The winter transfer window under criticism

The 2014 winter transfer market, an additional period to register new contracts, began on 01/01/2014 and ended, in most of the European championships, on 31/01/2014. The 98 clubs of the five major championships in Europe (the Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Series A and Ligue 1) spent €305.5m during this period to recruit new players into their squads. This is 16.9% less than in January 2013 (€367.4m).

For these clubs of the European Top 5, the winter transfer period is a market of complement and adjustment: the total amount of the transfer spending generated in January 2014 represents only about 14% of the total amount from the summer period (€2.19b euros during the 2013 off-season).

The winter transfer window mainly allows clubs in trouble at the bottom of the classification tables during the first part of season to strengthen their squads and try to reverse their results trend. It also offers the opportunity to players not receiving playing time at their clubs to move somewhere else, most of the time in the form of loan to a lower division.

However, the winter market arouses…