Gillingham were among the top spenders on football agent fees in League 2 during the last year.
Over a 12-month period up to February 2025, at the end of the last transfer window, the Gills had spent £235,529 on football agents’ fees.
Only two teams paid out more in the division, with Fleetwood Town (£284k) and current league leaders Port Vale (£262k) topping the expense charts.
There was a total spending of £2.7m on agent fees by clubs in the division. At the bottom end, Accrington and Bromley both spent less than £30k each.
Figures are released annually through the Football Association. The FA note that payments included in the figures may have been made in relation to transactions that were entered into before the first date of the reporting period.
As a result, the total payment figure per club will not necessarily relate directly to those transactions listed involve a football agent registered in England for the same period.
The FA list football agent transactions throughout the reporting period, which include payments made for extending the contracts of Ethan Coleman and Sam Gale – whose agent is former Gills player Luke Rooney – and a deal for Harry Webster.
Coleman signed a new contract in September, a deal which runs until 2027.
Other transactions came following last summer’s signings of Aaron Rowe, Armani Little, Bradley Dack, Elliott Nevitt, Jack Nolan, Marcus Wyllie and Nelson Khumbeni.
Gillingham’s spending is in sharp contrast to their previous stance on agent fees under former chairman Paul Scally.
In April 2021, the fees released saw the Gills being the only club in the Football League to have not paid any fees to FA-registered agents.
The latest figures highlight the substantial investment being made at the club, with their latest reported finances stating a huge increase in wages, up by around £2m to £5.8m. The report for the year up to June 30, 2024 revealed that chairman Brad Galinson had loaned the club £2.2m and additionally pumped in a non-repayable £1.3m donation.
Agent fees paid by the clubs in the Football League comes to over £70m, but unsurprisingly, the Premier League sides spend huge sums in comparison, with the yearly figure standing at £409m.
Chelsea spent a staggering £60m on agents’ fees while Manchester City shelled out £52m as the two top payers in the country.
In the Women’s game, Chelsea were also the top spending club, with a figure of £622,604 – more than double the amount of the next highest in the Super League.
The FA also announced fees paid by National League sides with Ebbsfleet United paying agents £12,229 and National South side Maidstone United spending £3,640.
Details of amounts paid are published under FIFA’s regulations on working with intermediaries, first introduced in 2015,
