January 26 – FIFA’s new Global Transfer Report “with all-time record-setting” numbers has unsurprisingly revealed the dominance and power of the English top flight in the market. The 2022 outlay on player transfers stood at $6.5 billion, still below the pre-covid 2019 record of $7.35 billion.
The world federation highlighted an all-time record number of transfers of 71,002 across both the professional and the amateur game as well as a 19% growth of international transfers in the women’s game.
FIFA Chief Legal and Compliance officer Emilio Garcia Silvero said: “The two-year negative trend in clubs’ spending on transfer fees was turned around in 2022, with last year’s total outlay reaching $6.5 billion, an increase of 33.5% compared to 2021, yet still below the all-time high of 2019.”
FIFA noted that “the top ten player transfers alone generated 12.5% of the entire amount that was spent on transfer fees in 2022. Similarly, of the 2,843 transfers that included fees, the top 100 were responsible for almost 50% of all money spent on transfer fees, with English clubs once again topping the list.”
In 2022, there was no looking past the spending power of the Premier League, breaching the $2 billion mark for the first time.
That outlay paints a picture of the English Premier League as a Super League in its own right, but all the spending had a redistributive effect with the top six country-to-country transfer routes all to England.
The most lucrative market was the sale of France-based players to England. Six out of the top ten biggest transfers were UK-bound, with Darwin Nunez to Liverpool, Casemiro and Anthony to Manchester United and Erling Haaland to Manchester City among those big movers.
Manchester United emerged as the biggest spenders in 2022 and seven clubs in the top ten hailed from the Premier League, with Leeds United in 10th spot.
On the women’s side of the game, there was increased activity as well, but the outlay remains marginal compared to the men’s game with a total spent of just $3.3 million.
Silvero said: “All of this reflects the impressive strides being taken as more and more female players continue to turn professional. Some 1,555 international transfers were recorded in 2022, an increase of 19.3% compared to the previous year, while a new high of 119 associations were involved in international transfers.”
To see the full report click here.
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