It’s one of the most lucrative jobs in football. We meet Aussie football’s deal makers who can turn footballers into millionaires in a couple of meetings. Just don’t call them “agents”...
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Bernie Mandic, player-manager of Socceroo superstar Harry Kewell, agrees with Nettelbeck.
“Harry’s father Rod was probably the most important difference in how Harry’s career has developed,” Mandic told a Sydney newspaper recently. “He avoided being seduced by promises of fame and fortune from glamorous clubs and opted for Leeds, a club that was in a rebuilding phase and had Britain’s best youth development program. Unfortunately, most parents fall for the exaggerated promises of agents and clubs and their sons pay the price.”
Needless to say, Mandic has a barely disguised disdain for some agents.
“Too many Australian players were being looked after by agents that made more money from the respective deals than the player was earning in a year. I thought that was an outrageous rip off,” he tells FourFourTwo of his decision to become a player-manager in 1997.
It may sound a little hypocritical coming from a man who has so much to do with a high-profile player’s professional life, but Mandic is quick to note he is not a licensed FFA agent, despite being described as an agent by many in the UK press. “I do not want to be exposed to the hypocrisy and double standards within FIFA and the national federations,” he says firmly. Instead his brother Nicola is FFA-accredited, leaving Bernie to, as he says, “act as the players’ manager similar to what happens in the entertainment industry worldwide in music, television and film”.
Based in Paris, Bernie has seen the manoeuvrings of football agents in Europe over the last decade, and is cynical about most agents’ loyalty.
“Footballers’ agents generally are viewed with suspicion and rightly so,” he says. “The vast majority of agents are there to look after clubs and not the players that they are supposed to be representing. Usually it is the buying club that they owe their loyalty to as usually they are willing to pay the agent the most amount of money.”
What’s more, Bernie has a sweeping solution. “I don’t think agents are needed at all,” he declares. “Practising lawyers should be required to sign off on any player contract and the majority of corrupt deals would be eradicated due to the fact a lawyer would not want to put himself in a position of losing his license to practice law.
“If an agent loses his licence he just needs to have another licensed mate sign off on any deal and all the legal obligations are fulfilled,” he adds.
“Harry’s father Rod was probably the most important difference in how Harry’s career has developed,” Mandic told a Sydney newspaper recently. “He avoided being seduced by promises of fame and fortune from glamorous clubs and opted for Leeds, a club that was in a rebuilding phase and had Britain’s best youth development program. Unfortunately, most parents fall for the exaggerated promises of agents and clubs and their sons pay the price.”
Needless to say, Mandic has a barely disguised disdain for some agents.
“Too many Australian players were being looked after by agents that made more money from the respective deals than the player was earning in a year. I thought that was an outrageous rip off,” he tells FourFourTwo of his decision to become a player-manager in 1997.
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| Bernie Mandic speaks out against haircut regulations for agents |
It may sound a little hypocritical coming from a man who has so much to do with a high-profile player’s professional life, but Mandic is quick to note he is not a licensed FFA agent, despite being described as an agent by many in the UK press. “I do not want to be exposed to the hypocrisy and double standards within FIFA and the national federations,” he says firmly. Instead his brother Nicola is FFA-accredited, leaving Bernie to, as he says, “act as the players’ manager similar to what happens in the entertainment industry worldwide in music, television and film”.
Based in Paris, Bernie has seen the manoeuvrings of football agents in Europe over the last decade, and is cynical about most agents’ loyalty.
“Footballers’ agents generally are viewed with suspicion and rightly so,” he says. “The vast majority of agents are there to look after clubs and not the players that they are supposed to be representing. Usually it is the buying club that they owe their loyalty to as usually they are willing to pay the agent the most amount of money.”
What’s more, Bernie has a sweeping solution. “I don’t think agents are needed at all,” he declares. “Practising lawyers should be required to sign off on any player contract and the majority of corrupt deals would be eradicated due to the fact a lawyer would not want to put himself in a position of losing his license to practice law.
“If an agent loses his licence he just needs to have another licensed mate sign off on any deal and all the legal obligations are fulfilled,” he adds.
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