Scottish Premiership clubs splash out £6m on agents’ fees

Scottish Premiership clubs spent nearly £6 million on agents’ fees over the last two transfer windows, according to figures released by the Scottish FA.

Timothy Weah joined Celtic on loan from PSG in January. Picture: SNS

Scotland’s 12 top-flight teams spent a combined total of £5,928,992 on payments to intermediaries.

A total of £2,976,825 was paid to players’ intermediaries while club intermediaries pocketed a total sum of £2,952,167 (excluding VAT).

Champions Celtic were the biggest spenders, paying out over a fifth of the total on combined intermediaries – £1,710,373 – which was nearly double the amount spent by Rangers. Celtic brought in forward Odsonne Edouard on a permanent deal from French Ligue 1 side Paris Saint-Germain as well as striking loan deals for Filip Benkovic, Oliver Burke, Jeremy Toljan and Timothy Weah.

The Ibrox side spent £915,926 in Steven Gerrard’s first season in charge. The Ibrox club signed Jermain Defoe on loan from Bournemouth as well as sealing permanent deals for Borna Barisic, Connor Goldson, Eros Grezda, Nikola Katic, Glen Kamara and Kyle Lafferty among others.

Hibs were some way behind in third, paying out £107,250 to agents, while Aberdeen (£54,350) and Hearts (£49,602) spent the next highest amounts. The Tynecastle side brought in 20 players over the two windows while Hibs did permanent deals for Florian Kamberi, Stevie Mallan and Mark Milligan. Loan deals for Jamie Maclaren, Stephane Omeonga and Marc McNulty were also completed over the two windows.

Kilmarnock spent just under £27,000 while relegated Dundee spent just over £19,000 on intermediaries.

A total of £15,000 was spent by Livingston; St Johnstone paid out £9,230, Motherwell £6,575 and Hamilton £1,788 over the two windows.

St Mirren didn’t spend any money on intermediary fees, but Scottish Championship-winners Ross County spent £18,453 – a greater sum than nearly half of the top division.

Partick Thistle, who narrowly avoided relegation, spent £9,460 while Dundee United, who are in the Premiership play-offs, spent just shy of £5,200.

Falkirk, who were relegated to League One, spent more than £3,000 on agent fees.