Exclusive CIES Football Observatory transfer market analysis
Issue number 213 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post analyses transactions carried out by big-5 league clubs during January’s transfer window. For the first time in history, the total estimated spending was over one billion euro. Transfer expenditure increased by 36% compared to the previous record figure measured in 2017. English Premier League investments accounted for 51% of transfer indemnities paid by big-5 league clubs as a whole.
Since 2010, Premier League teams always had negative balance sheets for operations carried out during winter windows. The net balance in 2018 was -€113 M despite the expensive transfers of
Philippe"> and Diego Costa from England to Spain. These signings mainly explain the record deficit observed for Spanish Liga teams: -€188 M. The estimated balance sheets for the three other major European championships were positive: +€4
8 M for the Italian Serie A, +€33 M for the German Bundesliga and +€14 M for the French Ligue 1.Once again, a high correlation (75%) was measured between values estimated through the exclusive CIES Football Observatory available here.
