Football’s Secret Tradeexposes how investors have taken control of the transfer market away from clubs and how this has impacted every aspect of the sport. Written by two well-known investigative journalists in sports finance, this book reveals how clubs are speculating on the transfer market instead of spending money on academies to develop their own players — and how it is the investors, not the clubs, who are benefitting from the market. You’ll learn how deals involving stars like Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar and James Rodriguez have made a select few even richer, and why the millions of dollars fans spend on replica shirts, pay-per-view subscriptions and match tickets every year is fortifying offshore bank accounts instead of supporting the sport.
The global financial crisis sent investor fortunes tumbling, but a few found safe haven in an unexpected place — the football transfer market. This book shares the details of how the money moves behind the scenes, how annual player trading began outperforming the FTSE and how FIFA lost control of it all.
While stocks plunged and traditional investments became liabilities, oligarchs and sheiks tapped their fortunes to profit from Europe’s Champions League. Since 1995, it has become much more profitable to invest your money in a star player rather than British Petroleum or Burberry Group, with player trading in Europe alone increasing more than seven-fold to ＄4 billion per year.Football’s Secret Trade shows you how it happened, who the players are and where the money ultimately goes.
