Out of Their League
The financial dominance of the Premier League

By Ahan Penkar

February 14, 2023

In January, Javier Tebas was not a happy man. The president of the Spanish football league—La Liga, claimed that the Premier League was distorting the transfer window. Tebas claimed that it was getting extremely difficult for the other European Leagues to compete with the Premier League. “What I’m worried about is the Premier League, and I’ve been worried for many years now,” he said. “But now it’s converted into a competition that has losses all year. All clubs lose money. There is no sustainability in the Premier League. The Premier League is not a financially sustainable model.”

Does Tebas have a point? An analysis of data scraped from Transfermarkt—a website that tracks player expenditure since 1992 threw up some interesting findings. First, let’s zoom in on the most recent transfer window.

Who are the most expensive players signed this window?

$121 Million

Enzo Fernandez was signed for a record fee by Chelsea Football Club this winter. This tranfer went down to the wire and saw Chelsea swoop in to sign him from Benfica.

$83 Million

Mykhailo Mudryk was taken away from Arsenal by Chelsea Football Club in this winter. The speedy winger was almost certain to sign for Arsenal before their rivals from London swooped in.

$49 Million

Anthony Gordon. The 21 year old was signed by Newcastle from Everton. Newcastle's new owners from Saudi Arabia flexed some of their financial muscle and signed the acclaimed midfielder.

$42 Million

Cody Gakpo was signed by Liverpool from PSV Eindhoven. The 21 year old winger was signed by Liverpool in a last ditch attempt to save their season.

$41 Million

Another Chelsea signing, Benoit Badiashile was signed from AS Monaco. The 20 year old defender was signed by Chelsea to bolster their defence.

All of these signings were from the Premier League.

The Premier League’s level of spending reached dizzying new heights this winter. Emboldened by the prospect of a brand new television deal that brings in over €12 billion over the course of 3 years. Even so, on the back of a pandemic, this level of expenditure was unprecedented for a winter window, dwarfing every other league.

Chelsea led the charge this winter, on the back of a takeover by Clearlake Capital, a consortium led by Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali. Their spending on Mykhailo Mudryk and Enzo Fernandez alone eclipsed what the Bundesliga, Serie A and La Liga spent on players. This comes on the back of spending by Newcastle and Tottenham, both of whom are vying for Champions League spots. An analysis of data scraped from Transfermarkt reveals that the Premier League drastically outspent every other league by a very significant margin this window.

Chelsea alone spent more than the other European Leagues combined this winter.
Expenditure for the 2022/23 winter window was the highest of all time in the Premier League.

LIGUE 1

€130

CHELSEA

€329 Million

LA LIGA

SERIE A

33

32

BUNDESLIGA

The Premier League

€829 Million

Other Leagues

LIGUE 1

€130

CHELSEA

€329 Million

LA LIGA

SERIE A

33

32

BUNDESLIGA

The Premier League

€829 Million

Other Leagues

LIGUE 1

€130

CHELSEA

€329 Million

LA LIGA

SERIE A

33

32

BUNDESLIGA

The Premier League

€829 Million

Other Leagues

LIGUE 1

€130

CHELSEA

€329 Million

LA LIGA

SERIE A

33

32

BUNDESLIGA

The Premier League

€829 Million

Other Leagues

Acoording to the Athletic, rising expenditure might be a result of Premier league clubs anticipating much higher revenues from 2024. Chelsea are also resorting to amortisation--a process by which expenditure for a single player is spread across multiple years, and not all at once on the balance sheet. While there is an obvious gap in terms of spending power, does this translate into better sales? Does any money trickle down into the other leagues? Advocates and defenders of the league claim that there may be beneficiaries of this expenditure. However, an analysis of Transfermarkt data reveals that the Premier League seems to spend the most on importing players from other leagues.

The Premier league spent the most on other leagues' players. Most leagues tend to buy domestically.

All expenditure in Euros. Graph shows expenditure on clubs across their respective countries.

Amount Spent

Amount Sold

Italy

4 Billion

Premier League

6.1 Billion

Germany

3.3 Billion

Serie A

3.7 Billion

Spain

1.9 Billion

England

1.9 Billion

La Liga

2.6 Billion

Portugal

1.6 Billion

Ligue 1

2.3 Billion

France

1.4 Billion

Bundesliga

2.2 Billion

Other Leagues

1.1 Billion

Belgium

Netherlands

Amount Sold

Amount Spent

Italy

4 Billion

Premier League

6.1 Billion

Germany

3.3 Billion

Serie A

3.7 Billion

Spain

1.9 Billion

La Liga

2.6 Billion

England

1.9 Billion

Portugal

1.6 Billion

Ligue 1

2.3 Billion

France

1.4 Billion

Bundesliga

2.2 Billion

Other Leagues

1.1 Billion

Belgium

Netherlands

Amount Sold

Amount Spent

Italy

4 Billion

Premier League

6.1 Billion

Germany

3.3 Billion

Serie A

3.7 Billion

Spain

1.9 Billion

England

1.9 Billion

La Liga

2.6 Billion

Portugal

1.6 Billion

Ligue 1

2.3 Billion

France

1.4 Billion

Other

Leagues

Bundesliga

2.2 Billion

Belgium

Netherlands

Amount Sold

Amount Spent

Italy

4 Billion

Premier League

6.1 Billion

Germany

3.3 Billion

Spain

1.9 Billion

Serie A

3.7 Billion

England

1.9 Billion

La Liga

2.6 Billion

Portugal

1.6 Billion

Ligue 1

2.3 Billion

France

1.4 Billion

Bundesliga

2.2 Billion

Data for this project was obtained courtsey of the Transfermarkt.The charts were created using ggplot2, Rawgraphs.io and Flourish. The charts were then cleaned on Adobe Illustrator. All code for this project can be found my GitHub.