Top football clubs relying on transfer valuations made by volunteers | Football

Valuations by the football data website Transfermarkt, which can often influence transfer negotiations and have appeared on several clubs’ annual financial reports, are determined mainly by volunteers, according to an investigation.

Transfermarkt, established in 2000 by a Werder Bremen supporter, records more than one billion page views every month and is one of the world’s largest football websites.

Its database contains the details of more than 800,000 professional footballers, including statistics on how many minutes they play, medical history, contract duration, as well as publishing frequently updated estimates of every player’s market value.

These valuations have been cited in the fiscal reports of several clubs including Lyon, Marseille, Porto and Schalke, but a report by the Dutch website Follow the Money found that they are merely estimates usually based on the hunch of an individual.

“I spend a bit of my free time on my computer at home, estimating prices. And the football industry then takes these valuations seriously,” said Martin Freundl, who decides the market values of all players in the German Bundesliga.

“It’s unreal. I’m just a social worker. I do this Transfermarkt work for fun and the football industry is worth millions. The contrast is insane.”

One example is the former Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu, who cited Transfermarkt to justify the €72m transfer price of the Brazilian player Arthur Melo in June. Uefa used Transfermarkt data in a 2016 report and it is also used by scouting departments at clubs all over the world.

Christian Schwarz, who as Transfermarkt’s international head of market values is the first point of contact for players and clubs who disagree with a valuation on the site, admitted he had been surprised by the growing influence its estimates are having on the industry.

“Clubs shouldn’t make transfer decisions based on the figures on our website,” he told Follow the Money. “Our method is not scientific.”

According to Schwarz, players in top-level leagues are revalued four times a year, with major updates before each transfer window. Rather than using an algorithm, prices are set according to the “wisdom of the crowd” principle, which is similar to the way Wikipedia works. Users can discuss market values on the Transfermarkt forum but the ultimate number is based only on substantiated arguments and is ultimately determined by Freundl and his colleagues.

Other criteria, according to a Transfermarkt document obtained by Follow the Money, include minutes played, goals, assists, matches played for the national team, contract length, salary, and the club’s prestige and financial situation.

“I think of it as a kind of game,” Freundl said. “You make a prediction and it’s satisfying to be proven right.”