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EPL CLUBS INCREASE SPENDING TO £260M ON FOOTBALL AGENTS

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Premier League clubs have paid out more than £260m to football agents during 2018-19 – an increase of £49m on the previous 12 months.

Liverpool were the highest spending club in the top flight, paying £43m to agents between 1 February 2018 and 31 January 2019.

Chelsea (£26m) and Manchester City (£24m) were the next biggest spenders.

Championship clubs spent more than £50m while Sunderland accounted for more than 50% of League One’s £5.5m outlay.

Fees to agents went up despite spending on transfers falling by more than £500m when compared with the previous season.

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Liverpool spent £27m on agents in 2017-18 to conclude deals for players including Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah, and their 2018-19 expenditure covers a period in which they have invested heavily to compete for the Premier League title.

Brazil midfielder Fabinho (£39m) arrived from Monaco, while his international team-mate Alisson cost a then world record £66.8m fee for a goalkeeper after being signed from Roma. 

The Reds also spent around £50m on Naby Keita, and Switzerland midfielder Xherdan Shaqiri joined from Stoke for a fee of £13m.

Championship clubs paid out a combined £50m, around £8m more than a year ago. 

Former Premier League clubs Stoke, Swansea and West Brom – who were all relegated in 2017-18 – contributed 35% of the divisional total.

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Overall, English football spent around £318m on agents, which represents a £60m increase from one year ago. But spending on transfers was significantly down.

Across the summer 2018 and January 2019 transfer windows combined, Premier League clubs spent an estimated £1.4bn. That figure is the second highest for an entire season following a record spend of £1.9bn in 2017-18.

Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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