The 469th CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post compares the transfer fees invested by clubs worldwide (including add-ons) between the summers 2023 and 2024. In both cases, the period taken into account runs from 1 June to the Monday of the last week of the transfer window (28 August in 2023 and 26 August in 2024).

Overall, the expenditure fell by 13%, from €8.18 billion to €7.08 billion. English Premier League clubs were once again the biggest spenders (€2.19 billion), although their investments were also down (-€270 million, -11%). The Saudi Pro League saw the biggest drop in both absolute (-€657 million) and relative terms (-75%).

In the other leagues of the European big-5, a decline was recorded so far in the German Bundesliga (-€160 million, -20%), while investment rose in Italy’s Serie A (+€130 million, +17%), with stable figures for both Spanish Liga and France’s Ligue 1. The biggest relative increase among the 20 most active leagues was in the Brasileirão (+87 million, +136%), mainly due to the arrival of foreign capital in club ownerships.

>>> Full data

Following the three CIES Football Observatory Summer Series reports on global football match calendar and player workload, our colleagues of the CIES Sports Intelligence have elaborated a very comprehensive (>50 pages) and highly informing study that we are happy to help disseminating.

CIES Sports Intelligence media release

‘Through a series of cases studies and analyses, the CIES Sports Intelligence report on the elite men’s football match calendar and player workload provides an empirical outlook on both current and historical trends related to these topics. Notwithstanding the importance of the international match calendar’s structure, the study underlines the prominent role of domestic bodies (i.e. leagues or national associations) as competition organisers, highlighting some of the differences that exist at individual country level.

Moreover, the report illustrates that, somewhat contrary to the current narrative within the football ecosystem, there is no consistent evidence of an increase in elite player workload since the turn of the century. In fact, the contrary appears to exist according to the research conducted by CIES Sports Intelligence. Highlights from the report include:

•⁠ Players – overall workload: With a total of 6,258 minutes (the equivalent of nearly 70 full matches) played between club and national team in 2012/2013, David Luiz holds the single season record across all players that competed in the top eight European divisions over the past 25 years. The two next highest values date back even further - to Frank Lampard and Roberto Carlos campaigns in 2006/2007 and 1999/2000 respectively. Bruno Fernandes (6th) is the only player in the top ten related to a season that does not precede 2013 at least. When extending the analysis to the top 50 players by total number of minutes per season, the overall trend has been on a decreasing trajectory for the past three seasons when compared to any three-year cycle since 1999/2000.

•⁠ Competition – calendar occupation: Domestic competitions have accounted for 94,2% of the distribution of football matches between the seasons 2012/13 and 2023/24.

•⁠ ⁠Competitions and clubs – Back-to-back matches: Taking a sample size from the top-five ranked European domestic leagues, during the 2023/2024 season, England was home to the highest number of domestic back-to-back matches (event of a club playing two domestic games within 72 hours from one another) involving top division clubs (with 87 instances). English Premier League clubs topped the ranking also in terms of the shortest average time (67.3 hours) between back-to-back matches.

•⁠ Clubs – International tours: After considering the total calendar days with no competitive football being played, Manchester United (52 friendlies), Manchester City (45 friendlies) and Real Madrid (45 friendlies) are the clubs that played the highest number of friendly matches outside of Europe between July 2010 and May 2024. League-wide, the English Premier League set a new record in 2023/2024 with an aggregate total of 42 ‘non-European’ friendlies played (and a total 308,212 kilometers travelled in the process – the third highest total since 2001/2002).

•⁠ Players – substitute data: With data taken from four European leagues (England, Germany, Italy and Spain), substitutes have been on the pitch for an aggregate average of 86,775 additional minutes per season since the permanent introduction of the five changes. This value represents a 51.1% increase compared to the total recorded during the last season with only three substitutions allowed.’

>>> Full report

The third report of the CIES Football Observatory Summer Series on Match Calendar and Player Workload focuses on the most in-demand footballers. It notably reveals that, over the last twelve years, more than three quarters of minutes played by most fielded footballers per season worldwide (>4,500 minutes) were played in national club competitions (76.3%).

This finding confirms for the most in-demand footballers the conclusion already drawn in the first report at the level of all players: national leagues, more than any other organiser, have a dominant role in structuring the football match calendar. This situation has changed little over time (see also the second report on clubs) and the changes made to the format of certain competitions will have only a minor impact.

Projections for 2024-2028 show indeed that, given recent trends in squad size, turnover and the use of five substitutions, the proportion of active footballers in the 40 leagues studied who will play more than 4,500 official game minutes per season (50 full matches) will be slightly lower than that observed between 2020 and 2024: 1.02% compared with 1.07%.

>>> Third report on most in-demand players

>>> Second report on clubs

>>> First report on organisers

The second report of the CIES Football Observatory Summer Series on Match Calendar and Player Workload analyses the trends in the number of official games played by clubs in 40 of the top leagues worldwide. The study notably reveals that the teams are not playing more matches per season, countering the popular belief of an ever more crowded match calendar.

Between 2012 and 2024, the average number of fixtures per club and season is stable at just over 40. Only about 5% of clubs play 60 or more games per season (not including friendlies). Looking further back to the 2000/01 season, the same finding holds true for the big-5 leagues’ representatives in the UEFA Champions League, with even a decrease in the overall number of official matches played during the last three seasons.

No significant change was observed in the proportion of clubs playing 60 or more matches neither. The values measured at global level for the last two seasons (3.7% for 2022/23 and 4.0% for 2023/24) are here too lower than the average recorded over the entire period. The study also project figures for the next four year-cycle, with national leagues continuing to play a dominant role in the organisation of matches.

>>> Full study

This first report of the CIES Football Observatory Summer Series on Match Calendar and Player Workload in men’s football analyses trends in the number of games and minutes per season played over the last twelve years by footballers from 40 of the top leagues worldwide, as well as their breakdown according to organisers and projections for the 2024-28 period.

National leagues have by far the greatest weight on the organisation of men’s world football. Between 2012 and 2024, they accounted for 82.2% of all matches played by footballers from the 40 leagues surveyed. The second largest organiser, national associations, accounted for 10.2% of matches, while confederations come third with 6.7%, ahead of FIFA with 0.9%.

The main change over the last twelve seasons is the relative strengthening of the confederations, mainly to the detriment of associations. However, no weakening of the national leagues’ clear-cut leadership in the men’s football match calendar was observed. The latter accounted for more than 80% of the minutes played by footballers in the 40 leagues studied during all the seasons surveyed.

According to the projections elaborated by taking new competition formats into account, footballers from the leagues investigated will on average play the same number of minutes and 1.4% more matches in all competitions combined (not including club friendlies) over the next four years compared to the last four. The non-increase in expected minutes is driven by factors such as the five substitutions rule and trends in squad sizes.

>>> Access the full report for free

The CIES Football Observatory is breaking new ground with four summer reports on the highly topical issue of the football calendar congestion and players workload. The studies will be published on a weekly basis from next week, and will focus on three key areas and actors within the global football calendar ecosystem.

• Week 1 (ending 12 July) – Competitions
• Week 2 (ending 19 July) – Clubs
• Week 3 (ending 26 July) – Players
• Week 4 (ending 2 August) – Final report and further insights

The reports will individually and together help to gain a better understanding of the trends observed over the last twelve years in terms of the number and frequency of matches played worldwide, both in absolute terms and according to the organisers (leagues, associations, confederations, FIFA, etc.), and also in terms of matches and minutes players appear throughout their seasons. They will also provide an analysis of the impact of planned changes to the format of certain competitions (continental club competitions, FIFA Club World Cup, etc.), amongst other datapoints and insights.

Other new features are already available on the CIES Football Observatory website, including improved versions of the Transfer Value Tool and the Demographic Atlas, not to mention the other tools exclusively developed, such as the Migration Atlas and the Performance Stats Tool.