Revealing figures show Leeds United's agent fee spending compared to Sunderland, Leicester City and others

Leeds United spent more than £13million on agent’s fees in the two transfer windows since returning to the Championship - the highest of all teams in the second-tier. Leeds spent a total of £13,287,748 on fees payable to agents between February 1, 2023 and February 1, 2024, according to new data published by the FA. It is only a slight decrease on their total of over £15m from the previous year, during which they were relegated from the Premier League.

The most recent total places Leeds as the biggest spenders in the entire Championship when it comes to agent’s fees, with fellow relegated teams Leicester City (£8,113,789) and Southampton (£7,537,386) predictably making up the top three. Daniel Farke’s side have also spent more than nine current Premier League teams during the period.

Some Championship teams on smaller budgets have seen their totals dwarfed by the £13m-plus spent by Leeds. all of Blackburn Rovers, Bristol City, Millwall, Plymouth Argyle, Rotherham and Sheffield Wednesday spending less than £1m on agent’s fees over the reported 12-month spell.

A breakdown of the transactions shows that Leeds paid money to three separate intermediaries for the loan to Djed Spence from Tottenham, with the full-back unable to make a significant impact at Elland Road before Farke decided to cut his spell short in January. Fees were also paid to the agent’s of Joe Rodon, Jaidon Anthony and Connor Roberts.

The club also paid money to intermediaries when transferring out the likes of Tyler Roberts, Alfie McCalmont and Mateusz Bogusz. A number of young Whites, including Archie Gray, Charlie Cresswell, Kris Moore and Mateo Joseph saw their respective contracts updated.

Leeds confirmed earlier this week that they had an operating loss of £33.7m last season, with a portion of that being down to the above payments. Player-related transactions, including agent’s fees, are factored into the club’s adherence to profitability and sustainability rules (PSR). The club are not in any immediate danger of breaching PSR, as has been seen at other clubs, but football finance expert Kieran Maguire told the YEP that failure to achieve promotion could present some challenges.

Leeds are currently a point behind both Leicester City and Ipswich Town in the automatic promotion places with four games of the regular season remaining. The Whites host Blackburn Rovers at Elland Road on Saturday.