Players' body brands most agents 'unethical'

Gary Neville has been joined in his denouncement of agents by the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA), which last night branded the majority as "unethical", claiming they glean vast sums of cash from deals requiring "limited ability".

However, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger maintains there are plenty of good agents in football, and that the "poor ones do not survive very long".

Neville, who has been represented by his father throughout his career, insisted that players do not need agents and called on them to use the PFA to oversee transfers and contract negotiations.

Neville's suggestions are likely to fall on deaf ears, because Lord Stevens' report into corruption in football recommends that the PFA should not represent its members in respect of transfers, a point with which the players' union disagrees.

"We don't have any more to gain than other agents out there, the only difference is we're ethical," said Mick McGuire, the PFA's deputy chief executive. "Fifa has regulations that encourage unions to represent players, but Lord Stevens is discouraging it. It's ludicrous."

Stevens recommended that the PFA's role should be limited to educating and advising players on dealing with clubs and agents, but McGuire disagrees. "We've been representing players and giving them advice on contracts for the last 100 years," he said. "Some of these agents are taking vast sums of money out of the game and often there is little expertise. Apart from at the very top of the game a player's contract is pretty standard. There have been a lot of agents coming in with limited ability, because it doesn't need a lot of skill in the majority of the deals."

Lord Stevens, McGuire said, felt the PFA would be better used as a monitoring agency, watching over agents, an idea he claims "the FA wouldn't recognise". He added: "The PFA is providing a service. We're looking after our players and, most importantly, we are salaried, so we're not working off the backs of the player. For that reason we are more objective."

Wenger, though, feels agents have a central role within the game.

"I have worked with agents my whole career and I do not share that opinion," the Arsenal manager told reporters. "I am confident that once Gary Neville is a manager, he will change his mind.

"There are agents who do very well for the players and there are very few who do not do well for the players.

"There are also some agents who do very well for the clubs, because I have got some players through agents - they have a good eye to identify a player, talk to you about him, you go and watch and find a good player.

"There are all kinds of agents, but overall you cannot say every agent is bad. There are some very good ones who have helped the career of players and managed them very well.

"The poor ones do not survive very long," he added. "Those who survive are the good ones because the players are intelligent and they spot very quickly the good ones and the bad ones."

Wenger, whose side are at home to Blackburn in the FA Cup today, also maintains limiting the number of foreign players in the Premiership would not necessarily serve to improve the England team.

Terry Venables, assistant manager of the national side, feels home-grown talent is being suppressed by having to compete with the emerging stars from all over the globe at many top clubs.

Wenger, however, insists it should always be ability and not passports which decide who makes the grade.

"I believe to artificially protect the players does not improve the level and will make the divide between the richer clubs and the poorer clubs bigger - much bigger," the Arsenal manager said.

"At the moment clubs like Bolton can compete with the top teams because you can find good players in places like Israel, but if you say that is not possible any more, the number of good players available is reduced, and the richer clubs will take them.

"There are two different purposes - to make the game as good as possible, then you say in the whole world you take the best and they play.

"If not, if it is that the Premier League is here to make our national team good, then it is different and you play only English players, it is as simple as that.

"Then maybe you will have a better national team, although I am not even sure about that. If you say you want a good national team, but the football is a little bit less good in the league, then I can accept the idea.

"But that is the only justification you have - the national team."