Krasner defends Leeds' use of agents

Leeds chairman Gerald Krasner has defended the decision to pay agents to offload high-earning players.

The Elland Road club are set to be named one of the Football League’s highest spenders on fees over the last year.

The League will release figures tomorrow which detail all their member clubs’ spending on agents and reports today suggest Leeds paid out £1.6m (€2.3m) in the second half of last year.

That equates to almost one third of the total amount spend by all Football League sides.

Leeds faced massive restructuring following relegation from the Premier League last year and were desperate to get rid of their biggest earners and, as a result, they appointed agent Phil Morrison to broker deals on their behalf.

Krasner refused to confirm the amount Leeds spent on fees but he defended the outlay saying: “Those costs were incurred in sorting out the players that left Leeds.”

He added in the Yorkshire Post: “We have saved many times over the amount spent on agents’ fees. Due to one-off payments to agents we have managed to reduce the annual wage bill from £43m (€61.4m) to £18m (€25.7m).

“The amount spent on agents will be hugely reduced for the next six months.”