Cardiff City and Swansea City are among the top 10 Championship spenders when it comes to agent fees, it has been revealed.
A Football Association document reveals that the Bluebirds and Swans paid a similar amount, £1,409,916 and £1,415,536 respectively, to agents from February 1, 2022, to January 31, 2023.
In the Championship, the three sides relegated from the Premier League last season top the table for agent fees paid. Norwich City lead the way (£4.38m), followed by Watford (£4.33m) and Burnley (£4.14m).
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West Brom (£2.35m) and Middlesbrough (£2.19) make up the top five highest spenders.
In total, Championship clubs paid £36,317,802 in the most recent period measured by the FA. This is a decrease of around £8m from the previous year.
Swansea just edge Cardiff as the highest spending Welsh club, continuing their decrease in agent fees paid. They have massively cut the amount spent on this in recent times, with the figure being as high as £5.19m in 2019/20. This is the third season in a row they have cut this figure.
The Swans made 27 transactions across the year listed on the document, which was released on Friday (March 31).
They involve fees in new contracts for Jamie Paterson, Cameron Congreve, Josh Thomas, Ollie Cooper, Harry Jones and Azeem Abdulai.
Also included are fees for the loan deals head coach Russell Martin has made. These include Luke Cundle from Wolves and Matty Sorinola from Union SG. The permanent transfers of Nathan Wood from Middlesbrough, Harry Darling from MK Dons and Ben Blythe from Doncaster Rovers also feature. Joe Allen’s free transfer from Stoke City features on the list.
All others on the list feature registration of youth players, and their transfers such as Liam Smith.
As for Cardiff, they made 19 transactions in the same period.
Three of these are loans; Sory Kaba from FC Midtjylland, Cedric Kipre from West Brom and Niels Nkounkou from Everton. Nkounkou was recalled by Everton in January early and was later sent to Saint Etienne in Ligue 2.
Others include the plethora of free transfers made by Steve Morison in the summer transfer window such as Callum O’Dowda, Mahlon Romeo, Ebou Adams, Ryan Allsop, Andy Rinomhota, Romaine Sawyers and Sheyi Ojo.
The permanent transfers of Callum Robinson from West Brom, Kion Etete from Tottenham and Jack Simpson from AFC Bournemouth, alongside new contracts for Isaak Davies, Ollie Denham and Joe Ralls make up the list.
Newport County’s £22,511 spent is the second-lowest in the Football League behind Crewe Alexandra (£15,585). That figure is dwarfed by Wrexham, who spent £163,737 on agent fees in that period, more than double any other non-League club.
As for the Premier League, Manchester City parted with a whopping £51.6m to pay agents. The Citizens are closely followed by Chelsea (£41.2m) and Liverpool (£33.7m).
In total the 20 clubs in the top flight splashed out £318,219,426 to agents.
Championship intermediary fees
Norwich City - £4.81m
Watford - £4.33m
Burnley - £4.14m
West Brom - £2.35m
Middlesbrough - £2.19m
Stoke City - £1.97m
Sheffield United - £1.92m
Swansea City - £1.41m
Cardiff City - £1.41m
Hull City - £1.3m
Huddersfield Town - £1.2m
Birmingham City - £1.11m
Coventry City - £1.02m
Wigan Athletic- £1.01m
Preston North End- £1.01m
Bristol City - £983k
Queens Park Rangers - £957k
Millwall - £742k
Sunderland - £718k
Blackburn Rovers - £697k
Luton Town - £630k
Blackpool - £321k
Rotherham United - £273k
Reading - £200k
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