Napoli owner Aurelio De Laurentiis has spoken out against the ‘cancer’ of soccer agents and questioned why clubs should have to pay them in transfer deals for players.
The flamboyant Italian told the Leaders Sports Business conference at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge ground that he also only signed players if he had complete control of their image rights and some deals had fallen through as a result.
“You know, that’s a cancer of our domain,” the movie producer said of agents, in a discussion with West Ham United’s vice chairman Karren Brady. “Not every agent. But I don’t understand why you need an agent.
“In Hollywood, the actor pays (the agent) himself. I don’t pay the agent. In soccer, why must I pay? The agents became like a tax and sometimes they want to be paid up front. You make a contract for five years and they want to be paid in two and three years.
“Why? Because when they finally receive all the money, they go shopping around and making your players crazy because they will say ‘I’m negotiating with West Ham, they will pay you two million more’.”
English Premier League clubs spent almost 130 million pounds ($195.65 million) on agents fees between October 2014 and September 2015, an increase of 15 million pounds from the previous period, according to the league.
The role of agents has been in the headlines after a newspaper sting led to Sam Allardyce losing his job as England manager. The Daily Telegraph also filmed soccer agents boasting about how many managers they had paid off in transfer deals.
