By the way...

Nine zeros

Dominic Solanke (left) joined Tottenham from Bournemouth for 64.3 million euros, while Archie Gray moved from Leeds United to Spurs for 41.25 million euros.

(Bild: AP)

"Krone Vorarlberg" author Harald Petermichl took a close look at the transfer window, which has already come to an end in many parts of Europe, for the latest edition of his column "Oh, by the way...". Or rather, FIFA, which has come up with something very special.

It is no longer news that every FIFA tournament has been touted as the best of all time for some time now, long before the first kick-off has even taken place. However, as World Cups (still) only take place every four years, the propaganda department of the registered association based in Zurich has to come up with something in between to document how great they are. And logically, it doesn't have to be about soccer at all, but about what FIFA really cares about, namely money, coal, cash, money, Marie, penunces or gravel. So it's only natural that, at the end of the summer transfer period, the extremely strong economic factor of soccer is presented by publishing statistics on the transfer sums for the summer of 2024.

FIFA is being creative again.

(Bild: FABRICE COFFRINI)

The double national budget
"International Transfer Snapshot" is the name of the publication, which shows the equivalent of 5.85 billion euros for the period from June 1 to September 2, which clubs around the world moved back and forth to persuade a total of 11,000 players to change clubs. On the one hand, this is not even that little and on the other, it is only a part of the omnipresent monetary madness, as talented footballers who live off their talent also receive salaries that are likely to be just above the legal minimum wage in some exclusive cases. But even the almost six billion, to put this into perspective, is more than twice as high as the current budget of the state of Vorarlberg.

The English as top dogs
As usual, the English Premier League takes the cake, with 1.45 billion spent according to FIFA and even smaller clubs such as Ipswich Town and AFC Bournemouth feeling compelled to spend more than 100 million on new players in three months to avoid looking like embarrassing paupers. It doesn't help that the previous year's figure was even higher at 6.37 billion, because that was the first time the Saudi Arabian league was heavily involved. A comparison with 2022, when the figure was an almost modest 4.3 billion, is more interesting. So it seems only a matter of time before a double-digit billion figure is announced for the first time, possibly after one of the next best tournaments of all time. You would have to be a hopeless romantic to seriously believe that a trend reversal away from soccer turbo-capitalism could set in at some point. But the main thing is that FIFA is happy.