Football clubs spent $500.8m in fees to agents in 2020 FIFA said in a report published on Wednesday

To optimise for archiving, the original image and related documents associated with this article have been removed.

Fees paid for the services of club intermediaries amounted to $500.8m in 2021, according to the Intermediaries in International Transfers report published by FIFA yesterday (15 December 2021).

A total of 17,945 international transfers of male professional players were completed in the Transfer Matching System (TMS) in 2021. Of these, 3,545 (19.8%) involved at least one intermediary.

European clubs accounted for 95.8% of the USD 500.8m spent on intermediary service fees, with clubs from;

  • England (USD 133.3m),
  • Germany (USD 84.3m),
  • Italy (USD 73.5m),
  • Spain (USD 34.8m),
  • France (USD 30.3m) and
  • Portugal (USD 29.3m)

alone responsible for 77.0% of the total sum worldwide.

FIFA said that club spending on transfer fees shrank for the second year in a row, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, but that "this decrease did not carry over to spending on intermediary service fees, which remained on the same level as in 2020 and even slightly increased by 0.7per cent."

1,287 international transfers of female professional players

The report revealed that 1,287 international transfers of female professional players were completed in TMS, 300 of which (23.3%) involved at least one intermediary.

The number of transfers with engaging-club intermediaries in women’s football increased by 12.9% in 2021 (70) compared to 2020 (62), with England (16) and Germany (14) the most active FIFA member associations in this category.

Transfer system reform

The FIFA report comes as world soccer's governing body is seeking to alter regulations for football agents. A third draft of the changes has been distributed and is out for consultation - it includes an exam and licence scheme and caps on payments which would also have to go through the FIFA Clearing House system.

Agents' fees would be capped at 10 per cent of all transfer-related payments and 3 per cent of a player’s salary for services to a player. The new plan is for the 10 per cent cap to affect all transfer-related payments to agents and a cap of 3 per cent of a player’s salary for services to that player.

National associations will be able to bring in even stricter rules and caps if they wish. FIFA said “excessive and abusive” practices by agents included one international transfer from a French to a German club this year in which the agent received 112 per cent of the transfer fee.

The proposals have been criticised by a number of prominent agents but are set to be put to FIFA's ruling council for approval in the first half of 2022.

Please click here to view FIFA's statement. 

You may also like

View All

Enhanced Games sues World Aquatics, WADA and USA Swimming for $800m

The privately funded 2026 Enhanced Games set to take place in Las Vegas allows athletes to use performance enhancing substances without being subject to drug tests. It is now suing World Aquatics, the World Anti-Doping Agency and USA Swimming for $800m after accusing them of orchestrating an unlawful effort to discourage athletes from participating

Read More

Serena Williams latest sportsperson to promote GLP-1 weight loss medication, fuelling criticism

23-time Grand Slam tennis champion Serena Williams is the latest sportsperson to promote weight loss medication like Ozempic, fuelling criticism over possibly encouraging toxic beauty standards, discouraging healthy habits, and the fact that she has affiliated herself with drugs that the World Anti-Doping Agency added to its monitored substances list

Read More

UKAD employs an all-female team of Doping Control Personnel for the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025

UKAD has employed an all-female team of Doping Control Personnel for World Rugby to assist with the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025. The tournament also features the largest cohort of female coaches in the event’s history

Read More