Agents who made $158m in transfer window responsible for football thriving, says Bale's rep

MANCHESTER, England - When the transfer window closed in Europe last week, players weren't the only ones to be celebrating some big-money moves. Agents also toasted their bulging bank balances.

Clubs in England, Spain, Germany, France and Italy paid a record $2.4 billion between June and last week to complete 2,396 international transfers, according to data from FIFA. For negotiating the deals, agents received $158 million, eight per cent more than in the 2014 summer transfer window.

It took the total windfall from "intermediary commissions" — as FIFA's Transfer Match System calls them — to around $700 million from $12 billion in transfer deals since 2013.

The biggest transfer in that time saw Gareth Bale move in August 2013 from Tottenham to Real Madrid for 100 million euros (then $132 million).

The Wales forward's agent clinched a lucrative cut of what remains a world-record transfer. And Jonathan Barnett, in rare public comments on Tuesday, offered a forthright defence of the agent industry, which has regularly been criticized by fan groups for taking money out of the game or having too much influence within clubs.

"If you look at all the criticism and everything else, football is better than it's ever been," Barnett told the SoccerEx global convention. "Everything is wonderful."

When it was pointed out by the on-stage interviewer than the gap between rich and poor in football had never been wider, Barnett replied: "And so it should be."

"You can't bring the playing field level because if you have Man United playing in front of 80,000 they want to see the best players in the world," the owner of the Stellar Group added. "If you put Hartlepool with all due respect in the same stadium of Old Trafford no one is going to turn up to watch it.

"People knock football, but in fact round the world today it is thriving. The players are the new superstars and the business is absolutely thriving in football and a lot has to do with agents making it happen."

Barnett wants the transfer windows abolished and player trading allowed throughout the year — not he insists for personal gain.

"It might bring (transfer fees) down because then people wouldn't be rushed into spending the sort of money at the last minute that they do now," Barnett said.

"Clubs should be able to buy and sell players, players should have the freedom to move when they want," he added. "I also think the actual windows give agents a bad name, gives everyone the wrong idea."