The £130m agents bill
With television income set to treble from next season it’s likely that that figure could stretch to £500m by 2017 as agents worldwide intensify their efforts to get their players onboard the gravy train.
The figures were revealed yesterday with Liverpool the biggest spenders with agents picking up £14.3m from the Anfield club who are again likely to be among the biggest spenders with Jurgen Klopp taking over from Brendan Rodgers.
With the Premier League outspending every other league the trend is only going to increase with Stoke City shopping at Inter Milan and Barcelona during the summer.
The days of agents being known as ‘Mr 10%’s’ in transfer deals are long gone with fees picked up for re-negotiating contracts as well as for moving on unwanted players during their contract.
Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City all spent more than £10m on agents fees with newly promoted Watford the lowest spenders with ‘just’ £1,620,229 going to agents.
With big money on offer in the top division there is also significant figures being paid out through the Football League where Cardiff and Fulham paid out a combined total of £5.5m.
At the other end of the scale Bury, Accrington Stanley and Hartlepool never paid out any agent fees while Stevenage spent £7,495.
In total Championship clubs spent £26,124,044, League One spent £3,167,964 while League Two clubs spent £1,007,920.
Clubs decided to publish the figures paid to agents to answer concerns and rumours about the way that that side of the game is regulated.
The figures cover the period 1 October 2014 to 30 September 2015