World Cup winner wants outrageous transfer fees to end

Published 6 years ago

As another multi-billion-dollar English Premier League season ends, an African-based FIFA World Cup winner has called on clubs to band together to curb vast fees paid to player agents.

The English press is up in arms about the £41 million ($52.5 million) paid to Mino Raiola, the agent who negotiated Paul Pogba’s switch from Juventus to Manchester United.

World’s Highest Paid Athletes

Advertisement

Enough is enough, says Terry Paine, a World Cup winner with England 1966, who has lived in Johannesburg since 1984, when he came to manage Bedfordview Country Club in the then Transvaal League.

We’ll Follow Wanyama To Hull And Back

“All the clubs have to get together and say ‘right – are we going to cap this?’ Don’t pay more than £20 million in a deal… the line has to be drawn. They must come to an agreement and stick to it. Put it into the contract how much you pay the agent,” says Paine.

“But you know it will be difficult. The agents will say if you don’t want to do a deal then Real Madrid will.”

Advertisement

Fifty six years ago, Paine – who played a club record 813 games for Southampton – was one of the hundreds of players across England who threatened to strike to end the £20-a-week maximum wage for footballers. He is the Southampton club President and shuttles between Johannesburg and England in the football season.

Related Topics: #football, #Sport.