Parliament demands crackdown on agents

A Parliamentary study has called for a clampdown on football agents.

England's football authorities have been asked to act after a survey of more than 100 clubs outside the Premiership.

The study, commissioned by Parliament's All-Party Football Group, found that 93 per cent of the 109 clubs polled thought "agents are taking too much money out of the game".

The study is revealed only a day after extraordinary scenes at Portsmouth where chairman Milan Mandaric revealed that during the last two and a half years under manager Harry Redknapp, the South Coast club had spent more than £3million on agents' fees.

More than eight out of 10 clubs in the wide-ranging poll of teams from the Championship to the Conference and non-League football said agents needed to be regulated.

More significantly, half of them thought an independent regulator should police the game - and not the Football Association.

The survey, carried out in September and October by research company Vision 21, followed a report by the All-Party Group in February on the state of the English game. It also found that 90 per cent of the clubs support a levy on agents' fees and 96 per cent want payments to and from agents to be disclosed.

It also painted a bleak picture of the financial state of the game outside the Premiership and revealed that 87 per cent of clubs are against teams being allowed to move away from their fan base like the MK Dons.