Kick Out Kickbacks For A Kick Off

A back of a white envelope...
... and a pen.

A 20 year old player is worth £400,000.
He gets selected in the squad of a north European nation for World Cup 2014 in Brazil.
His value inflates, in the instant, by 2,000% to £8 million.
This is because football transfer markets are incredibly inefficient.
The value will eventually settle down around £5.5 million when more sober assessments are made.
This is still overvalued.

If the player is sold immediately after selection for World Cup squad, the agents take 12.5% - so the agents pocket £1 million on the transfer.
There will be further "bonuses" down the line with, perhaps, another million to be made on the percentages.
So £2 million over the playing career from their slice of the transfer market then.

Wages inflate markedly when a player gets selected in the World Cup squad of a north European team.
A player on £5,000 per week is suddenly worth £50,000 per week (the wage market is more dampened).
This level is maintained +/- for remainder of career.
So the agent grabs his 12.5% of the wage packet of the additional £2.34 million per year for 13 years, say.
That is a career "earning" on wages for the agents of around £4 million.

Ignoring the slices taken off the peripherals relating to a player's career and without taking any account of being shoe-horned into a suitable slot in mainstream media following your career...
... the agent(s) still earn an extra £6 million on the player just based on one non-meritocratic selection.

Most squads can "accommodate" two selections for each tournament that are considered a bit "out there".

So a national team manager of a North European nation can generate an extra £12 million of "value" for each World Cup in charge and an extra £9 million for each Euro's - £21 million every four years in charge on top of more legitimate earnings.

Most of the top agents are co-partnerships so you could neatly divide the £21 million "bonus" between the two partners and the manager - an illicit £7 million each if both players were from the same agency.

The individuals involved in such a sting believe their strategy is grey market, exploiting positions of power, slicing a non-regulated sector.
But it is just based on being in the inner loop of corruption in a non-regulated sector.

NB All projections above ignore inflation, currency issues, injuries and other key sports influences on a stellar career etc.

'Tis just a back of a white envelope calculation about the passing of brown envelopes...

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