International football transfers topped 7 billion dollars for the first time in 2018, with English clubs recording the biggest negative balance of more than 1 billion dollars.
The ruling body FIFA said on Wednesday in the annual global transfer market report that the 7.03 billion dollars marked a 10.3 per cent increase to the 2017 figures.
It said 16,533 international transfers too place last year, up 5.6 per cent, and involved 14,186 players from 175 countries.
The report said only 31 of the 849 global clubs spent more than 50 million dollars each but that they accounted for 56.3 of the global spending.
The majority of it took place in Europe, with members of the continental body UEFA accounting for 78.2 per cent of the spending.
England with its lucrative and rich Premier League ended the transfer year with a huge negative net balance of minus 1.05 billion dollars, while France had the biggest positive balance at 467.2 million dollars.
