Advertisement

Stoke chairman unhappy over agent fees

(Reuters) - Stoke City chairman Peter Coates has urged Premier League clubs to reach an agreement over setting a cap for ever-increasing agent fees but he is not optimistic that any changes will happen in the near future. England's top-flight clubs spent over 46.5 million pounds ($67.8 million) on agent fees during a single four-month period between October and February. Manchester United were the highest spenders, paying out more than 10 million pounds on agent fees. Stoke's share was 1.75 million pounds -- the eighth highest among the 20 Premier League teams -- and Coates fears he faces a losing battle to regulate the fees agents receive. "I find it a kind of frustrating period because of the difficulties you have in getting the players you'd like to have. It's a highly competitive market and agents play the field," Coates told British media. "They are looking to maximise their income and their player's income. They duck and dive, tell you one thing and tell somebody else another thing. "I'd like to have an agreement among all clubs about how much agents got paid, so a percentage or whatever, but we can't reach an agreement. It's a big chunk of money they get and that's going out of the game, but there's no change in sight." (Reporting by Shravanth Vijayakumar in Bengaluru, editing by Ed Osmond)