Latvian clubs received almost $4m in transfer fees over the summer window, according to FIFA figures published on 3rd of September. Lithuanian clubs registered 80 international moves in the same period without paying or receiving anything.
FIFA’s International Transfer Snapshot covers the period from 1st of June to 2nd September 2026, and it recorded a global men’s market of more than $9.89 billion across over 12,500 international transfers, both of which are records for a mid-season window. Between them, the three Baltic associations accounted for 129 incoming and 72 outgoing moves in men’s professional football, with all of the money on the Latvian side.
Latvia was the busiest and by some distance the most lucrative of the three. Latvian clubs completed 55 incoming and 30 outgoing transfers, spending $1,390,955 and receiving $3,985,726, which leaves them with a surplus of close to $2.6m. The 55 arrivals are the most in any of the five mid-season windows listed on FIFA’s platform, while the receipts are the second highest over that period, behind the $5.24m Latvian clubs took in 2023.
Lithuania recorded 45 arrivals and 35 departures without a single fee in either direction, which is the first time in those five windows that both of its totals have come in at zero. Lithuanian clubs had received $465,946 in the equivalent window of 2025 and $305,660 in 2024, so the modest fee income of recent summers has disappeared rather than merely dipped.
Estonia was the quietest of the three by volume, with 29 arrivals and seven departures, and Estonian clubs spent $178,719 while receiving $267,319. The seven outgoing transfers are the fewest of any window in the FIFA series, and the receipts are well down on the $1.91m that Estonian clubs banked in the same period last year, when the departures included moves that carried fees.
The domestic registration periods closed some way ahead of FIFA’s cut-off, on 14th August in Latvia, 15th July in Lithuania and 17th August in Estonia, so the incoming totals were effectively settled before the window ended elsewhere in Europe. Outgoing transfers kept registering until 2nd September, because a departure falls inside the window of the buying association rather than the selling one.
In women’s football, where FIFA recorded global records of 1,406 transfers and $28.6m in fees, the Baltic contribution was small and unpaid. Latvian clubs registered five arrivals and three departures, Lithuanian clubs five arrivals and one departure, and Estonian clubs neither signed nor released anyone, with no fee involved in any of those moves.
Source: https://inside.fifa.com/transfer-system/media-releases/world-cup-2026-impact-mid-year-transfer-window
