It’s well known how the ‘big five’ leagues dominate transfer windows in spending, 24/25 was no exception. What’s more interesting is the fact that in the last five years, 24/25 summer was the first instance when all of the five leagues ended up in a negative net balance where historically, French Ligue 1 and German Bundesliga have been mostly on the net positive end. Our earlier blog covered the transfer spends by the five leagues
If the big five league clubs are spending, then who’s earning? In this blog we take a look at some clubs from three lesser-discussed leagues who have been gaining in these transfer windows and also clubs from these leagues have documented themselves as an important cog in the multi-club ownership (MCO) wheel
The Leagues
The Dutch Eredivisie, Belgian Jupiler Pro League and Liga Portugal are the three leagues which has been consistently. On a broad outlay, these three leagues have aggregated €551mn of positive net transfer balance in 2024/25 summer window itself. This is the third consecutive summer window where clubs from these three leagues have had accumulated such tremendous net positive transfer balances
- 22/23: €526.9mn cumulative
- 23/24: €229.9 cumulative
- 24/25: €551.1 cumulative
However, on a deeper look, it’s a handful of clubs who are the big players in the player sales department in 24/25 window. In Dutch Eredivisie, three clubs, Ajax, Feyenoord and AZ Alkmaar contributed 70% of the player sales income. Similarly, in Portuguese top division, the responsibility lies with four clubs, Benfica, SC Braga, Famalicao and FC Porto who cumulatively are responsible for 73% of player sales income. However, in the Belgian top league eight clubs share the honours and the sales income is spread more evenly
Player Sales as Income
Benfica, Porto and Sporting have collected over €1bn in income from player sales in the last 5 years. Similarly, PSV, AZ Alkmaar, and Feyenoord collectively amassed approximately €480mn from player sales over the same period. And so is the situation with Belgian top league. These countries have the ecosystem to develop some of Europe’s finest talents and who usually will end up in either of the big five leagues and now Saudi Pro League. Historically, it has been these three leagues who have been the breeding ground who have gone on to become legends and thus, transfer as a source of income is at the centre of their football business
Foreign Investments and MCO’s Calling
It’s not a surprise that multi-club ownership network is eager to establish a presence in one or more of these three countries as a source or developmental ground for their players. Like other countries, private capital came calling first followed by the MCO’s. According to the CIES Sports Intelligence Report, as of 23/24, as much as 42% of the clubs belonging to the combined top two divisions of The Netherlands, Belgium and Portugal had foreign investment and 37% clubs were a part of a MCO network
The fact that regulatory framework to facilitate foreign investments is relatively easy in these countries also helped to a certain extent. Maximum spread of foreign investment and MCO network is in the top two divisions of Belgium followed by Portugal and Netherlands
Expected to Continue
The momentum of transfers from these leagues is expected to continue in the future. With the deep penetration of the MCO networks and each having their customized player developmental program, it’s only going to boost the transfer business further
One can only hope that this leads to a deeper development of the football industry right down to the grassroots level in these countries
