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Monday 25 January 2021, 12:57

FIFA launches first-ever digital platform dedicated to professional football

  • Key data on players, clubs, transfers and top-tier competitions available

  • Around 130,000 professional players and 4,400 professional clubs across the world

  • Project in line with FIFA’s objective of making football truly global

FIFA has today launched the FIFA Professional Football Landscape, the first-ever digital database comprising key facts and figures on players, clubs, transfers and top-tier competitions across all 211 member associations.

Bringing together data from a broad spectrum of key performance indicators that reflect the status of clubs and leagues worldwide, the new tool offers a detailed visual overview of the game.

The FIFA Professional Football Landscape has been created for the whole football community in order to monitor the professionalisation of football, in line with FIFA’s strategic objective of mapping and promoting football development around the world in order to make the game truly global.

Over the coming weeks, all member associations will be given access to the platform, thus enabling them to provide updates on both men’s and women’s football on a regular basis.

Key facts and figures

The FIFA Professional Football Landscape provides a fascinating insight into the structure of professional football across the world, including the following takeaways:

  • Nearly 130,000 professional players and more than 4,400 professional clubs have been identified around the world.

  • 91% of member associations have implemented a national club licensing system.

  • 65% of national top-tier competitions are organised by the respective football association.

  • 54% of domestic competitions around the world follow a traditional home-and-away format.

  • 88% of competition organisers negotiate their TV rights deals collectively.