FIFA has published its first full-year report on its regulatory system monitoring player transfers.
The full report can be found here but a number of interesting headline figures have emerged.
More than $3 billion was spent on 11,500 international football transfers between January 1 and December 31, 2011. That works out at a transfer deal every 45 minutes.
The average annual salary for a professional footballer is estimated to be $244,000, but that figure is distorted by a small number of very high earners. The median salary, meanwhile, is actually $43,000.
Players from Brazil moved more than those from any other country with the sale of Brazilians accounting for an incredible 13 per cent of all transfers.