Premier League sets new spending record
The Premier League has broken its spending record for the summer transfer window, going from £835 million last year to £870m, according to financial analysts Deloitte.
Manchester City led the way and set a new record for a single club with spending of around £160m on three of the top five deals in the window when taking add-ons into consideration: Wolfsburg’s Kevin De Bruyne (£54m), Liverpool’s Raheem Sterling (£49m), and Nicolas Otamendi (£32m) from Valencia.
Manchester United spent £36m on Monaco striker Anthony Martial and Aston Villa’s Christian Benteke cost Liverpool £32.5m to complete the top five and push the summer window to a new record.
And that’s it. Aside from deal sheets pending. And add-ons adding on. Nearly 900 million quid. £481.1m net. Fella. pic.twitter.com/7H7qlAA9Yp
– sportingintelligence (@sportingintel) September 1, 2015
“This summer has seen another record level of transfer spending, as Premier League clubs continue to use increases in their revenue to invest in playing talent,” Alex Thorpe from the Sports Business Group at Deloitte told the BBC.
“Total spending in 2015, across both the January and summer windows, is also a new record, reaching the £1 billion mark for the first time.
“With all 20 of the Premier League clubs now ranked in the top 40 globally by revenue, we have seen clubs across the league compete successfully in the market for international talent. Premier League clubs’ gross spending on players from overseas clubs this summer totalled more than half a billion pounds.”
Back in February, the Premier League announced a 70 percent increase in the value of its British television rights for the 2016-19 seasons with Sky and BT paying a combined £5.136bn to show games, and that certainly helped the English league move ahead of the rest.
“Looking across Europe, Premier League clubs’ gross and net spending this summer is more than double that of any other European league,” Thorpe added. “The driving force behind this is the growth and distribution mechanism of the league’s broadcast rights.
“Earlier this year we reported the remarkable rebalancing of revenues and costs, such that Premier League clubs collectively generated pre-tax profitability for the first time since 1999, with clubs set to enjoy a further revenue boost when the next broadcast deals start in 2016.
“Therefore, despite a new record level of player transfer spending this year, collectively Premier League clubs have a chance to invest in playing talent whilst remaining profitable in a way that was previously not the case.”
Summer gross transfer spending totals: Premier League £870m Serie A £405m La Liga £400m Bundesliga £290m Ligue 1 £220m (via Deloitte)
– Richard Conway (@richard_conway) September 1, 2015
Deloitte’s analysis found that:
– Premier League clubs spent around £90m on deadline day compared to £85m a year ago.
– Manchester City recorded the highest-ever gross spend by a Premier League club in a summer transfer window, spending £160m on new talent this summer.
– The four Premier League clubs competing in this season’s Champions League — Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United — had a combined gross transfer spend of £340m (around 40 percent of the total).
– The next highest spending league was Italy’s Serie A, with a gross spend of £405m. Spain’s Primera Division was next with a gross spend of £400m, followed by the German Bundesliga with £290m and France’s Ligue 1 with £220m.
– Football League clubs benefited from net transfer fees of around £50m from Premier League clubs.
– The total at the start of the day stood at £790m – £45m short of the £835m record set last summer — but Anthony Martial’s £36m move from Monaco to Manchester United helped break the record.
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