Reds slash fees paid to agents but continue to spend most in Premier League

Liverpool have topped the Premier League table for fees paid to players’ agents for the third successive year, the Football Association has revealed.

The Premier League champions-elect have slashed payments by almost a third, according to the FA’s latest figures – which cover the 2019 summer and 2020 winter transfer windows.

Liverpool spent £30.3million on intermediaries compared with nearly £44m the previous year, but that is still the most of any top flight club.

Under FIFA rules, the FA has been publishing the total payments made by clubs in England’s top five divisions to agents for the last three years, as well as a list of every transfer which involved an agent.

Despite Liverpool’s reduction and the Premier League’s efforts to bring down the amount clubs spend on middlemen, the combined figures show an increase from £261m to £263.3m for the top flight.

The top four, as in the two previous years, comprises Liverpool, Manchester City (£29m), Manchester United (£27.6m) and Chelsea (£26.2m).

Everton (£16.9m) are the fifth biggest spenders on agents’ fees, according to the FA’s figures, with Arsenal (£13.6m), West Ham (£13.2m) and Tottenham (£12.5m) making up the top eight.

Burnley (£3.9m) forked out the least of any top flight club, with Sheffield United (£4.3m) and Norwich (£4.9m) making up the bottom three.

Championship clubs paid out a combined £49.3m, slightly down on last year’s £50m, with Stoke (£5.6m) and Swansea (£5.2m) topping the list.

League One sides spent £3.9m, down from almost £6m with Sunderland accounting for nearly £1.4m, and League Two clubs gave agents £1.2m, a slight increase from just under £1million.

The total figures for all top five divisions show English football spent just over £318m on agents, which is almost £80,000 down on a year ago.