English league clubs slash agent payments

English Football League clubs cut payments to agents by 2.3 million pounds (2.7 million euros) over the last year.

A total of 8.8 million pounds (10.1 million euros) was paid to agents by the 72 clubs in the three divisions outside the Premier League between July 2008 and June 2009, compared with 11.1 million pounds (12.8 million euros) for the 12 months previously.

Over the course of the season, Football League clubs made 3,727 player transactions, which includes new registrations, transfers, contract updates, contract cancellations and loans, but just 229 involved a payment to an agent.

Payments from the Championship clubs totalled 7.5 million pounds (8.6 million euros) between them, 86 percent of the total paid out, with 1.1 million pounds (1.2 million euros) paid by League One clubs and just 200,000 pounds (231,000 euros) from League Two clubs.

Announcing the results on Thursday, Football League chairman Lord Mawhinney said: “Given the current financial outlook, it is encouraging that clubs are being more circumspect in terms of their payments to agents.”