LONDON: Football League clubs spent less on agents’ fees last season – with seven teams spending nothing at all.

Agents received a total of £21.5m from clubs during 2012-13, £170,000 down on the previous campaign according to a Football League report.

Blackburn paid 3.5m to agents – the most among Championship clubs – but Blackpool did not pay them anything.

Promoted Bournemouth (£688,666) and Rotherham (£106,383) headed the lists for Leagues One and Two.

Hartlepool United, Accrington Stanley, AFC Wimbledon, Morecambe, Barnet and Crewe Alexandra were the other six clubs to avoid any outlay on agents’ fees, while 24 other clubs spent less than £25,000 each.

Financial Fair Play regulations could see a further overall reduction this season and Football League chairman Greg Clarke has urged teams to continue cutting their cloth accordingly.

“Again, this is a considerable amount of money to be leaving the game,” said Clarke. “However, the real challenge is to ensure that such payments are part of a sustainable financial model with clubs only spending what they can afford.

“In conjunction with clubs, we’re making real progress towards this goal and now have all three divisions operating Financial Fair Play regulations.”

Championship clubs accounted for £18.6m of the £21.5m total, with League One and League Two clubs spending £2.2m and £0.7m respectively. Clubs committed to pay agents in 776 of the 3,746 player transactions that took place.

Top 10 spenders

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