Ron Norris, QPR Net, in December 2005, Paladini declared
"People talk about the payments to agents but this is my money in the club, if we have to pay an agent then it is coming out of my pocket. I try to deal with agents to get the best deal for QPR and for us. Most of the players in the list of agents fees they were talking about were Shittu, Rowlands, Gallen, Furlong etc, players who were already here. Wait till you see the figures next year, it will be much lower. However somebody who has their own agenda issues all this misleading information. I ask you what have I done wrong for this club since I’ve been here? I’ve bought in people that can back me with money otherwise we’d have been finished a long time ago. ....

"...There are so many good players you can get and our contacts in the game help. For example Roberto Baggio was a client of Antonio’s so we tell him we’re looking for a tall striker and he recommends Marc Nygaard to us. Unfortunately he’s been injured but he’s 28, no transfer fee and whatever the agents fee is I think he’ll be worth it. Agents are here to stay, there’s no way you can run a decent football club without paying agents and anyone who thinks different doesn’t know football, you find me one player who doesn’t have an agent, they have them from the age of thirteen. QPR Net


INDEPENDENT - League highlights big increase in agent fees
By Nick Harris -Published: 19 January 2007

The ongoing leakage of football's wealth to agents was highlighted again yesterday with the publication of the latest Football League agents' fees report, which showed a 41 per cent increase in payments to middle men. Spending on agents' fees between July and December 2006 by the 72 non-Premiership clubs totalled £6.2m, against £4.4m in the same period last season. That represents a £1.8m increase, or 41 per cent. The biggest spenders were Southampton, whose spending was £842,533, followed by Sunderland (£594,000), then Stoke (£560,000) and Birmingham (£519,950).

No other clubs spent more than £500,000, but the average spend in the Championship was still £229,000. Only one Championship club, Colchester, paid no money to agents. League One clubs paid a total of £505,305, although five paid nothing, while, in League Two, total payments were £220,065, but the majority (15 clubs) paid nothing.

The 20 Premiership clubs undoubtedly pay the lion's share of agents' fees, with single deals being worth up to £3m for brokering. That is the sum that Pini Zahavi negotiated for himself to move one of his clients, Yakubu, from Portsmouth to Middlesbrough in 2005. But the true extent of payments at the top level is unknown because there is little or no transparency about such matters.

The Premier League has always been unwilling to force transparency. An Independent investigation earlier this year estimated that agents take between £125m and £150m per year, directly and indirectly, from English football's four top divisions.

The Football League broke new ground in September 2003 by voting to introduce the publication of agents' fees. Yesterday's report is the sixth time the League has made the figures public. It showed that the 72 clubs engaged in 2,034 transactions (signings, contract updates, contract cancellations and loans) between 1 July last year and 31 December. Agents were paid in 497 of those transactions.

In addition to the 21 clubs who paid nothing, another 30 committed £5,000 or less to agents in the period.

The League's chairman, Lord Mawhinney, said: "The new agents' regulations have helped bring greater transparency and integrity to the transfer system. In making these changes, we fully understood the culture of paying agents was deeply embedded and would take time to reverse. These figures underline that, with clubs spending, on average, more than £30,000 per day."

Payments to middle men outside the Premiership

Championship

Jul-Dec 06/Jul-Dec 05

Southampton £842,533/£275,000

Sunderland £594,500/n/a

Stoke £560,000/£59,355

Birmingham £519,950/n/a

Crystal Palace £433,818/£100,000

Derby £408,300/£58,500

West Bromwich £370,518/n/a

Cardiff £335,000/£155,000

Coventry £216,250/£105,250

Hull £202,400/£22,000

QPR £187,340/£131,600

Wolves £126,333/£153,334

Southend £122,190/£2,750

Plymouth £110,000/£38,575

Sheffield Wed £85,000/£51,500

Leeds £64,000/£576,800

Preston £62,500/£80,300

Burnley £56,000/£163,910

Luton £50,000/£92,000

Leicester £46,117/£300,990

Norwich £6,850/£438,000

Barnsley £5,000/£17,500

Ipswich £5,000/£110,242

Colchester £0/£0


League One
Bournemouth £1,000/£5,000

Bradford City £40,000/£29,400

Brentford £5,000/£23,850

Brighton & HA £37,500/£255,000

Bristol City £127,980/£86,850

Carlisle Utd £5,500/£3,120

Chesterfield £6,500/£0

Doncaster £3,000/£56,000

Gillingham £15,400/£0

Leyton Orient £29,000/£17,500

Millwall £78,140/£15,000

Northampton £5,000/£5,000

Nottingham For £6,000/£124,950

Oldham £7,000/£35,470

Rotherham £36,520/£23,500

Scunthorpe £5,000/£0

Swansea £26,100/£24,150

Tranmere £20,000/£14,940

Yeovil £50,665/£53,000

Five clubs did not pay agents: Blackpool, Cheltenham, Crewe, Huddersfield, Port Vale

League Two

Boston Utd £5,000/0

Bristol Rovers £26,500/£29,000

Darlington £44,603/£7,500

Grimsby £21,000 £13,560

Macclesfield £1,000/£11,250

Milton Keynes £55,500/£46,250

Shrewsbury £23,600/£0

Swindon £23,613/£5,500

Torquay £19,250/£9,610

15 clubs did not pay agents: Accrington Stanley, Barnet, Bury, Chester, Hartlepool, Hereford, Lincoln, Mansfield, Notts County, Peterborough, Rochdale, Stockport, Walsall, Wrexham, Wycombe

INDEPENDENT