EDITOR'S CHOICE FATHER MOURNS A LOYAL SON WHO WENT OFF THE RAILS Father mourns a loyal son who went off the rails CORSHAM FESTIVAL NEWS Corsham Festival: Midnight Goggles ST JOHN'S PROM, MARLBOROUGH St Johns Prom PEWSEY VALE SCHOOL PROM Pewsey Vale Prom RIDGEWAY SCHOOL PROM, WROUGHTON Ridgeway Prom GRITTLETON HOUSE SCHOOL PROM Grittleton House VOTE Have you given up smoking because of the introduction of the smoking ban? Yes No I'm thinking about it GET OUR NEWS BY E-MAIL Just register

Most read Comments 1 Police search towpath as part of murder inquiry 2 Barry Cooper killing: 3 Woman falls from Wroughton overbridge 4 Murder inquiry team searches alongside canal 5 Warden in a dust-up 6 Man faces sentence after admitting manslaughter 7 Gypsy decision rubber stamped 8 Lib Dem councillor wins in Corsham 9 It won't get much worse 10 Police identify body found in woodland Today | 7 Days 1 Murder inquiry after Devizes stab victim dies 2 Devizes stab victim fighting for his life 3 Man airlifted after Devizes stabbing 4 Two held after Devizes stabbing 5 Warden in a dust-up 6 Doherty makes art for artery's sake 7 Sex attack in Devizes on teenager 8 Give us a brake 9 Teen arrest as dispute turns nasty 10 Police appeal for calm

Comment

Migeul Comminges

Swindon Town chairman Andrew Fitton has warned footballers' agents he won't be mssed around over cotract talks.

He and fellow board members have drawn up a set of rules for agents to abide by and Fitton arns any agent gbreaking them will be shown the door.

He believes the policy has helped their relationship with agents in their first few months at the club - claiming they cannot afford to be dragged into trying to meet agents' demands.

The move comes as Fitton claims player of the year Miguel Comminges, who is set to join FA Cup finalists Cardiff City, had his head turned by his agent.

He said: We tried really hard to keep Miguel, in fact no one knows quite how hard we did try. In my opinion Miguel has not had the best advice from his agent.

Contradictorily he said he wanted to play regular football on one hand and that he wanted Championship football. I think he will be on the bench and will be looking at playing 15 games at Cardiff.'' Fitton said in the main though the club's relationship with player representatives has been good.

He said: "We are new to running a football club and so it is a steep learning curve at times but I also think our freshness helps our outlook at times.

"We have set our own rules, because we know how things are done in normal business, and we have put into place an agents charter that they all need to read before we will even think about dealing with them.

"One of the points in our policy is we won't negotiate a deal and then see the agents looking for a fee to be paid. It is up to the players to pay their own agents at Swindon and that is a rule that will not change."

Some clubs' distrust of agents have them seen them being banned from any transfer dealings but Fitton believes a total ban would be cutting their nose off to spite their face.

He said: "It is simple really, the agents either adhere to our rules or they do business elsewhere. Some clubs won't deal with them at all but I don't see the point in that.

"We could be missing out on players by doing that.

"So what we have done is fair I think, we just won't pay the fees of agents because that is down to the players.

"I don't know whether this is unique in football.

"All it is is we have a policy statement saying how we will deal with them.

"We have actually not had problems with the agents.

"I think that is because they have read our policy statement and known what they are going to be dealing with."

11:26am Monday 12th May 2008

Print

Email this

Comment