The Independent Football Regulator (IFR) David Kogan has criticised the ridiculous amounts of money that Newcastle United and other clubs are spending on agents’ fees.
The IFR declaring that he would rather the money went to the players instead.
The 2025-26 season saw English clubs (Premier League, English Football League and National League) pay agents a combined £547.8million. This represented a 13 per cent increase on the £483.6million that the clubs spent the season before.
When you factor in that 94 per cent of these same clubs in England lost money last season, the £547.8million they paid to agents in 2025-26 looks even worse.
Looking at just the top tier, the spending across the 2025-26 season was £460,300,308 by the 20 Premier League clubs, compared to the 2024-25 figure of £409,137,387, so actually just over £51m more this time.
Newcastle United paid agents over £20million last (2025-26) season but that was only tenth highest amongst Premier League clubs.
Chelsea were top with a staggering £65m+ spent on agents fees across the 2025/26 season. Aston Villa second highest with £38m+. Then third Man City £37m, fourth place Liverpool £33m, Arsenal fifth with £32m.
Newcastle United (£20.2m) were also lower than Man U (£31m), Wolves (£25m) Tottenham (£21m) and Bournemouth (£20.8m).
(The previous 2024-25 season, the top five for agents’ fees were Chelsea £60m, Man City £52m, Man U £33m, Aston Villa £25m, Newcastle United £24m)
Newcastle United, with a spend on agents fees of £20,284,806 in 2025-26, compared to £24,366,737 the previous (2024-25) season. So United spending some £4.1m less in 2025-26 than in 2024-25.
The decision was made a while ago by the authorities that all agents’ fees paid by top English clubs had to be made public in the need for transparency. This club by club breakdown (see below) for the 2025-26 Premier League season covers the two transfer windows (Summer 2025 and January 2026) and also represents all other intermediary and agents’ fees paid by Premier League clubs during the specified period via the FA’s clearing account.
Remember, this is money paid to the middle men, that is not just necessarily when buying players, plenty of clubs using agents to help sell players as well. Agents fees also generated when players agree new contracts
Many people have claimed that the only way to make English football clubs more sustainable is to introduce a hard salary cap for players (which is common in North America sports).
However, The Independent Football Regular David Kogan is not convinced that limiting how much players can earn is the right solution.
Speaking on The Rest is Football podcast, David Kogan: “We are not in support of a salary cap and we certainly don’t have the power to implement one. One of the things that’s so interesting about all of this is people always ask me about a salary cap. What they don’t ask me about is agents’ fees. Agents’ fees are ridiculous. Over £500million. It’s half a billion pounds. Frankly, would I object to that money being spent on players rather than agents? Hell, I’d much prefer to see it being spent on players.”
The official FA amounts for agents’ fees for each club in this Premier League season – 2025-26. All intermediary and agents’ fees paid by Premier League clubs (Including the Summer 2025 and January 2026 transfer windows):
Football Agent Fees – 4th February 2025 to 2nd February 2026
| CLUB | NET TOTAL |
|---|---|
| AFC BOURNEMOUTH | £20,883,523 |
| ARSENAL | £32,149,359 |
| ASTON VILLA | £38,444,289 |
| BRENTFORD | £12,743,523 |
| BRIGHTON & HOVE ALBION | £19,520,800 |
| BURNLEY | £7,357,902 |
| CHELSEA | £65,102,247 |
| CRYSTAL PALACE | £16,848,734 |
| EVERTON | £9,990,374 |
| FULHAM | £11,434,784 |
| LEEDS UNITED | £13,990,935 |
| LIVERPOOL | £33,881,544 |
| MANCHESTER CITY | £37,358,301 |
| MANCHESTER UNITED | £31,777,462 |
| Newcastle United | £20,284,806 |
| NOTTINGHAM FOREST | £12,210,822 |
| SUNDERLAND | £10,627,772 |
| TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR | £21,384,701 |
| WEST HAM UNITED | £18,348,058 |
| WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS | £25,960,372 |
| TOTAL | £460,300,308 |
For Newcastle United, the progression on money paid to agents has been £10.7m (2022-23), £18.8m (2023-24), £24.3m (2024-25) and £20.2m in 2025-26. With so many transfers in and out of Newcastle United this past summer, as well as new contracts for (young and old) existing players, difficult to imagine that the 2026-27 NUFC pay out to agents is going to significantly reduce, more likely heading in the other direction.