Football League spending figures have revealed that clubs paid out a total of over £16million on agents' fees last season, an increase of £4m.
The £16.7million figure for 2010/11 is up from the £12.7million spent during the 2009-10 season, while the number of transactions rose by over 500 to 2,910. Of those transactions, fees were paid to agents in 570 of them.
As for the Shrimpers, they paid out £38,016, to give us an unwanted second place, not good in this company, £20k up from the previous figure of £18,000, but much better than three seasons ago when Uncle Ron signed off just under £79k!
Championship clubs dominated the spending on agents fees, making up £14.1million of the total, with League One clubs paying out £2.3million and League Two making up the remainder of the total amount.
All Championship clubs paid agents fees while Hartlepool were the only club in League One not to do so.
In the fourth tier Accrington Stanley, Barnet, Cheltenham Town, Crewe Alexandra, Macclesfield Town, Stevenage and relegated Stockport County did not pay any fees to agents, and the total number of deals that saw no use of an agent rose from 1,996 to 2,340.
Shrewsbury Town topped the league here with a £43k pay out, and surprisingly Hereford United were third with close to £24k.
There were 833 (2009/10 659) League Two player transactions, 66 (36) involving the use of an agent.
Clubs committed to spend a total of £2,347,749 (£2,241,771) on agents fees during this period.
17 teams (13) committed to paying the services of a licensed agent.
Football League chairman Greg Clarke told www.football-league.co.uk: "These figures show that a considerable amount of money continues to leave the game through payments to agents. This highlights the importance of the work Football League clubs are doing to establish a 'break even' business model across all three divisions. No one is trying to prevent clubs from paying agents where they feel it is appropriate, however we must make sure clubs are not spending money they simply do not have."
For the full report, in PDF format: www.football-league.co.uk
Previously
2009/10: www.southendunited-mad.co.uk
2008/09: www.southendunited-mad.co.uk
2007/08: www.southendunited-mad.co.uk