Mexico's soccer dominance outside of Europe is followed by Spain with 8,560 professional players, with England (5,582), Scotland (4,796) and Turkey (3,917) in second through fifth place. Russia, due to a FIFA ban, is only fifth in Europe despite having 3,633 professional players.
The AFC has 20,211 registered professional players, with Japan leading the way with 2,126, followed by Iran (1,800), Australia (1,597), China and India (1,506 each).
In China, there are only 1,586 professional players, or one professional player for every 889,000 people in terms of population, a ratio far lower than that of developed soccer countries.
However, it is worth noting that 71 of FIFA's 211 member associations have zero professional players. For example, Taiwan Province of China naturally has a figure of zero due to its lack of a professional league.
In South America, Argentina leads the way with 3,613 pros, followed by Brazil (2,123), and Chile (1,350), Colombia (1,163) and Ecuador (897).
In terms of the number of professional clubs, Mexico is in first place with 244, followed by Turkey (136) and Argentina (118). In Oceania, New Zealand (963 professional players) and Fiji (307) are the only two countries with professional clubs.
In recent years, the competitiveness and attendance of the Mexican league has increased significantly.
In Europe, excluding Turkey, Italy (98), England (92), Scotland (77) and Germany (56) have the second to fourth highest number of professional clubs.
There are 567 professional clubs in Africa, with Tunisia leading the way with 40 professional teams, followed by Benin (36), Cameroon (35) and Algeria and Morocco (32 each).
The rest of South America does not have as many professional clubs as one might think. Brazil has 60 clubs, while Chile, Colombia and Peru have 46, 36 and 33 respectively.
The growth of professional clubs and players in Mexico is closely linked to its rapid economic growth in recent years. Only 11% of the world's countries or territories have three or more professional leagues.
Globally, 45% of leagues lack a titleholder, demonstrating the huge gap in the commercialization of soccer.
Although the successful business models of leagues such as the English Premier League are much envied by fans, it is practically impossible to replicate their successful routes.
On a commercial level, only 55% of the world's leagues have a title sponsor. The full name of the Chinese Super League will be "China Resources Yibao Chinese Super League" after the sponsorship this season. The Japanese J-League has Yasuda Insurance as its title sponsor and the South Korean K-League has Asiana Bank as its title sponsor. The title sponsor of the Saudi Arabian Premier League is ROSHN, a real estate developer under the Saudi Sovereign Fund.
Of the 45% of leagues that are "naked", some are not short of money and don't need a sponsor's name, such as the English Premier League and the German Bundesliga. Most leagues want sponsorship, but no one is asking for it.
In terms of television rights, most leagues have opted to sell their rights as a whole and negotiate as a whole. However, in leagues in 10 countries, including Brazil, Egypt, Mexico and Portugal, clubs sell television rights individually.
This way of selling rights means more autonomy for clubs, but more pain if fans like more teams.
In the labor relationship between clubs and players, players remain a very vulnerable group in leagues in more than 100 countries around the world, where players' unions do not exist at all. In terms of player contracts, one third of countries do not have strict regulations on player contracts, and 59% of countries do not have a minimum wage for players.
How many leagues don't spend a penny a year? There isn't much mention of data in this area of the transfer process as FIFA releases a detailed transfer report every year. Most of the leagues in the world are inter-annual leagues, so the data published for transfers in 2022 is accurate.
In 2022, a record 20,000+ professional players completed transfers worldwide. Interestingly, not a single player from 55 of the 211 member associations was transferred to 30 countries or territories, nor was a single player moved abroad.
When European giants buy a player for almost a billion dollars, 67% (143 member associations) of the leagues can remain without spending a penny, while 134 member associations' leagues don't make a penny profit from transfers.In 2022, European clubs spend a total of $5.88 billion, while African clubs' annual transfer revenues are only around $55 million. Kessedo's transfer fee of €120 million last summer already exceeds the transfer investment of hundreds of national leagues.
In 18% of member association leagues, transfer investments do not exceed $5 million. Only 17 countries can spend more than $50 million on transfers throughout the year. With the exception of Brazil, Argentina and the United States, all are European leagues.
In terms of the length of the transfer window, all leagues in the world last an average of 98 days. Portugal, Japan, India and Zambia are the four countries with the longest transfer windows, lasting 113 days, while Suriname has the shortest, lasting only 29 days a year.
Surprise: Thailand has twice as many professional clubs as China
Overall, 81% of Asia's players play in national leagues, with the UAE having the highest number of foreign players at 32%, followed by Saudi Arabia and Singapore, both at 30%. Iran has the fewest foreign players with 99% local players and 88% local Japanese players.
There are 781 professional clubs in the AFC, with Thailand leading the way with 110, more than twice as many as China's 48 (16 in the Chinese Super League + 16 in the Chinese First Division + 16 in the Chinese Second Division, and 20 in the Chinese Second Division in the new season). Japan has 60 professional clubs, and Saudi Arabia has 108 clubs have been vigorously developing soccer in recent years.
Unlike most European clubs which are privately owned, only half of the clubs are privately controlled by Asian clubs. The remaining 29% are organized by club associations and 14% are controlled by local governments. Most of these clubs are concentrated in West Asia. In the top leagues of Jordan and Kuwait, the government owns 14 Saudi and 11 Qatari clubs.
The information also shows that for the whole year of 2022, Chinese professional clubs brought in 89 foreign players at a total cost of $26.5 million, and transferred out 65 foreign players, with no clear statistics on the transfer costs.In 2022, the biggest expenditure in the Chinese league was the introduction of Stanciu by Wuhan Sanzhen, with a transfer fee of €4 million.
The Japanese league managed to be healthy, exporting 170 homegrown players overseas in 2022, earning $21.5 million, and bringing in 122 foreign players at a cost of $20 million.In 2022, the Korean league exported 91 homegrown players at a cost of $7 million, and exported 95 players, earning $9 million. Both countries are in surplus.
In 2022, the wealthy Saudi League brought in 298 foreigners at a cost of $50.4 million and exported 219 players, raking in $7 million.
How golden is this report?
Every year, FIFA publishes hundreds of reports on men's and women's soccer, professional leagues, youth training talent and more. Only in this annual report can each country and league provide detailed data in support.
However, are these data completely accurate? Not entirely, as it is collected in an interesting way, with FIFA emailing and submitting it to member associations in the form of an online questionnaire. This means that much of the data is watered down.
What is even more interesting is that there are many member associations that did not submit questionnaires. This leaves the national data at a complete zero. For example, many African countries, such as Senegal, do not report data to players. By default, this column is zero, but after all, it is a minority.
Also at the end of March, FIFA released its 2023 annual financial report, with revenues reaching $1.17 billion (about Rs. 8.42 billion) and broadcasting revenues reaching $267 million. FIFA's annual revenue reached $5.76 billion for the 2022 World Cup.
As Fantino's payroll amounted to £3.8 million last year, with a basic salary of £2.3 million and a bonus of £1.5 million, his basic salary is expected to rise by another 33% this year.
Some foreigners have criticized such data as meaningless and purely to deal with work. But if you love soccer in your spare time, you can find highlights, even if you don't waste time.
