Are football agents lower down the food chain than estate agents?

Unusally for this blog so far, this is going to be a post on football more generally, rather than a witty reflection on a Skyblue victory.

I read with interest that The Coalman was approached by a "rogue agent" trying to unsettle Danny Fox and tempt him into a move to Newcastle, presumably at the same time as approaching Newcastle and claiming to represent Danny Fox who wanted a move away from Coventry. The Coalman is suitably dismissive about this low life, trying solely to generate fees for himself and destabilise a player, but it did make me think about where a football agent fits into the food chain.

We (the fans) pay our money, which goes into the Club's revenues along with any TV monies, sponsorship, corporate revenues, programme sales and half time draws. We pay the players' wages (interestingly Newcastle's wage bill is £73m a year - which I reckon must be 11-12 times larger than ours). The players spend this money on tattoos and cars, and their agents get paid commission on contracts negotiated and transfers completed. And take commission on any additional revenues from personal appearances at Primark etc. Agents have to be registered with FIFA/UEFA, and now have stricter regulations than in the past (for example, all purchases of brown envelopes must be evidenced with a dated receipt).

I can sort of understand why Ronaldo, Kaka and Robinho need agents, for the sums of money involved are massive and any discussions including image rights need someone with more experience than the ability to curl a free kick in from 30 yards. These agents are probably well worth their commission.

"Rogue agents", while sounding like they should be in the Matrix with Canoe Reeves, sound like they are right at the bottom of the food chain. They'd like to be a parasite, earning from the talent of others, only they don't have any clients. So, they speculate. If successful, they destabilise a player, create a transfer, and the agent banks his 15%. Which is actually our money, or some of our money.

The Coalman should name and shame this low-life, and we should invite the bottom-feeder to come to a fans' forum and explain what he does for a living, and why he should continue living.

Who's with me? Apologies for the slightly misleading title to this post, for the younger readers among us, an estate agent was a job (not a career) that used to be carried out by people in loud suits, an over-inflated sense of their own worth, and a company car kitted out in loud colours that needed to be driven like Stevie Wonder on acid.