Premier League clubs' spending on agents' fees rises to £272m amid Covid
Chelsea were the biggest Premier League spenders on agents’ fees in the 12 months to the start of February 2021, data released by the Football Association shows.
The club invested heavily last summer to bring in Timo Werner, Kai Havertz and Ben Chilwell among others and spent £35,247,822 on agents’ fees. Manchester City were the nexthighest spenders with £30,174,615, and Manchester United spent slightly less: £29,801,555. The lowest top-flight spenders on agents’ fees were West Brom, whose outlay was £4,222,059.
In total, clubs in this season’s Premier League spent £272,220,223 on such fees between 1 February 2020 and 1 February 2021, despite clubs sustaining major losses because of the pandemic. The total was higher than the amount spent by top-flight sides between 1 February 2019 and 31 January 2020, when the figure was £263,368,860.
Spending on agents’ fees was down by more than £9m in the Championship compared with the previous 12 months. Clubs in this season’s second tier spent £40,753,529, with relegated Norwich spending the most (£6,827,037) and promoted Wycombe the least (£126,053).
Spending on agents was also slightly down in Leagues One and Two compared with the previous 12 months.
Among clubs this season in League One (total £3,082,105) Hull spent the most on agents (£543,238) and Gillingham were the only club to spend nothing in any of the top four divisions.
Salford were comfortably the biggest spenders among clubs in League Two this season, their £137,884 also a larger amount than was spent by 17 League One clubs. The League Two total was £1,069,115.