Tier 1
Club, league or federation official statements, plus elite transfer reporters when the claim is directly theirs.
Tier system
Every MercatoWire claim is labelled by source strength, not by headline heat.
Tier 2
BBC Sport, Sky Sports, The Athletic and other trusted national football desks.
Tier 3
Credible specialist or aggregator reporting that needs more confirmation before stronger wording.
Rumour
Single-source or early-market talk. Useful signal, deliberately cautious language.