BEVERLY HILLS, January 19, (THEWILL) – On Monday, FIFA published the 2020 edition of the FIFA Global Transfer Market Report. It is the world football governing body’s annual charts of transfers of professional men’s and women’s players from one club to another within the calendar year.
However, for the first time ever, the report also includes the transfers of non-professional footballers worldwide, who are referred to as “amateurs”. This has never been charted before and most of their transfers were unreported until they signed their professional contracts.
Now, thanks to changes to the FIFA Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players (RSTP) and updated enhancements to the Transfer Matching System (TMS), which were effected in July 2020, FIFA has also been able to process and facilitate transfers of amateurs into the TMS.
As a result of these modifications, FIFA was able to follow the mobility of amateurs in the window, on and off-season to be able to tell that during the first six months of implementation, no less than 17,382 amateur players switched clubs. Such information could have gone under the radar before without the implementation of the new TMS.
The rationale for keeping records carries significant implications for FIFA. The transfers of football players represent the largest movement of sports people across borders and that is important to keep track of. More importantly, however, it is also the largest of all sectors of economic or social activity for football.
In keeping track of the movements for the year, a total of 35,744 transfers across borders were recorded in 2020. Out of that total, 18,112 involved movements of professionals (men and women) plus another 17,632 involving amateurs.
In the men’s category, the immediate obvious indicator in the monitoring of these records is a slight decrease in professional men’s international transfers. In that metric, a total of 17,077 international transfers were completed. But, it represented a decrease of 5.4 per cent compared to 2019.
This is the first recorded decline in the global transfer market report for men since 2010. Even with the number of transfers in 2020 higher than they were in 2018, the decline was evident. The most obvious justification for the downward trend is the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic that led to financial difficulties for clubs across the globe.
Notwithstanding, the 17,077 transfers completed involved a record high of 4,178 clubs and 187 member associations, with 14,432 distinct players representing 180 different nationalities.
The records further indicate that women’s football continued grew from strength to strength in the same time period. The number of clubs involved in international transfers rose from 276 (in 2019) to 349, a 26.4 per cent jump.
FIFA has gone to great lengths to promote the development of the women’s game and have been forthright in seeking means to bring it up to par with the men’s. The uptick for 2020 reflects these impressive strides as more and more female football players are turning professional every year.
From the global transfer market report, a total of 1,035 international transfers were recorded in 2020, and just like in the number of clubs involved, this metric was an increase of 23.7 per cent compared to the previous year.
In the non-professional category, the first time transfers in the vast world of global amateur football were recorded in TMS, the results were impressive. As many as 10,465 clubs from 196 member associations were involved in the transfers of 17,382 amateur players (men and women) in 17,632 transfers. The records show that 246 players moved more than once in those six months involved in the calculation.
For each of these categories of professional men and women and the amateurs, the content of the Global Transfer Market Report 2020 is rich with the inclusion of data such as analysis on the players’ nationalities, ages, and movement between confederations and associations.
In the professional cadre, the report delves deeper to also provide further analysis in respect of employment contracts. It also presents the top performers at confederation, association and club levels and features a complete list of the number of transfers in each member association for each of the respective categories.
The data available in the report makes it possible to get player information as player mobility across football clubs can often be cumbersome to compute. The inclusion of other materials in the content of the report with the additional benefit of an analysis of their contracts make the FIFA report a goldmine for the coverage of football transfers.
The inclusion of the information relating to amateurs in the transfer market will also be beneficial to these up and coming players as much as to clubs tracking the progress of the non-professional players ahead of offering them professional contracts
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
