Business With Blain: Agents Having Their Fill
Premier League clubs spend a staggering amount on agent fees.
When the English Football Association (the FA) released its annual figures about the amount of money spent by English clubs on intermediaries for February 2024 through to February 2025, it was no surprise that Premier League clubs dominated the headlines — and the expenditure.
There should be a worthy mention, too, for Leeds United in the Championship, whose spend at £18.8million was more than what half of the 20 top-flight clubs spent.
Chelsea, who are still under investigation by the Premier League for an alleged breach of Financial Fair Play regulations, managed to spend an eye-watering £60,384,449 — that is almost ten times the spend of promoted club Ipswich Town (£6,264,471).
Of the ever-present Premier League teams in that time span, Everton spent the least, which is understandable considering their financial challenges of recent years and their two breaches of the Premier League’s Profitability & Sustainability Rules (PSR).
That said for Everton, their spend — fundamentally in this case on agents — would have been almost 5% of their turnover if it was all spent in the same fiscal year.
For comparison, Liverpool’s spend of around 3.5% of turnover was more than double Everton’s, at over £20,000,000, while Manchester City were at 7.35% (£52,126,339) and United at 5.4% (£33,022,197).
All told, Premier League clubs paid £409,137,387 to agents over the 12-month period, at an average of £20.47m.
Seven clubs (Arsenal, Aston Villa, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City, Man Utd, and Newcastle United) spent more than the average.
With these clubs currently occupying six of the top seven positions in the Premier League table, it seems that like wage bills, money spent on agents is a barometer of success in the world’s most popular league.
It is rather ironic that a club that has been under investigation by the Premier League for almost two years, and during that time has spent an astonishing amount of money on transfer fees and player wages, has such confidence in the Premier League’s inability to punish them for excess that they continue to spend, spend, spend!
Maybe when the Premier League finally makes its financial rules fit for purpose, some of these excesses will be reined in.
So, how can this be changed?
Super agents and super agencies will forever be part of the game, but surely this is the time for footballing authorities — and clubs — to reassess how much money they are pumping into the hands of those said agents and agencies.
The (delayed) implementation of a Squad Cost Control mechanism will help when it comes, and those competing in European competitions are obliged to comply with such an approach.
More effective, from this author’s standpoint, would be the imposition of some basic rules that nudge players and clubs into limiting spend on third parties.
The forthcoming Independent Football Regulator (IFR) could investigate this and find a way for over £400m annually to find its way into grassroots football, rather than into the pockets of those who add little or no value to the game itself.