This Monthly Report presents the principal results of a questionnaire survey carried out between December 2020 and January 2021 to know the opinion of fans on the professional game. It focuses on the following thematic areas: match events, scheduling, spectacle, access to the spectacle, revenues, inequalities, abuses, gender and transfers.

The 60th Monthly Report presents the methodology of the CIES Football Observatory for the comparison of the technical performance of players in a statistically objective manner and applies it to footballers in 35 domestic leagues of UEFA member associations. The data used was produced by the company InStat. It refers to the 2020/21 season (or 2020 for the summer championships).

The 59th Monthly Report presents the findings of the annual census carried out since 2009 on players present in the clubs from 31 top division European male leagues. For 2020, the sample is composed of 12,088 footballers from 479 teams. The study reveals that the pandemic strengthened the gaps in the profile of players according to the sporting and economic level of clubs.

Since the propagation of COVID, speculations on the consequences of the virus on the professional football economy have been widespread. For the first time, this report studies the real impact of the pandemic on the footballers’ transfer market. The analysis covers three areas: the volume of investments, the typology of transfers (permanent, temporary, free, paid, etc.) and the price of players.

The manner in which people live and practice football throughout the world is a good indicator of country-specific features. This Monthly Report compares 87 top divisions worldwide from the point of view of the number of yellow and red cards given by referees during matches played between the 2015/16 (or 2016) and 2019/20 (or 2020) seasons.

This Monthly Report analyses the characteristics of the coaches at the head of 1,646 teams from 110 leagues in 79 countries worldwide. The study covers three aspects: the age, the length of stay in the club managed and the origin (national/expatriate). The Report also presents the rankings of the most represented origins among expatriate coaches.