Global Football Transfer Spending Breaks $4bn Barrier

According to figures revealed by a subsidiary of world football’s governing body Fifa Transfer Matching System (TMS), the value of the international players transfer market has broken through the $4bn (€3.2bn) mark for the first time to reach a new high of $4.06bn in 2014.

Payments to agents acting on behalf of clubs have risen on average 27% year on year since 2011, when the total stood at $131m.

The publication showed that transfer activity in the last year also increased, with the number of transactions up from 12,309 transfers in 2013 to a new high of 13,090 in the last 12 months.

 English clubs spent $87m on agents’ fees for international transfers in 2014, a $12m increase on 2013 while the second biggest spender, Spain, bought players for a total of $700m and the third, Germany, for $327m.

The 2014 report also identified a so-called “World Cup effect” where the value of transfers involving players of countries who overachieved increased. Transfers featuring Costa Rica players, for example, reached $10m in 2014 compared with $1m the year before.

The TMS became mandatory on October 1, 2010, and oversees cross-border moves in a bid to clamp down on money laundering and corrupt deals. Therefore its findings do not include domestic transfers.