Leeds, Owls and Millers lower outlay to agents

Leeds were one of just three Yorkshire clubs who lowered this expenditure in 2013-14 from the previous campaign, with the others being Sheffield Wednesday and Rotherham United.

While statistics revealed that Football League clubs committed a total of £17.7m to agents in the last campaign, a reduction of 18 per cent on the previous year (£21.5m), six White Rose sides – Barnsley, Doncaster Rovers, Huddersfield Town, Middlesbrough, Bradford City and Sheffield United – handed out more in 2013-14.

Leeds spent £597,901 on agents’ fees last season, compared with the figure of £1,283,234 in 2012-13 under Neil Warnock when several players from top-flight clubs joined, including Steve Morison, Stephen Warnock and Paddy Kenny along with Lee Peltier, Rodolph Austin and Luke Varney.

Rotherham recorded a considerable drop to £53,710 in their successful promotion campaign from League One last term, after spending £106,383 in 2012-13 when they were in League Two.

The Owls’ outlay of £343,463 was down from £487,800.

Huddersfield’s 2013-14 figure of £676,639, compared with £459,670 the previous season, was the highest among Yorkshire’s Football League clubs.

Bradford City more than doubled their outlay on agents’ fees after promotion to £157,680 – from the figure of £62,026 in 2012-13.

The highest Championship spenders were QPR (£1,814,550).Blackpool spent just £10,000.

The outlay of £571,350 by Wolves chiefly accounted for the four per cent increase in the League One figures to £2,348,440 with League Two expenditure falling 12 per cent to £594,494.

Football League chief executive, Shaun Harvey said: “The 2013-14 campaign was the first season against which sanctions will be applied in all three of our divisions under the Football League’s Financial Fair Play rules.

“It is therefore notable that we have seen a significant fall in payments to agents.

“Hopefully, this is a sign they are having a positive effect, but it’s too early to know for definite at this stage.”