Azernews.Az

By Bloomberg

Soccer ruling body FIFA is working on a confidential player trading platform to help teams track down and acquire talent.

The so-called Global Player Exchange will allow clubs to share private information when it’s introduced this year, Mark Goddard, general manager of FIFA’s Transfer Matching System, or TMS, told reporters in Zurich. TMS is an online log of international trades. FIFA is setting up the platform because clubs aren’t aware of which players are available, he said.

“There is a very strong need for club-to-club communication,” Goddard said. “They know what’s happening in local market but not much at an international level.”

The size of the global transfer market rose 2.5 percent to $4.1 billion last year, Goddard said. English clubs were the biggest spenders with combined outlay of $1.2 billion and Spanish teams were the biggest traders, receiving $667 million of fees, he said.

The exchange will have startup of costs of several million dollars for FIFA, although clubs will eventually have to pay to use it, Goddard said, without giving a price. FIFA is also working on a plan to give each player an identity code similar to a social security number by 2018, Goddard said.