GRIMSBY Town chairman John Fenty says agents are a 'necessary evil' in football if clubs want to sign players of quality.

The Town chief was commenting after the latest annual Football League report on agents' fees found the Mariners to be the third biggest spenders in League Two last season with regards outlays to football representatives.

Town forked out £17,775 to agents last season for four new signings and six loan deals.

Only big-spending Notts County (£246,483) and Shrewsbury Town (£33,700) committed more to agents over the campaign with 11 of the 24 clubs not paying out a single penny.

That was also Town's situation in the previous two campaigns but the new report shows they broke their mould in 2009/10.

Mr Fenty says the main reason was the backing for manager Neil Woods in his bid to get players in that would help keep the Mariners in the Football League – something that fell short on the final day at Burton Albion.

But he reiterated his point of 12 months ago that the figures can be misleading because many clubs will incorporate agents' fees into players' salaries.

The Town chairman said: "No club likes to pay agents' fees but that's the game we are in.

"They are a necessary evil if you want to bring good players to your club.

"If you are not prepared to pay agents then they will not recommend your club to their players – it's as simple as that.

"You have to embrace them – we did that last season and it helped us get better players to the football club.

"But I maintain the argument I had last year that many agents' fees have been driven underground if you like.

"This report isn't as transparent as people would like to think."

The report is the seventh published by the Football League and covers the period between July 1 2009 and June 30 2010.

And it revealed that the amount of money committed to agents has increased by £3.9-million in the last 12 months.

League clubs committed £12.7-million to agents between July 2009 and June 2010 compared to £8.8-million for the same period in 2008/9.

In Town's division, Notts County accounted for two thirds of League Two's £366,781 fees with £246,483 going into agents' pockets.

Without the Magpies, the basement division would have seen a £60,000 decrease on the previous year's figure of £189,167.

During the 2009/10 season league clubs committed to pay agents in 396 (16.6 per cent) of the 2,392 player transactions that took place, collectively committing the sum of £12,739,867.

Championship clubs accounted for £10.1-million (79.5 per cent) of this total, with League One and Two clubs accounting for £2.2-million (17.6 per cent) and £0.4-million (2.9 per cent) respectively.

In League Two, player transactions nearly halved from 1,241 in the previous year to 659 this – 112 players were paid up.

New Football League chairman Greg Clarke voiced his concern over the rise and said: "Given the current economic climate, it is worrying to see such a significant amount leaking from the game.

"This year's figures demonstrate a considerable increase on those of last season and it is essential that clubs work to reduce this liability over the coming campaign."

However, Town chairman John Fenty says the Mariners have again this summer had to use agents in a bid to get the players boss Woods wanted to sign.

He added: "We have had a high number of signings this summer and have paid substantial agents' fees to get some of those to the club.

"Neil Woods has worked extremely hard to get the right level of quality he wants and with the financial support of the board, we have fortunately managed to get those players we wanted. But it would be wrong to say we haven't had to use agents to do that as well."