Football: International transfer spending drops by almost US$1.9 billion during pandemic
Manchester City's Ruben Dias shouts during the English Premier League match between Leeds United and Manchester City on Oct 3, 2020. (Photo: AP/Jason Cairnduff, Pool)
GENEVA: Football clubs spent nearly US$1.9 billion less on international player transfers during the European summer trading window compared to last year, according to FIFA research published on Friday (Oct 9).
Disruption to the football industry from the COVID-19 pandemic extended trading by five weeks into October and also took billions of dollars out of the market from lost revenue in broadcasting deals and tickets sales.
FIFA’s transfer monitoring system recorded US$3.92 billion in spending on players moving between clubs in different countries.
Sales were US$5.8 billion in the shorter summer window in 2019.
Clubs have been obliged since 2010 to share financial details of cross-border player moves with the FIFA platform.
This was also intended to help clean up the often murky transfer market.
European clubs were overwhelmingly the biggest spenders - paying US$3.78 billion - with English clubs spending the most at US$1.25 billion in the market which closed on Monday (Oct 5).
Italian clubs spent US$544 million on buying players from abroad.
The money circulating showed European clubs also received US$3.5 billion in transfer fees.
Spanish clubs took in US$672 million, Italian clubs US$484 million and US$396 million went to England.
FIFA’s figures offer only a partial picture as they do not include transfer deals between clubs in the same country.
Still, there is a strong trend of money flowing from Europe to South America.
FIFA’s report details South American clubs receiving US$295 million from international transfers and spending only US$25 million.
Asian confederation clubs spent US$87 million and received US$62 million.
The volume of transfers also trended down from more than 9,000 international deals one year ago to 7,424 in the latest summer window.
The number of deals involving a fee fell by almost 25 per cent, to a total of 1,222.
FIFA counted four categories of international transfers: permanent deals, free agent signings, loans out and players returning from loans.
