Just five months after Premier League clubs consulted their players about taking a 30 percent wage cut, the English top-flight is again blowing Europe’s other top leagues out of the water when it comes to splashing the cash.
A return to the routine spending of tens of millions of pounds on players jars with the bleak forecasts often presented by the clubs themselves as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the height of the pandemic, Liverpool and Tottenham planned to use government money to pay nonplaying staff, only to back down in the face of public anger, while Arsenal last month announced proposals to cut 55 jobs.
If clubs require a reminder that COVID-19 remains a threat, they need only look to the empty stands that are to accompany the start of the new season from tomorrow.
Gate receipts might only account for 13 percent of the league’s revenue, according to figures from UEFA’s latest benchmarking report, but the other major streams of income, such as television rights and commercial sponsorships, are also not immune to the crisis.
A rebate worth a reported ￡330 million (US$429.56 million) was due to domestic and international broadcasters because the 2019-2020 season was not completed on time after a three-month stoppage.
Last week, the Premier League announced that its deal with Chinese streaming platform PPTV, understood to be worth about US$700 million, had been canceled, with political tensions between Britain and China potentially making a new contract difficult to negotiate.
European Club Association chairman Andrea Agnelli on Tuesday said that rebates owed to Champions League and Europa League broadcasters totaled 575 million euros (US$680.5 million), warning that soccer was in “crisis-management” mode.
Agnelli, who is also the chairman of Italian champions Juventus, said that the overall value of the transfer market could plummet by up to one-third.
Yet no such downturn has been noticeable among Premier League clubs.
Chelsea have led the way with a ￡200 million rebuild, signing Kai Havertz, Timo Werner, Hakim Ziyech and Ben Chilwell.
Manchester City have spent more than ￡60 million on two players in Nathan Ake and Ferran Torres, who will struggle to start in Pep Guardiola’s strongest XI, while Donny van de Beek could end up costing Manchester United about ￡40 million.
Even more striking are the sums spent by non-Champions League clubs.
Wolves broke their transfer record on a 40 million euro capture, Portuguese teenager Fabio Silva, who had scored three goals and started one league match for Porto.
After spells together at Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, James Rodriguez and Carlo Ancelotti have been reunited at Everton, who have also signed midfielders Allan and Abdoulaye Doucoure. The outlay for the three players is about ￡64 million.
The Premier League’s TV deals worth about ￡3 billion per season are an even bigger economic advantage at a time when matchday and commercial revenue are shrinking.
However, the rebates show how hundreds of millions can be wiped out, with the pandemic threatening more disruption in the coming season.
Should a lack of caution in the transfer window come back to hurt Premier League clubs, there would be little sympathy from across the continent.
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