Barcelona and Real Madrid top the rankings for the longest average contract duration of first team squad members. Six out of the eight top ranked clubs are still competing in European Cups. This illustrates the relationships between long-term planning and success. The 222nd edition of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the data for all big-5 league teams.

On average, a Barcelona first team squad member has 3.23 years of contract remaining. This figure is 3.59 for the 11 players who have been fielded the most in domestic league games so far this year. The longest average contract durations for the other big-5 leagues were measured for Tottenham, LOSC Lille, RB Leipzig and AS Rome.

At the opposite end of the table, the lowest figure overall was observed for the French side Amiens (0.99 years). In three clubs only, the average contract duration of the 11 most fielded players is below one year: Crotone, Benevento and Strasbourg. All the teams at the bottom of the rankings are confronted with the difficulty of renovating their squads without losing competitiveness.

Average length of contract remaining (years)

[A]: 11 most fielded players in domestic league since 01/01/2018 - [B]: All squad members

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CIES Football Observatory

Editors : Raffaele Poli, Roger Besson and Loïc Ravenel

Contact : football.observatory@cies.ch