Football clubs 'short changed' by exchange rates

Football's January transfer window saw a record £225m shelled out for some of the game's biggest stars, but fluctuating exchange rates hurt owners' wallets, says World First.

Transfers left until the last day of the window (31 January) involving players moving from one currency to another were a lot more expensive than they would have been at the beginning of the month, the group says. Chelsea's new Portuguese signing David Luiz cost Chelsea £21.3m when the figure was settled a couple of hours ahead of the window shutting. However, if the deal was completed a couple of weeks earlier, billionaire owner Roman Abramovich would have paid £300,000 less. Jeremy Cook, chief economist at World First foreign exchange, says exchange rates move every day and can ...