Mawhinney calls on FA to regulate agents

That represents almost a third of the money earned by the Football League in its annual £25m television deal, and Lord Mawhinney admitted that there was a "lot of strong feeling, a lot of unified feeling amongst the clubs that a regulatory framework is required".

Of the 72 clubs, Leeds United were the single biggest payers with a bill of £1.89m, the largest portion of which is understood to have involved the move of Mark Viduka to Middlesbrough. Leicester City, whose total of £611,325 was the second-highest, are also understood to have paid out the most to get rid of players on big contracts regarded as unsustainable outside the Premiership.

Lord Mawhinney described the issue of agents as a "serious niggle" in football and called upon the Football Association to take action to police the industry. "The introduction of this much-needed framework is currently being hindered by a lack of consensus on the issue across English football as a whole," he said.

"That is because a number of Premier League clubs don't want to have the sort of regulation the FA has in draft form. We do, they don't. I have written to the FA and made it clear that our clubs want regulation."

Only Crewe Alexandra, whose manager Dario Gradi takes a special interest in transfer activity, did not pay a licensed agent in the past 12 months. But Championship clubs' payments totalled more than £6.8m, with 17 clubs other than Leeds paying six-figure sums. League One clubs paid a total of £595,870 with Hull City the biggest payers of £97,000 to agents. League Two clubs paid total of £325,020. Lord Mawhinney said "too much money" was leaving the game through payments to agents.

Championship payments to agents: Brighton (44 transactions, £45,595 paid); Burnley (35, £211,000); Cardiff (32, £157,500); Coventry (54, £75,000); Crewe (34, £0); Derby (37, £270,500); Gillingham (21, £32,000); Ipswich (35, £155,000); Leeds (69, £1,896,688); Leicester (51, £611,325); Millwall (34, £140,000); Nottingham (42, £282,000); Plymouth (33, £153,000); Preston (38, £296,500); QPR (57, £320,935); Reading (27, £271,450); Rotherham (20, £47,166); Sheffield United (44, £315,000); Stoke (34, £295,000); Sunderland (25, £329,860); Watford (37, £9,500); West Ham (34, £277,319); Wigan (18, £210,000); Wolverhampton (33, £432,625).

Division total: 888, £6,834,963.