Fighting back from a yellow card

THE World Cup is keeping viewers on the edge of their seats - and they are not the only ones. The tournament is a vital shop window for the growing band of quoted sports management companies. They make their money from handling top players. A good World Cup can turn an average earner into an international superstar.

The sports management sector needs all the help it can get. The City has waved its yellow card at most of the shares, depositing them in the same sin bin as soccer clubs. Though the sector still has a market value of £150m, this is well below its peak.

The collapse of Sportsworld Media, ITV Digital and Germany's Kirch has created a backlash. As many football clubs face bankruptcy, players' wages and transfer values are bound to nosedive. The income of agents will inevitably follow. Catherine Bond at broker Seymour Pierce said some will be forced to merge. 'The survivors will be those not reliant on soccer for a living,' she sais.

Adrian Bradshaw is the boss of Digital Sport, whose clients include former England manager Terry Venables. He said: 'There will be substantial consolidation within the football agency sector as the industry develops and refocuses on fewer but larger companies.' Bradshaw is keen to pick off small operators rather than make larger acquisitions.

Some 90% of Premier League players employ agents and of these, 60% to 70% are with the bigger firms such as Proactive, CSS Stellar (which also represents actors Kate Winslet and Ewan McGregor), First Artist (with 400 players including Sunderland's Kevin Phillips) and Sports Entertainment and Media (which has just signed Arsenal's Patrick Vieira).

Chris Akers' Sports Resources, which takes in former athletic star Alan Pascoe's marketing consultancy, is less reliant on soccer and aims to develop an international network of sports marketing companies. Though its ambitions took a knock when it lost £250,000 from the collapse of the Prost Formula One team, it now has rights to 160 events across 17 sports.

Analysts say the firms best placed to ride out the soccer upheaval include Proactive, which has three divisions. Apart from football (where it acts for 220 players, including Blackburn's Andy Cole, and will have 20 players on display during the World Cup) it has hospitality/events, and sports marketing. Proactive has a network of offices in Europe, vital when so many major transfers are conducted across national borders. For instance, there are now 15 Australian players in Europe.

Small firms are vulnerable to changes in transfer regulations, which will leave just two windows of opportunity a year for players to move between clubs. One analyst said: 'That could mean real cash flow problems for smaller operators.'

Sports management companies seek to offer a cradle-to-grave relationship to their clients, handling not just their professional affairs, but their private activities as well.

'The life of most contracts is short, so it is vital to keep close to your assets - at least while they have a value in the market place,' said one agent. There appears to be no limits to the up-close and personal approach. Digital Sport, which is changing its name to Base Group, has Darren Anderton and Leeds star Harry Kewell on its books. As part of its service, it even organised Kewell's recent wedding.

Share Score

Premier Management: Now 20p (12 month peak, 29 1/2p) Sports Entertainment & Media 60p (67p) Proactive Sports 10 1/2p (36p) First Artist 48 1/2p (58p) Sports Resource 28 1/2p (146p) CSS Stellar 223 1/2p (301p).