The total spending on club agent service fees in men’s professional football reached USD 709.6 million, less than the USD 889.5 million spent in 2023, according to FIFA’s Football Agents Report 2024.

Despite the 20.2% decrease compared to the record set in 2023, the figure represents the second-highest-ever total for a full year. The number is also well above the previous milestone from 2019 (USD 654.7 million).

In large part, the European dominance in spending can be attributed to clubs from England, which were the top spenders by large, with a combined total of more than USD 193 million. Italian clubs represented the second-biggest spending on engaging-club agents with USD 66.4 million. The Netherlands had the highest share of incoming transfers that involved an engaging-club agent, with 46.7%, whereas Serbia had the greatest share of outgoing transfers with a releasing-club agent, with 30.3%.

In 2024, club agents were involved in a total of 2,185 international transfers, a new record and an increase of 6.7% compared to 2023. There were a total of 3,105 international transfers with an agent acting on behalf of the player in 2024. This corresponds to 13.7% of all transfers and is a decrease of 7.6% compared to 2023. In women’s professional football, for the second time ever, clubs spent more than USD 1 million for the services of club agents, with a total outlay of just under USD 3.1 million. This figure is more than six times the level of 2020 and more than 2.2 times as high as in 2023 (USD 1.4 million).

During the period covered by this report (1 January to 5 December 2024), FIFA received 19,827 licensing applications to become football agents. Out of the total number of exam applicants, 10,887 took the exam on one of the two exam dates and 40.4% passed the exam. During the licence application process, FIFA opened 1,606 investigations regarding a potential failure to comply with the eligibility requirements, where, in some cases, several individuals were prevented to take the exam for having provided football agent services without a licence. FIFA has a dedicated football agent-related section on its website where all the relevant information and documentation are published, including more detailed information about transfer data on football agents within the international transfer system.