Yeovil Town's spending on Agent Fees has dropped heavily during the last reporting period, in figures issued by the Football League today. The January - July 2008 period saw the Glovers pay just £10,000 to agents - compared with a total of £43,945 paid to agents during the whole of the 2007-08 season.
The figures show that during that six month period Yeovil Town registered nine new player contracts, with two contracts being updated and two more being cancelled. During that period there were 19 loan deals registered - unsurprisingly the highest in the division.
Despite having only come out of administration six months previously, Leeds United were the division's big spenders - forking out £200,000 on agents fees - almost 40 percent of the entire division's payments to agents. Another club that fell into administration - Luton Town - were the division's second biggest spenders, paying out £82,000 to football agents despite being in administration for almost the entire six month reporting period. Between the two clubs, they accounted for 59 percent of all agent payments in the division.
Both Leeds and Luton fans have over the past 12 months asked for sympathy from the football authorities and the football community for their financial positions and the penalties imposed upon their clubs for overspending, but it is difficult to feel sorry for either club when even after falling into administration they continued to be the division's biggest spenders. Leeds United's spending across the full 12 month period beat 15 Championship clubs, whilst Luton's exceeded 10 Championship clubs, showing the levels of excess even after their financial problems were revealed.
The next biggest payers across the six month period were Southend United (£38,000), Brighton and Hove Albion (£29,853), Millwall (£28,500) and Bristol Rovers (£24,780).
There were three clubs who did not pay agents during the 2007-08 season, namely Crewe Alexandra, Hartlepool United and Huddersfield Town. Huddersfield are notable as they have now gone a full four years without paying a penny to agents.
Overall though, spending at League One level is up heavily with a total of £1,531,337 paid out to agents, compared to £717,368 during the 2006-07 season. Total spending across the whole Football League has gone up significantly to £11,066,083, compared with £8,584,321 spent during the previous season. Despite that, the Football League seem happy with the latest figures, because the amounts paid out as a percentage of total player transfer fees continues to fall, with agent fees now accounting for 14 percent of total player transfer fees - a drop of 5 percent compared with the 2006-07 season. A grand total of 81.5 million pounds was spent on players during the 2007-08 season - up from the previous year's 45.8 million pounds figure.
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14 August 2008 : 
