Lausanne (AFP)

The 80 clubs this season in the UEFA Champions League and Europa League group stage accounted for 58% of transfers this summer, according to a UEFA study released on Thursday.

These 32 clubs in the Champions League and 48 in the Europa League have spent EUR 3.980 billion in transfers, an increase of 55% over the summer of 2018, reveals this study, which does not include in these figures commissions paid to agents .

These same clubs have at the same time harvested EUR 3.72 billion thanks to transfers.

These 80 clubs have cumulative revenues of EUR 11.7 billion for a profit of EUR 193 million. The money paid by UEFA to the clubs participating in the European Cups can represent for some clubs a very important part of their income, sometimes exceeding the 50% mark.

This season, the clubs involved in the Champions League and Europa League will share an estimated EUR 0.6 billion and EUR 1.9 billion respectively.

In the transfer market, attackers and defenders were the most coveted players, accounting for 70% of all transfers.

One of the trends highlighted by this study is the bet made on youth, players aged 21 to 24 representing almost half of the transfers (47%). Only 7% of transfers involved players over 28 years old.

Of the 80 clubs surveyed, 43% made the largest purchase in their history.

Overall, during the last transfer window, all European clubs spent 29% more than the previous summer and 19% more than in 2017.

If the participation of a club in a European Cup can be fundamental for its balance as sporting as financial, this participation is never guaranteed, 34% of the clubs having qualified during the last match of their national competition.

- Spain exceeds one billion -

A separate study released by FIFA on the same day and covering transfers in the five major European leagues (Germany, England, Spain, France and Italy) reveals that Spain has become the second major league, after England, with having passed the threshold of one billion dollars of transfers during a single transfer window, that of summer 2019 (from June 1 to September).

Thus, the Spanish clubs spent a total of 1.17 billion dollars (1.06 billion euros) in transfers during the summer against 1.35 billion dollars for England (1.22 billion euros) which remains the championship the most expensive despite a decline in purchases of 7.5% over one year.

Italy ranks third with $ 701 million in expenditures (€ 635 million) ahead of Germany and France.

In total, the five major leagues accounted for 75.7% of total transfer expenditures worldwide, or $ 4.38 billion (€ 3.9 billion).

France is the leading talent exporter of the five major leagues, with 359 international transfers totaling USD 876 million (EUR 793 million). Thanks to the export of its talents, France, at the same time international recruitments amounting to 571 M USD (516 M EUR), up 35.7%, is the only one of the five major championships to present a positive balance of transfers (+ EUR 277 million).

The FIFA study uses data from the ITMS database, which lists transfers to 211 member federations and covers 8000 professional clubs worldwide.

© 2019 AFP