The richest leagues spent record amounts

Under the influence of rising revenues from advertising and the sale of television rights, the football market experienced a record-breaking winter transfer window. According to data from the International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES), clubs from the five richest leagues spent €742 million on new signings. The January transfer business thus exceeded the previous record by more than €200 million, surpassing the €523 million mark set six years ago.

“A significant increase in transfer spending is being driven by the English Premier League, whose clubs spent far more than in previous years,” said Jozef Tokos, a sports analyst and football agent, in an interview with the Economic Daily.

Ironically, it wasn’t the richest English clubs—like Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, or Tottenham—that spent the most. Instead, it was the clubs at the bottom of the table that drove the transfer activity. “What sets the Premier League apart from the rest of Europe is that even the weakest teams can afford to pay €10 to €20 million for reinforcements,” Tokos explained. Their clear goal is to remain in the world’s most lucrative competition and do everything possible to stay in the Premier League. A prime example is Crystal Palace, currently second to last in the table, which invested the most in players during the winter—over €40 million. “This is made possible by the highly lucrative sale of television rights, from which both the most successful and the bottom clubs in the Premier League benefit,” noted the sports analyst. Starting from the 2016/2017 season, a new three-year TV deal has come into effect, bringing clubs more than £10 billion in total. “It’s expected that player purchases in the Premier League will exceed the €1 billion mark in the summer,” predicted American sports channel ESPN. During the winter, English clubs spent a total of €443 million on players. For comparison, this is more than what clubs from Germany, Spain, and Italy spent combined.

One of the most interesting findings of the CIES study was the purchasing activity in France. The country’s top league, Ligue 1, is typically considered only the fifth-strongest in Europe. Nevertheless, it was the second most active in investing in new players. Ligue 1 clubs spent €225 million. “They clearly had a bigger appetite, and perhaps the market offered more available players for them than in previous years,” Tokos said. Unsurprisingly, the biggest spenders were once again the Qatari-owned Paris St. Germain, which paid €70 million for German Julian Draxler and Portuguese Gonçalo Guedes. Other notable signings that will liven up the league include Dimitri Payet for Olympique Marseille and Dutch international Memphis Depay for Olympique Lyon.

Even though most of the overall spending came from England and France, the record-breaking transfer was made by a Chinese club. Specifically, Shanghai SIPG paid €60 million to Chelsea for Brazilian international Oscar. This became the most expensive transfer in the history of the winter window, surpassing the previous record by nearly €2 million—the transfer of Spanish striker Fernando Torres from Liverpool to Chelsea on the last day of January 2011.