12 August 2024 - 1:12 PM
IMAGO: In 2020 Fiorentina spent a whopping 28 per cent of their total income on agent fees. That was far and away the most in our sample. Pictured, on the left, Fiorentina owner Rocco B. Commisso.
Analysis: English clubs dominate agent spending, but Italian clubs feel the financial strain
- Worldwide spending on agents has risen more than fourfold in the last decade, from €180 million in 2014 to €821 million last year.
- Our analysis finds that English clubs dominate the list of highest single-season spends on agents, but it is in Italy where intermediary fees eat up the highest proportion of income.
- Why it matters: Agent fees act as a corollary to transfer fees, increasing the amounts clubs need to budget for as part of their transfer market dealings.
- The perspective: New financial regulations specifically consider agent fees, but reining in such costs will be difficult now they’re so closely tethered to transfer activity.
The struggle for profitability in football, particularly since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020, is well known. Clubs across the board have toiled in the face of rising player wages, even as incomes stagnated during the flux of recent years. Yet while players have prospered, so have a group who are at once both close to and a safe distance from events on the field: agents.
Worldwide spend on agents, or intermediaries, to give them their official moniker, has more than qu
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