As in many other areas, the pandemic has hit football hard and one of its most obvious short-term consequences has been to see how a summer window of signings has been closed very downward, which, since 2016, it had been maintaining an average increase of between 10 and 15%. Driblab, one of the most prestigious sports Big Data companies, has prepared a detailed report on the effective negative impact that covid has had on transfers. The clubs' sources of income have been drastically threatened. The revenue from broadcasts, the contribution of the sponsors and the sale of tickets and commercial income have fallen dramatically.
It is even more appreciated in the most important clubs, where sponsors have asked to renegotiate their contracts given the less exposure of their firms, for example. In that sense, the immediate thing was to see how it affected the market and it has been obvious. According to Driblab, clubs from the five major European leagues have reduced their signings by 33%, which in value terms is quantified in a 44% reduction. All this after the summer of 2019 had recorded historical highs with an increase of 20% in one year.
The summary of the last five seasons.
Driblab.
Not a transfer of more than 100 million, something that did not happen in the last five years, and that is that the average cost of transfers was reduced by 12%. Driblab also wonders about the duration of this state of recession and estimates that it could last from 12 to 24 months, depending on developments. Right now, Europe is immersed in the peak of the second wave of coronavirus and the consequences in football, as in everything, can be aggravated. Of the 5,500 million invested in transfers by the teams of the five major leagues last year, it has risen to 3,300 in 2020.
The collapse of LaLiga.
Our championship, according to the Driblab report, is the one that has suffered the most from the rigors of the impact of the coronavirus. Thus, both the signings and the cost of the same have suffered a marked decrease. If 1,300 million were spent in 2019, in the last window they barely exceeded 412. It is the biggest collapse of the five major leagues: a 69% decrease in spending from one year to the next and 48% less player movements in the Santander League. An interesting detail that Driblab looks at is that our championship increasingly looks to others to strengthen itself. 44% of the additions in the last window came from other championships. Last year it was 41%. The fee is increasing. In 2017, it was 32%. Meanwhile, another relevant data that speaks of the moderation and measure with which the Spanish teams have moved is that LaLiga's net investment in signings has given a positive balance of 64 million. This fact speaks of the control that is exercised.
The Premier continued to squander.
Regarding this last detail, the Premier is at the opposite end of the net investment with a negative of 941.5 million euros for a total expenditure of 1,400 million euros. The English league was the least affected in that it has only dropped 9% in spending compared to last year with an average value of 18.3 million per transfer. In Spain, the average purchase price has been 8.2 million to 8.1 in Italy; 7.9 in the Bundesliga and 5.8 in Ligue 1.
Serie A looks to Italy.
Italian teams preferred to look to their own market for reinforcement. 44.7% of their signings were made by players who were already playing in Serie A, while 16.8% were from one of the other four major leagues. The remaining 38.6% have come from other championships. In Spain, for example, only 24.8% of the signings were of players from the same league. In England, also 24%. In Italy, in addition, they have specialized in the transfer (paid) plus purchase. Thus, 23 of the 39 loans with a cost plus purchase registered on the specialized site Transfermarkt were in Serie A. Chiesa, for which Juventus has paid 10 million for the transfer to which it will add 44 more for the compulsory purchase. the greatest example of this.
The Bundesliga adjusts.
The German league has also exhibited austerity and very measured investments. As for net spending on transfers, it moves almost in balance. With a positive balance of 5.3 million What draws the attention of the Teutonic championship is how it continues to increase its average sale price. It has already reached a 7.7% increase since 2016. It is not surprising if we look at the sales of players like Werner and Havertz in the last year. Germany sells talent and others are coming from behind like Sancho, Haaland, Reyna… Next summer Bundesliga players will surely be in the top positions of the most expensive transfers.
France maintains the rate with transfers at zero cost.
Ligue 1 did not end, but it has tempered the effects, as far as possible. One of the keys has been to go to the players who finished the contract of players under 20 years of age. 46% of its incorporations have been like this. Ligue 1 has the lowest median sale price of the major leagues (6.2 million).