The football transfer market caused $ 48.5 billion (EUR 41.1 billion) in spending between 2011 and 2020, according to an International Federation (Fifa) report released on Monday, which also points to the growing share of agents. .
According to the mega data analyzed over the period 2011-2020, thanks to the system developed by Fifa, TMS (Fifa Transfer matching system), launched in October 2010, the transfer window experienced constant growth until 2019, before the Covid crisis also hits this activity.
PSG fourth most spending club
From 2.85 billion dollars (2.41 billion EUR) in the first year of TMS monitoring (2011), the sum rose to 7.35 billion (6.22 billion EUR) in 2019, before a decline by 23% in 2020 (5.63 billion dollars, 4.77 billion EUR) because of the coronavirus pandemic.
According to this study, the 30 most spending clubs are all European.
Among them, twelve play in the English Premier League, five in Spain and five in Italy, three in Germany, two in France and two in Portugal, one in Russia.
These 30 clubs alone account for 47% of the total worldwide amount of transfer spending over the period.
The biggest spending club of the decade is Manchester City (the report does not give any figures), ahead of Chelsea and FC Barcelona.
Paris Saint-Germain is 4th.
In the other direction, the two clubs which have received the most money for transfers are Portuguese, Benfica and Sporting.
Monaco, the first French club in the ranking of best sellers, is 8th, ahead of Lyon 14th, Lille 16th and PSG 18th.
This report also makes it possible to identify the explosion in agent commissions.
While the total amount paid to intermediaries was $ 131.1 million (EUR 111.1 million) in 2011, it was 640.5 million (EUR 542.8 million) in 2019, a “spectacular” increase, according to Fifa.
TMS (Fifa Transfer matching system) is a computer register of all transfers of professional players for 200 federations around the world. It now supports all types of transfers, including those of women, amateur players and young people.