Football clubs spent $500.8m in fees to agents in 2020 FIFA said in a report published on Wednesday


Football clubs spent $500.8m in fees to agents in 2020 FIFA said in a report published on Wednesday

Fees paid for the services of club intermediaries amounted to $500.8m in 2021, according to the Intermediaries in International Transfers report published by FIFA yesterday (15 December 2021).

A total of 17,945 international transfers of male professional players were completed in the Transfer Matching System (TMS) in 2021. Of these, 3,545 (19.8%) involved at least one intermediary.

European clubs accounted for 95.8% of the USD 500.8m spent on intermediary service fees, with clubs from;

  • England (USD 133.3m),
  • Germany (USD 84.3m),
  • Italy (USD 73.5m),
  • Spain (USD 34.8m),
  • France (USD 30.3m) and
  • Portugal (USD 29.3m)

alone responsible for 77.0% of the total sum worldwide.

FIFA said that club spending on transfer fees shrank for the second year in a row, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, but that "this decrease did not carry over to spending on intermediary service fees, which remained on the same level as in 2020 and even slightly increased by 0.7per cent."

1,287 international transfers of female professional players

The report revealed that 1,287 international transfers of female professional players were completed in TMS, 300 of which (23.3%) involved at least one intermediary.

The number of transfers with engaging-club intermediaries in women’s football increased by 12.9% in 2021 (70) compared to 2020 (62), with England (16) and Germany (14) the most active FIFA member associations in this category.

Transfer system reform

The FIFA report comes as world soccer's governing body is seeking to alter regulations for football agents. A third draft of the changes has been distributed and is out for consultation - it includes an exam and licence scheme and caps on payments which would also have to go through the FIFA Clearing House system.

Agents' fees would be capped at 10 per cent of all transfer-related payments and 3 per cent of a player’s salary for services to a player. The new plan is for the 10 per cent cap to affect all transfer-related payments to agents and a cap of 3 per cent of a player’s salary for services to that player.

National associations will be able to bring in even stricter rules and caps if they wish. FIFA said “excessive and abusive” practices by agents included one international transfer from a French to a German club this year in which the agent received 112 per cent of the transfer fee.

The proposals have been criticised by a number of prominent agents but are set to be put to FIFA's ruling council for approval in the first half of 2022.

Please click here to view FIFA's statement. 

You may also like

View All

Gjert Ingebrigtsen Convicted of Assaulting Daughter, Cleared of Abuse Allegations by Olympic Champion Son

Gjert Ingebrigtsen, father and former coach of Olympic champion runner Jakob Ingebrigtsen, has been found guilty of hitting his daughter, Ingrid, but has been acquitted of abusing Jakob

Read More

WTA and ITF highlight the seriousness behind sports betting-linked abuse

The Women’s Tennis Association and International Tennis Federation have highlighted the seriousness behind sports betting-linked abuse by publishing the first ever season-wide report focusing on social media abuse directed at players

Read More

Michael Johnson, former Olympic champion sprinter, cancels Grand Slam Track competition due to economic concerns

Michael Johnson, former Olympic champion sprinter, has expressed that due to economic concerns, he has cancelled the final meet of the Grand Slam Track, a global professional track league, that was due to take place in Los Angeles. However, organisers are confident that the league will return next year despite the sudden end to its 2025 inaugural season

Read More

Newsletter Signup

Please enter your email address below: