Premier League clubs paid more than £211m to agents for signing players during the last year – a record by far, £37m more than the record £174m the 20 clubs paid in 2016-17. The period covered by the Football Association’s annual publication of the total fees paid to agents included the summer 2017 and January 2018 transfer windows, the first full year of spending from the Premier League’s record £8.4bn, 2016-19 TV deals.
Liverpool paid the most of any club, £26.8m, over a year in which their major signings included Virgil van Dijk from Southampton, Mohamed Salah from Roma and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain from Arsenal. Chelsea were the second highest spending, paying £25m to agents, for 51 deals in which an agent was paid.
The FA has explained that the figures it publishes every year do not amount to the total agents’ fees agreed on the deals done in these transfer windows. As most agents’ fees are paid in instalments, the figures add up to the actual money paid by the clubs during the year. The individual fees paid to each agent on a specific deal are not published; only a total figure is given for each club.
Manchester City were the third highest paying, £23m spent in agents’ fees; Manchester United’s payments of £18m were the fourth highest – followed, surprisingly, by Watford, who spent £13.4m, more than double the £6.2m the club paid in 2016-17. Most Premier League clubs paid markedly more than in 2016-17, with all but four clubs – Burnley, Brighton, Huddersfield and West Bromwich Albion – paying more than £5m.
Fifa, Uefa and the Premier League are considering whether new regulations should be introduced to govern football “intermediaries” owning to concerns over the amounts being paid; Uefa has said it is examining the practicalities of introducing a cap on payments.
