South African football clubs spent almost R30m in transfer fees when bringing in international players in 2019, but how do they compare to the rest of Africa?
This week FIFA released the latest Global Transfer Market Report outlining the money that has been spent on international transfers over the past 12 months as the market continues to reach unprecedented levels of spending, and the Premier Soccer League was most definitely involved.
In 2019, clubs around the world completed a total of 18,042 international transfers – a 9.1% increase from the previous year – and a 'year-on-year increase recorded since the use of the International Transfer Matching System became mandatory in 2010'
From a local perspective, South African clubs spent $2m (around R28.6m) on international transfers in 2019, a figure that puts them third behind Egypt and Tunisia in terms of Africa, however the Egyptians' outgoings of $33.7m (about R483m) dwarves Mzansi's number in comparison.
Meanwhile, outgoing transfers from South Africa were up 40% in 2019 compared to 2018 for South Africa as 105 players moved on, but the value of outgoing transfers dropped 60.2% with receipts of $3.4m (around R48.7m) placing them seventh in Africa behind the likes of Egypt ($17.5m/R250m), Mali ($11m/R157m) and others.
South Africa was ranked 11th in terms of net value (total receipts minus total spending on transfers) regarding their international transfers with a $1.4m, profit, although they're some way behind Mali (who were top with $11m/R157m of profit). Egypt, however, were bottom with regards to net value as they recorded a collective $16.2m (around R232m) loss.
Across the continent, only five African nations brought in more global transfers than South Africa (70) in 2019, with Tunisia (136) involved in the most, and in total 26 South African clubs were involved in international transfers in 2019 in SA, less than half of Egypt (55), a figure that is down 18.8% compared to last year's number of clubs involved in international transfers.
