Over the past three years, Premier League clubs have spent over a billion dollars on agents’ fees.

The coronavirus pandemic saw transfer fees worldwide fall, with Premier League clubs’ spending on transfer fees dropping from around $320 million dollars in January 2020 to less than $100 million this January.

But despite the impact of COVID-19 on the soccer industry, agents’ fees have kept up their unstoppable rise, growing each year from around $240 million in 2016 to more than $376 million between February 2020 and February 2021.

As well as arranging transfers, intermediaries are involved in player registrations, contract cancellations, loan moves and other types of negotiations, so even though the transfer market has been quiet, the number of free transfers, contract talks and loans has kept agents busy.

The FA’s data, which runs from February to February, shows total fees have risen in each of the past five years, and that some clubs spend enough on agents’ fees each year to pay the transfer fees for a new player.

The biggest spenders on agents’ fees are Chelsea, who spent just short of $50 million over the past year, and around $190 million in total over the past five years. This comes despite having a transfer ban in the middle of that period.

When it comes to agent’s fees, then rather than a ‘big six’ of top clubs, there is a very clear ‘big four’. Last year, Manchester City spent the second most on agents fees, followed by Manchester United and Liverpool. But over the past five years, Liverpool have been the second biggest spenders, spending almost as much as Chelsea. The two Manchester clubs also spent in excess of $150 million on agents’ fees in that period.

But the next biggest spender wasn’t Arsenal or Tottenham Hotspur, it was Everton, who spent around $93 million on agents’ fees during that five-year period. Arsenal were the sixth biggest spenders, while Tottenham Hotspur, perhaps due to their relative lack of transfer activity, were ninth, behind Leicester City and West Ham United.

Given such large sums being passed on to agents, it is perhaps not surprising that the British tax authorities are re-evaluating how intermediary payments are taxed, looking at payments more closely so that none of these millions in potentially taxable income slips through the net.

Going further down the spending table, Newcastle United, who are known for counting the pennies under Mike Ashley’s ownership, were surprisingly the tenth biggest spenders on agent’s fees with about $65 million over the past five seasons.

Wolverhampton Wanderers spent the eighth most last year, and more than $38 million over the past three seasons, perhaps not surprising given their links to Jorge Mendes and his Gestifute agency. Burnley and West Bromwich Albion were the lowest spenders in the Premier League this past season.

But while there’s lots of attention on super agents like Mino Raiola, who seems to be flying around Europe at the moment trying to secure a nine-figure transfer fee for Erling Haaland, once you start dropping down the divisions, huge agents’ fees quickly disappear.

Championship clubs spent roughly $2.3 million on average on their intermediary fees last year. And the whole of League One put together spent less on intermediary fees than Burnley, with Gillingham reportedly spending nothing at all on such fees.