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Photo by Essa Doubisi/Getty Images
There is no business like the English Premier League’s business in global soccer.
According to Deloitte Sports Business Group, Premier League clubs collectively spent a record $2.9 billion (£2.36 billion) during the 2023 summer transfer window, exceeding the $2.46 billion (£1.92 billion) spent the summer before. This substantial investment underscores the EPL’s remarkable expansion and mirrors the heightened level of competition.
“There continues to be pressure on clubs to acquire top talent to satisfy their on-pitch objectives,” Tim Bridge, lead partner in Deloitte’s Sports Business Group, said in a statement. “Last season did not disappoint in terms of unscripted drama, proving the worth of the Premier League’s product in the first year of a new, improved value broadcast cycle.”
In 2021, the EPL extended its domestic and international broadcasting deals—worth $6.2 billion (£5 billion) and $6.3 billion, respectively—until the end of the 2024-25 season. Thanks to these lucrative deals, the EPL has been financially stronger than other European leagues. According to Deloitte, the gross transfer spending across Europe’s “big five leagues—LaLiga, Ligue 1, Bundesliga and Serie A, along with the Premier League—totaled $6 billion (€5.6 billion). The EPL clubs’ gross expenditures accounted for 48% of that total.
Even though the EPL leads in global soccer transfer market expenditures, the other four prominent European leagues reap the benefits. Of the $2.9 billion, the Premier League spent $1.15 billion (approximately 40% of the total transfer spending) with its European neighbors.
“Premier League clubs continue to dominate Europe’s big five leagues from a spending perspective,” Calum Ross, assistant director in the Sports Business Group at Deloitte, said. “The gap between English clubs and the rest of Europe’s elite is widening.”
Bundesliga, Serie A and LaLiga received $310 million (€290 million), $177 million (€165 million) and $123 million (€115 million), respectively, from the Premier League, bringing in a profit on transfer fees.
EPL budgets benefited from the rise of the Saudi Pro League this summer. Almost half of the transfer fees EPL teams received from overseas teams came from Saudi clubs.
The transfer fees, which totaled $685 million, were concentrated among seven EPL clubs: Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Newcastle, Fulham and Wolverhampton Wanderers. Two of these clubs, Fulham and Liverpool, saw 100% of their transfer income come from Saudi Pro League clubs.
Saudi clubs have spent $862 million on transfer fees this summer, the fourth highest of any league globally, behind the Premier League, Ligue 1 and Serie A.
The rise of Saudi spending was discussed at last week’s European Club Association (ECA) general assembly in Berlin. “I don’t really think there’s a danger,” Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, the ECA chairman and president of French club Paris Saint-Germain, said at the press conference after the meeting. “Most of the clubs sold players to them. If we are not happy, why do we sell our players to them?”
European clubs experienced financial benefits from lucrative transfer contracts offered by the SPL this summer. Throughout Europe, excluding the EPL, the transfer income generated from deals with Saudi clubs totaled an impressive $370 million.
“This distribution of the new flow of funds into the market will be key to ensuring the financial benefits of a more active global market are enjoyed across the board,” Ross said, “serving to reduce rather than widen any existing gaps.”
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