Sports agents - friend or foe?

The European Union has recently comissioned research that may lead to legislation being introduced aimed at regulating the activities of sports agents. This comes at a time when the Kelvin Jack (v sport agent Mike Berry) case has just passed through the London High Court. Are agents now too powerful? Do some agents abuse whatever power they have? Are agents out of control? Or are sports agents in general being given a bad rap on the basis of a small number of unscrupulous agents? How important are agents to sport, and to the effective functioning of the sport labour market? Do they really need to be specifically regulated or can general EU law be employed to control their activities? Ultimately, do agents actually need regulating?