On Friday 30th March 2012 I attended the inaugural Football & the Law Conference at the Radisson Hotel, Manchester, UK hosted by Edge Hill University in co-operation with Brabners Chaffe Street solicitors. The event was designed to respond to the professional needs of those whose work brings them into contact with legal issues relevant to football. 

Official figures released by the Premier League of the fees paid by its 20 clubs payments to agents over the last year show that £71.8m was spent between 1 October 2010 and 30 September 2011. 

In addition the recent case of Proactive Sports Management Limited v Rooney, the levels of commission ‘earned’ by agents for arrangement of contracts (in this case image rights) returned to the public spotlight (for an analysis see this article).