Birmingham City's surprising total agent fees spend compared to League One rivals - with shock Wrexham finding

Birmingham City are the League One club with the third-highest spend on agent fees this season, surprisingly coming in below Wrexham AFC and Huddersfield Town.

Staggering new figures published by the Football Association have revealed the total agent fee spend for all 24 teams in the division - as well as every other club in the EFL - from February 2nd, 2024 to February 3rd, 2025.

It comes as no shock to know Birmingham’s outlay was among the highest in League One but the expectation was for Blues to top the charts. Many would assume that the record £13 million signing of Jay Stansfield would be enough to blitz the competition away on its own, but the reality is different.

Even the acquisitions of Christoph Klarer, Willum Willumsson, Emil Hansson, Lyndon Dykes and Alex Cochrane - all costing in excess of £1 million in transfer fees - weren’t enough for Birmingham to rack up the highest agent expenditure. Then there were the slightly cheaper signings of Tomoki Iwata, Ayumu Yokoyama, Ryan Allsop, Alfie May, Marc Leonard, Bailey Peacock-Farrell and Scott Wright, whereas five players joined on loan.

There’s no taking away from the fact Blues spent far more in total on transfers as they annihilated records to complete a complete squad overhaul for manager Chris Davies, but great care was taken to not lay out over the odds for agents.

How much have League One clubs spent on agent fees?

In total, English third-tier clubs have parted ways with over £7.5 million in agent fees, with Huddersfield the only team to spend over £1 million. Many would expect Birmingham to be top having laid out unprecedented transfer fees in the summer window, but Huddersfield and Wrexham lead the way.

Interestingly, automatic promotion contenders Wycombe Wanderers are in the bottom half for spending with less than a quarter of a million laid out to agents. There are no surprises to see table footers Shrewsbury Town at the bottom of the charts, however. Here are all the totals in full.

1. Huddersfield Town - £1,160,403
2. Wrexham AFC - £784,535
3. Birmingham City - £589,728
4. Bolton Wanderers - £471,992
5. Charlton Athletic - £430,596
6. Stockport County - £421,077
7. Blackpool - £375,432
8. Barnsley - £367,832
9. Lincoln City - £293,605
10. Peterborough United - £275,434
11. Burton Albion - £262,546
12. Rotherham United - £262,051
13. Wycombe Wanderers - £243,821
14. Cambridge United - £197,886
15. Bristol Rovers - £187,962
16. Stevenage - £187,423
17. Reading - £185,686
18. Leyton Orient - £172,049
19. Mansfield Town - £160,365
20. Wigan Athletic - £137,954
21. Crawley Town - £129,646
22. Northampton Town - £108,942
23. Exeter City - £99,801
24. Shrewsbury Town - £76,161

Why are agent fees paid out?

There are a number of reasons why clubs must pay agents, the most regular of which is when a transfer is completed. Just as players receive tidy signing-on fees, agents always negotiate a bonus for their involvement in the deal.

Then there are bonuses when new contracts are signed by players already at clubs. Paik Seung-ho’s new deal at Blues to see off interest from the likes of Sheffield United and Norwich City, for instance, will have earned his agent a pretty penny. Further payments can also be paid out in instalments when various clauses are activated.