Revealing figures show Leeds United's agent fee spending compared to Sunderland, Leicester City and others — YEP 12/4/24
The FA have released their annual report into agent-fee spending across the English game.
By Kyle Newbould
Leeds United spent more than £13million on agent’s fees in
the two transfer windows since returning to the Championship - the highest of
all teams in the second-tier. Leeds spent a total of £13,287,748 on fees
payable to agents between February 1, 2023 and February 1, 2024, according to
new data published by the FA. It is only a slight decrease on their total of
over £15m from the previous year, during which they were relegated from the
Premier League.
The most recent total places Leeds as the biggest spenders
in the entire Championship when it comes to agent’s fees, with fellow relegated
teams Leicester City (£8,113,789) and Southampton (£7,537,386) predictably
making up the top three. Daniel Farke’s side have also spent more than nine
current Premier League teams during the period.
Some Championship teams on smaller budgets have seen their
totals dwarfed by the £13m-plus spent by Leeds. all of Blackburn Rovers,
Bristol City, Millwall, Plymouth Argyle, Rotherham and Sheffield Wednesday
spending less than £1m on agent’s fees over the reported 12-month spell.
A breakdown of the transactions shows that Leeds paid money
to three separate intermediaries for the loan to Djed Spence from Tottenham,
with the full-back unable to make a significant impact at Elland Road before
Farke decided to cut his spell short in January. Fees were also paid to the
agent’s of Joe Rodon, Jaidon Anthony and Connor Roberts.
The club also paid money to intermediaries when transferring
out the likes of Tyler Roberts, Alfie McCalmont and Mateusz Bogusz. A number of
young Whites, including Archie Gray, Charlie Cresswell, Kris Moore and Mateo
Joseph saw their respective contracts updated.
Leeds confirmed earlier this week that they had an operating
loss of £33.7m last season, with a portion of that being down to the above
payments. Player-related transactions, including agent’s fees, are factored
into the club’s adherence to profitability and sustainability rules (PSR). The
club are not in any immediate danger of breaching PSR, as has been seen at
other clubs, but football finance expert Kieran Maguire told the YEP that
failure to achieve promotion could present some challenges.