Football agents affecting even the non leagues

[breadandcheese]

It's a bit of a long read but it's the first time I've seen a club speaking out so publicly on the conduct of an agent, even if it is from the non leagues.

 

https://www.borehamwoodfootballclub.co.uk/uncategorized/football-must-win-this-one/

 

Following on from our reporting of the behaviour, bullying, and manoeuvring for a transfer from Morgan Ferrier’s agent/intermediary/representative earlier this week.

 

Boreham Wood can now give another most unwelcome update on a situation that has unfortunately deteriorated further. However, it’s also vitally important that our supporters and everyone involved in football at this level, now fully understand a situation that shows no signs of going away.

 

On February 7, 2018, the player Morgan Ferrier, along with his agent and our football club, entered into a 16-month agreement with BWFC after signing from Dagenham.

 

This signing and contract was initiated by Morgan and his then agent Leon Anderson, who contacted our football club in early February – thus making Morgan the biggest transfer purchase and the highest paid player in our club’s history.

 

Morgan’s then agent Leon Anderson in all his dealings with us was diligent, honest, respectful, and always had his client’s best interests at heart.

 

Morgan’s contract was detailed, well written, and contained a considerable weekly wage, very beneficial appearance monies, and a very good goal related bonus. It also had conditions set into it that included clauses that if met could trigger a transfer for Morgan and for complete clarity, we have set the wording out below:

 

“A release clause applies whereby Boreham Wood FC agrees to allow the player to speak to another club with a view to discussing a transfer. This would be subject to the following conditions: 

 

– Boreham Wood receive a formal written offer from the buying club

– A transfer fee of no less than £35,000 (thirty-five thousand) will be payable

– Both clubs will agree a sell-on fee and/or additional terms 

 

“In the event that the above conditions in this release clause are satisfied, Boreham Wood shall immediately notify the player, and, if he wishes to transfer to such other club, Boreham Wood shall be required to (and shall) agree to the transfer of the player’s registration without delay and shall do everything necessary to effect such transfer of the player.”

 

As everyone can see – and we emphasise we do this for openness and clarity – the conditions are not tricky, they are all very, very simple and all very, very easy to understand and to comply with. They were all openly discussed before signing, and agreed by the player, the club, and by his agent.

 

About a month ago, following the correct club to club procedures, a deal was agreed with a Football League club. The fee was agreed, as was the sell on fee and the add ons, and we agreed to sell Morgan Ferrier to Tranmere Rovers Football Club.

 

As an agreement was reached with Tranmere – Morgan was given permission to speak with Micky Mellon and Tranmere Rovers Football Club. But after Morgan spoke with the said club – he came and spoke to the Boreham Wood Chairman and told him he that did not want to go. Morgan stated that he wanted to stay with BWFC but would like more responsibility within the dressing room because he felt it would improve his game.

 

That was the situation right up until last Sunday – World Cup Final day… When our manager Luke Garrard received an aggressive call from a new intermediary/agent/representative who purported to represent Morgan…

 

At this point, the agent made very clear to Luke that he would seek to get Morgan out of his contract in any way he could, if we didn’t comply with his demands of a £35k transfer and a 20% sell on. And in his words – if we did not comply, he would “open up a can of worms” to the football authorities about our football club, about our manager, and about our chairman, who he labelled as “bent.”

 

That threat as you can imagine cannot go unchallenged and is now being addressed through the high courts, and is in the hands of the club’s trusted solicitors. As you can imagine, as a club, whenever these type of football bullies present themselves, we simply have to stand up to them. And with the help of the football authorities we will stand our ground and see this through to the end…

 

IN SUMMARY

1) We signed Morgan Ferrier in good faith when he was with his previous agent Leon Anderson, who initially contacted us. We paid a record transfer fee of 18k plus vat to Dagenham, but the transfer only came about because the Daggers were having financial difficulties and as such, we signed the player on February 7, 2018.

 

2) We then paid a further £5k plus vat to Dagenham, which was a bonus clause written into the transfer – should we of got to Wembley in the Promotion final in May of 2018.

 

3) We had in good faith put Morgan Ferrier on an agreed and signed, well paid, 16 month contract… And, there were some very simple, very clear, and very easy to understand clauses within the contract – these were a transfer fee, and a to be agreed sell on fee and to be agreed add on clauses.

 

These conditions were agreed by all parties, they were written into Morgan’s contract with both his/his agent’s and The FA Registrations Department’s agreement and these conditions are:

 

That if any buying club matches or betters a £35k fee and if a buying club also matches our sell on fee and add on expectations – then Morgan would be given permission to talk to any buying club to see if he wants to be transferred, and that’s exactly what happened with Tranmere Rovers.

 

Events since Morgan changed representation just a week ago:

 

A) Simon Bass from AFC Wimbledon contacted Luke Garrard last Sunday and told him that AFC Wimbledon would be making a bid for Morgan.

 

B) Luke then text Mr Bass with the Tranmere Rovers’ deal and told him if they matched that – they could talk to the player.

 

C) Luke Garrard then received phone calls last Sunday afternoon from Morgan Ferrier’s new agent – stating that he had replaced the previous agent Leon Anderson and had the contract in front of him (by picture on his phone) and if we did not release Morgan for £35k plus a 20% sell on, then he would “open up a can of worms” about our club and stated to Luke that both himself and the BWFC Chairman were “bent.

 

D)  On the Monday – AFC Wimbledon and Eric Samuelson emailed the BWFC Chairman with an official 35k offer, with a 25% sell on – which was considerably less than the Tranmere Rovers offer, and that was respectfully declined.

 

E) Then yesterday (Friday) while staying at the club’s training camp down in Barnstaple, Morgan Ferrier sent an email to our manager Luke Garrard, to all of the football authorities including the PFA, and to our club secretary – serving our football club with 14 days’ notice and informing us that we are somehow in breach of contract.

 

F) When we spoke to Morgan face to face yesterday (Friday), he denied writing the email, and stated that it was written out for him in its entirety by his intermediary/agent/representative and he was simply told to send it from his email address.

 

G) We obviously wish to make it clear that as a well-established football club playing at National League level – that we have paid Morgan on time, each and every month throughout his employ and this summer – no breach.

 

H) We wish to make it clear, that we have paid his previous club Dagenham the whole £23k plus Vat in full since we signed Morgan Ferrier on February 7, 2018 – no breach.

 

I) We wish to make it clear that all of Morgan’s wages and bonuses have all been paid on time, in full, and nothing is outstanding, and all tax and NI contributions are up to date – no breach.

 

J) We wish to make it clear that all of Morgan’s insurance, medical, nutritional and coaching needs have also been more than met – no breach.

 

K) We wish to make it clear that all transfer negotiations with all or any club or any interest shown at all – has been reported back to Morgan directly – no breach.

 

L) We wish to make it clear that this situation has been instigated by an agent/intermediary – and because we won’t curtail to this new representative’s demands to release Morgan for £35k and a 20% sell on, that this 14 day notice has been served on us and it’s clear this disruption will not go away as it’s all part of this intermediary’s strategy.

 

M) We wish to make clear, that we will not succumb to this 25-year-old agent’s threats… Where he has stated that he will “open up a can of worms” against our football club, our manager, and our chairman – who he has labelled as “bent.” We have done nothing wrong, the contract is watertight, the clauses are clear and this scaremongering will not succeed.

 

N) We wish to make it clear, that we feel absolutely compelled to take this young agent and perhaps the company he works for all the way to the high court, to the FA, to the National League committee, to the PFA and beyond – as we want to emphasise the need for these type of people to be regulated.

 

We absolutely apologise to the football world for airing our dirty washing in public. But we believe that there is the need to bring this type of behaviour into the public domain. As it is important and it’s high time that all non-league clubs began standing up to this agent/intermediary intimidation.

 

It’s now time that these unscrupulous people – as it’s not all agents – are taken to task. As they need to be regulated and this intimidation must be reported – we need to stop these intermediaries/representatives behaving in such a shoddy way and we need to get this problem highlighted. And put onto every non-league management committee’s agenda this season to sort out the problem…

 

In closing, after so much preparation and hard work, our whole pre-season and the whole bonding and training camp down in Barnstaple has simply been ruined – it has cost our chairman and football club tens of thousands of pounds and has been completely disrupted. Disrupted by a young 25-year-old agent who has not yet represented Morgan for even one week.

How sad is it, that for our club, our young manager, our hard-working dressing room, our very honest staff, and our loyal supporters have all been treated so badly?

 

We will keep updating you, we will keep working with the football authorities and we will seek our day and remuneration through the high courts – as this is a situation that football clubs at our level simply cannot afford to lose.

FOOTBALL MUST WIN THIS ONE

[StanSP]

Read this this morning.

Sounds like the club have been mugged off and screwed over by the 2nd agent that came in to represent the player. Some dodgy tactics by that agent meaning the clubs and player are losing out.

 

Hope it resolves itself and the club come out on top.

[ealingfox]

Completely agree, they're an absolute stain and need to be called out on their bullshit. Sadly money's the only thing that matters to the authorities and I couldn't see the FA, PL or EFL lifting a finger to get in their way. If anything it's going the other way with the likes of Wolves plumbing new depths in whoring themselves out to these people.

[davieG]

36 minutes ago, ealingfox said:

Completely agree, they're an absolute stain and need to be called out on their bullshit. Sadly money's the only thing that matters to the authorities and I couldn't see the FA, PL or EFL lifting a finger to get in their way. If anything it's going the other way with the likes of Wolves plumbing new depths in whoring themselves out to these people.

We're no angels I seem to recall us being quite high in the payments to agents league.

[YorkshireYellow]

4 hours ago, breadandcheese said:

Disrupted by a young 25-year-old agent who has not yet represented Morgan for even one week.

 

We wish to make clear, that we will not succumb to this 25-year-old agent’s threats

 

 

Can't help but feel they slightly undermine their arguments by twice making a big deal about the agents age, pretty sure their are dodgy agents of all ages and I doubt their is much of a correlation between age and morality / integrity. Doubt making a big deal about his age would impress a High Court judge, as that high court judge was probably a barrister by that age    (three year law degree, followed by two year pupilage... with no gap year could be practising by 23!). 

 

Perhaps they should have just said "inexperienced agent", which of course somebody could also be at any age.... a 50 year old could become an agent tomorrow, they'd be equally as inexperienced as a 25 year old who becomes one tomorrow. 

Also, what sort of buy out clause is that? The first agent may have been a nice chap, but its clearly a terrible contract for him to have got his client to sign. So its a £35k release clause, but Boreham Wood could jettison any deal by just demanding 100% of the next transfer fee? Which of course no buying club would ever agree with. 

 

Couldn't they theoretically even ask for 1000% of the next transfer? Plus "additional terms", like what? £1000 appearance fee per game? Where's the limit? Its basically not a release clause at all, but a con. 

 

Actually sounds like the club has stitched the player up a bit, which they could do because the first agent was a mug (so they like that agent, surprise surprise) and that the second agent was calling them out on that after the player realised that the first agent was a faker who allegedly had his best interests at heart, but not enough to bother to read the contract that he put in front of him. 

 

They turned down a 25% sell on clause..... do they get much higher than that? AFC Wimbledon are also a club which is going to need to try and flip the odd player for a profit, and the player is going to want to go to L1 over L2 isn't he, especially as he is presumably currently based in the London area and not in the North West. 

 

The players first agent has stitched the player up by not reading the contract.  That's my opinion. 

 

The players need agents because clubs will always try to screw them over, this just looks like an excellent example of WHY that player needed a competent agent.... that clause is pathetic! I'd legit choose agent 2 who is brave enough to call out the club for their nothing clause and is desperate to get his player into L1 instead of L2, over agent 1 who can't be bothered to read a contract carefully. I know which one is earning their money. 

 

Sorry for taking a contrarian view.... but there is a reason why the typical football needs somebody to do things like negotiate contracts. 

Edited 22 July 2018 by YorkshireYellow

[Manwell Pablo]

9 hours ago, davieG said:

We're no angels I seem to recall us being quite high in the payments to agents league.

 

Sort of an irrelevant point. I would say nothing wrong with paying agents if they act professional and do their job properly but they do earn a ridiculous amount for what they do. But the point still stands, they are a part of the game and if they are straight up not a problem, it’s Pratt’s like this little toe rag we need out of the game. Good on Boreham Wood I hope they take him to the cleaners,