Neville urges fellow pros to stop using agents
Gary Neville took a bold and typically forthright step into the world of football politics last night when he called on players to stop using agents. The Manchester United captain said he was worried about the way millions of pounds were being drained from the game.
Neville believes the Professional Footballers' Association can take over from agents and has floated the possibility that, when he retires from playing, he would like to work for the organisation.
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"I'd like to see the removal of agents in the game," said the England international. "There is a concern for me and there always has been: how a guy can go in and ask for [a player's] wage and expect to be given hundreds of thousands of pounds and sometimes millions? In this day and age I can't personally see it. That money is going out of the game and the clubs should keep that money; if the player's due it, he should keep that money."
Neville, the PFA representative at Old Trafford, was asked whether there were any good agents working in the game and he replied that he did not know many. "When we have a union as strong as we have, the PFA could help with the correct education of young players and make those players not so reliant on people who want to take money from you," he said.
Neville's remarks will ingratiate him with Gordon Taylor, the PFA's chief executive, and there will be many in the game who agree with the right-back after a season in which BBC's Panorama programme has filmed a documentary probing the dealings of several agents and club managers such as Sam Allardyce.
However, Neville acknowledged there was little chance of agents disappearing from the game because footballers could afford to pay people vast sums to look after their business interests.
One agent, Mel Stein, last night defended his profession, saying: "It's a free country, with freedom of choice. If a club are willing to pay an agent on behalf of a player, why should they not pay it? There are a lot of good agents in the game who put money back into it. I hear what Gary Neville says about the PFA, but they are a trade union, generally ex-professional footballers. If you're buying a house, would you want a bricklayer to do the conveyancing for you?"
agents will always be used. but they should control the money that goes to them