with joel Crosskill

DEALING IN the shadows; cloaked in mystery with a licence to make a killing. The 007s of the football world have become the sports most reviled figures off the field, but are these brokers of record-breaking deals agents of change or agent provocateurs?

Collecting money from clubs and players alike for the negotiation of transfers, agents have in large part been responsible for the unprecedented rise in the average income of today's players. Whether through sponsorship deals or endorsements, more than 60 per cent of Premier League players are represented by an agent or agency. All of whom share one trait - they want their cut!

Show me the money!

Who could forget those lines from Jerry McGuire? It's where many people first became at least vaguely familiar with what a sports agent does.

But when the Independent newspaper published an estimate of £150 million (J$21.3 billion) in payments to agents every year in the Premier League, many didn't like what they saw.

'Talentless leeches'

Middlesbrough chairman Steve Gibson branded them 'talentless leeches' while Sir Alex Ferguson was a bit more diplomatic saying: "They are a very lucky breed because as long as you have greedy club presidents, agents will always be in the driving seat".

Enter Kia Joorabchian, an Iranian Brit backed by Russian billionaire in exile, Boris Berezovsky (wanted in Russia for money laundering and fraud). It was Kia that brokered the deal that saw Javier Mascherano and Carlos Tevez, two of South America's most wanted at the time, traded to the unlikely West Ham United.

Since then, Kia has become the most recognisable agent since James Bond! Not just for his ability to do the impossible, but also for the destruction he and partners MSI have left in their wake.

Following MSI's unprecedented lease of Corinthians football club in Brazil, funnelling over £40 million into the club to bring in players like Javier Mascherano and Carlos Tevez - MSI's 51 per cent stake in profits blossomed by 500 per cent as Corinthians won the league for the first time since 1999.

But since both players were laundered to Europe last season, Corinthians, Brazil's second largest team, have found themselves washed up in the second division while Kia is left squeaky clean and a major profiteer from his third-party ownership of the players.

Third-party contracts, however, are not strictly banned by the Premier League, which is what has enabled agents to pass through loopholes into grey areas. However, the 36-year-old Kia was the first to successfully broker a third-party deal with a major English team and that's to be respected.

But, With a View to a Kill, he warns that "Third-party ownership is not going to stop!" Full Time.

Contact Joel at jcrosskill@sportsmax.tv