The CIES Football Observatory is comprised of five people : three researchers (Drs Raffaele Poli, Roger Besson and Loïc Ravenel), a business analyst (Arnaud Bertrand), and a collaborator responsible for the gathering of data (Andrea Pessina). The Observatory also benefits from the support of the staff of the Centre International d’Etude du Sport (CIES), an education and research centre to which it belongs.

Our mission is to advance the frontiers of knowledge for the sustainable development of football worldwide.

Since its creation in 2005, the CIES Football Observatory research group has become a reference point in the demographic and economic study of the football players’ labour and transfer markets, the analysis of the clubs’ and players’ performance (technical, tactical, physical), as well as the scientific estimation of transfer values.

The CIES Football Observatory is regularly mandated by key governing bodies, many of the most reknown clubs worldwide, as well as investors, owners, agents, lawyers and sponsors. Mandates for other sports are also carried out through the wider remit of the CIES Sports Observatory.

The CIES Football Observatory enjoys considerable success and a rapidly growing reputation. More than 34k subscribers receive our weekly newsletters. The website records several hundred thousand visits per year. The group is also present on the main social media : X, Instagram, Facebook, Threads and BlueSky for a total of >160k followers.