IPSWICH Town spent £50,000 more on agents fees in the last year than the previous 12 months - but the overall trend is down, suggesting the days of the football “gravy train” could be numbered.

IPSWICH Town spent £50,000 more on agents fees in the last year than the previous 12 months - but the overall trend is down, suggesting the days of the football “gravy train” could be numbered.

A report from the Football League published yesterday shows the attitude of chairmen is hardening towards their profession.

Colchester United, for example, did not pay a single penny to agents in the last year, and new regulations coming in which will see the players themselves paying their representative rather than the clubs could eat into their income further.

The League's report confirmed that fees paid to agents by clubs in the Coca-Cola Championship, League One and League Two fell by 2% in the 12 months up to June 30 this year.

In total £7,660,028 was spent by the 72 clubs, a drop of £160,000 on the previous year, with 16 outfits claiming to have paid not a penny to players' representatives over the period in question.

There is scepticism among some chairmen about the way in which agents' fees are recorded by certain clubs, with allegations that clubs sometimes choose to add the agent's cut to the transfer fee, rather than admit they hand over money to them directly.

But regardless of those claims, it seems football is no longer the agent free-for-all it was once assumed to be.

Town spent a total of £205,242 over the past year, which included nine new registrations and transfers, five updated contracts, three cancelled contracts and two loans.

Local rivals Norwich City were the third-highest spenders in the division, spending over £500,000 on fees, a figure only beaten by Leeds United and Southampton.

Colchester were one of five clubs in League One that did not pay out anything to agents.

Another club in the division to do the same were Scunthorpe, whose general manager Jamie Hammond takes a dim view of the industry's pariahs.

He explained: “We try not to spend money on agents wherever possible because it is a case of why spend money when you don't have to?

“A lot of clubs still spend a lot of money on agents but why should we need a middle-man to speak to our own players?”