The main exporters and importers in world football have been named

Research firm CIES Football Observatory has compiled some of the data on transfers in club football over the past decade. In particular, CIES found out what kind of income clubs representing a particular country receive from the sale of players in the domestic and foreign markets. The total for the decade is a mind-boggling amount of €75 billion. The most “home” football market, according to the study, is English. For clubs operating under the auspices of the Football Association of England (FA), income from foreign transfers does not reach 40%. Things are completely different in Portugal, where more than 91% of all sales go abroad. However, the CIES figures must be treated with caution, since the study only counts sales, and the inevitable purchases that accompany them are left out of brackets.

Research company CIES Football Observatory summarized some data on transfers in club football for a whole decade, namely what income clubs receive from the sale of players on the domestic and foreign markets. Not the top leagues of countries were evaluated separately, but in general all leagues operating under the auspices of one or another national federation. Data on transitions from 2014 to 2023 inclusive were taken into account. At the same time, CIES specialists did not seek to calculate the net balance of transfers. In fact, purchases of players are generally left outside the scope of the study, which may give the impression that over the course of ten years, global club football has somehow become fantastically rich: CIES estimated the total income of clubs from the sale of players at a “minimum” of €75 billion. In fact, mega-richness did not happen . After all, if someone receives money for a football player, then at the same time someone spends it on him.

The immediately striking conclusion of the study is that England is again the best when it comes to money. Over the past decade, English clubs received €13.879 billion from transfers.

This is significantly more than the one in second place. Italy (€9.866 billion). On the third place France (€8.072 billion), in fourth – Spain (€7.738 billion), closes the top five Germany (€7.006 billion). As you can see, the fifth national association lags behind the first by almost two times. Almost the same gulf lies between the same Germany and the sixth-place Portugal. The income of the latter’s clubs from transfers amounted to €3.923 billion. By the way, the top 20 of the rating also included Russia. It took 11th place with an indicator of €1.217 billion. And if the rating had not been global, but purely European, then RPL would have been in the top ten, since then there would have been no place in the table Brazilian And Argentinean championships. They occupy seventh and tenth places with figures of €2.927 billion and €1.883 billion, respectively.

As for the main topic of the study – the ratio of sales in the domestic and international markets, then England turns out to be the most homely, or something. English clubs make the lion’s share of sales on the domestic market. External accounts for only 36.6%. This figure is lower only in China (22%). But in general, besides England and China, only Italy (48%) and Mexico (44%) have less revenue from foreign markets than from domestic markets.

By comparison, in Portugal, almost all sales – 91.3% – are made abroad.

Close to the Portuguese figure in the Netherlands (8th place in the ranking) – of the €2.769 billion received by Dutch teams from transfers, 90% are of foreign origin. Not far behind Belgium (9th place in the ranking) – 86.7% of the €2.088 billion received came from abroad. In Russia, the share of foreign money in sales is 68.4%. Finally, in small leagues such as Austrianoccupying 14th place in the ranking with modest figures of €860 million, the share of sales abroad generally tends to 100% (the Austrian figure is a record – 97.2%).

As for which country the clubs receive the most money from, England is again in first place. Yes, as already mentioned, the British spent only 36.6% on foreign purchases, but in absolute terms this is a huge amount – €5.086 billion. It is not surprising that, say, Italian teams receive 20% of their transfer proceeds from England. In Germany this figure is even more convincing – 35%, in France – 32%, in Spain – 30%. The only markets in the top 10 where the British are not the main buyers are Brazil and Argentina. Brazilian clubs receive more money from Spain (15% versus 12% of English clubs), Argentine clubs from the USA and Italy (11% each, which is 1% more than from England).

Alexander Petrov