Clamp down on agents

New rules to police the work of agents in transfer deals will be introduced next season, Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore revealed today.

The millions of pounds paid each season to agents has become a huge issue and it was recently revealed that they pocketed an estimated £46million in the 2001-02 season alone.

The announcement came as an all-parliamentary committee published a report on football amid calls for more transparency in the game.

In a rare and wide-ranging interview with Standard Sport, Scudamore said the new rules have been approved by the 20 club chairmen and the Football Association.

They will recognise that agents can work both as advisers for players as well as being brokers in major transfer deals, something often criticised because of the potential for conflicts of interest.

Scudamore said: 'We have been working on this for 18 months. You have to sign up to the idea of transparency so everybody can see what money gets paid to whom.

'This idea that someone only acts for a player is an anachronism because they also work for clubs. But you have to recognise that they are separate transactions.

'It will have to be declared who is acting for whom and who is being paid by whom and who is being paid what.

'Having aligned the regulations, it is then up to the authorities to make sure that sanctions should be applied if they are not adhered to.'

The Premier League and FA will monitor the financial details but they will not be made publicly available.

Currently clubs must only provide details of where transfer money is paid to, not the ultimate recipients.

Scudamore also encouraged shareholders to ask clubs where the money is going because he believed football had little to hide.

But he ruled out the American practice of clubs publishing players' salaries.

He said: 'I think that gets quite difficult. It is a club's right to protect the asset they have from potential poaching.

'In a difficult environment when clubs are struggling to retain talent, it would a charter for unsettling players to know exactly what it might take to pick somebody off.'