Liverpool were the Premier League club worst hit by hidden foreign exchange (FX) fees during the summer transfer window, according to new data from borderless currency platform Glyde.
With English clubs spending more than £1.7bn on players from European leagues, the analysis found that ‘skimming’ by legacy FX brokers cost the top flight more than £22.5m between 16th June and 1st September.
The reigning Premier League champions lost more than £3.6m to hidden FX charges – more than any other Premier League side – according to the data.
Newly promoted Sunderland were the second-most affected, with losses for The Black Cats exceeding £2.2m as they leaned heavily on signings from top leagues in Europe outside of the UK, said Glyde.
The findings highlight how brokers add mark-ups to exchange rates, known as skimming or FX scalping, that can snowball into millions in hidden costs when applied to multi-million-pound transfers.
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Major signings littered the top 10 worst-affected deals, with Liverpool’s new Bundesliga arrivals Florian Wirtz (£1.5m) and Hugo Ekitike (£1m) resulting in a combined skim of more than £2.5m.
The club’s deadline day British record £125m signing of Alexander Isak has also reportedly seen nearly £1.7m skimmed off by FX systems.
Elsewhere, Benjamin Šeško’s move to Manchester United (£950k) and Nick Woltemade’s transfer to Newcastle (£897k) were also hit.
“Football transfers are negotiated down to the last detail, but what clubs don’t see is the hidden cost eating away at their budgets when they move money across borders,” said Ellis Taylor, CEO and co-founder of Glyde.
“The Isak transfer alone saw nearly £1.7m skimmed off by outdated FX systems. That is money that should be going into performance on the pitch, not lining the pockets of brokers.
“Glyde was set up to help SMEs by providing transparency and fair exchange, not to profit from them.
“What this data shows is that the same FX broker ‘dark arts’ hurting small businesses also scale up to affect organisations of every size, even mammoth football clubs.”
The FCA has criticised hidden FX mark-ups, but the FinTech’s data suggests that the practice is still widespread.
Transfers involving GBP are the hardest hit, with average hidden skims of 1.3%, compared with 0.9% for the Euro.
Premier League clubs hit with biggest FX losses:
| Ranking | Club | Skim% | Transfer fees (£) | Total skim (£) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liverpool | 0.013 | 279,500,000 | 3,633,500 |
| 2 | Sunderland | 0.013 | 169,600,000 | 2,204,800 |
| 3 | Arsenal | 0.013 | 127,500,000 | 1,657,500 |
| 4 | Chelsea | 0.013 | 120,500,000 | 1,566,500 |
| 5 | Tottenham | 0.013 | 111,300,000 | 1,446,900 |
| 6 | Man City | 0.013 | 110,300,000 | 1,433,900 |
| 7 | Nottm Forest | 0.013 | 104,950,000 | 1,364,350 |
| 8 | Newcastle | 0.013 | 103,300,000 | 1,342,900 |
| 9 | Man Utd | 0.013 | 91,900,000 | 1,194,700 |
| 10 | Wolves | 0.013 | 88,500,000 | 1,150,500 |