Premier League football clubs spending on transfers this season has broken the £1bn mark for the first time with spending for the January 2016 window over £170m, the biggest January window for five years, according to sports business analysts at Deloitte.
The biggest signing during the transfer window was the deadline day deal which saw Stoke paying £18.3m for Giannelli Imbula from Porto. These facts clearly state the intent in the Premier league to continue drawing in the best players in the world. Also with the news of what many regard as the world finest coach moving to Manchester City where he will have the world’s biggest cheque book, has got many football fans licking their lips with anticipation. Add this with the BT deal which bought a large slice of televised football rights, boosting the Premier League's next TV deal, by 71 percent, to a record £3bn over three years, and it is worrying times for our European rivals in the Champions League.
With Barcelona, Real Madrid, PSG and Bayern Munich not exactly short of cash it may not be their squads that diminish. But the smaller clubs of the Spanish, German and other leagues will struggle to compete financially with teams like Crystal Palace, Stoke, WBA etc and therefore the quality of players and competitiveness of the foreign leagues will reduce dramatically. The Premier League could become the NBA of European football, the “promised land” for the world’s best. However, across the globe the football world is being turned slowly on its head. The Chinese Super League is in its 13th season and under the sponsorship of “Ping An Insurance” is quickly becoming a place where top managers and players can and are making a good living.
The defending champions, Guangzhou Evergrande, are managed by former Chelsea, Brazil and Portugal coach Luis Felipe Scolari, a world cup winner. His side Guangzhou are also the Asian Champions League holders.
Another super star coach is Sven-Goran Eriksson, the former England manager has great pedigree and has won leagues in Portugal and Italy. He is boss at Shanghai SIPG and has valuable experience of Premier League and UEFA competitions and could get a job anywhere in Europe. But the fact he is in China proves that the Super League is becoming a top draw location.
Its not just coaches looking to make a quick buck at the end of their careers but also top players in their prime are going to China to ply their trade. The recent transfer window Alex Teixeira [Shakhtar Donetsk - Jiangsu Suning] £38.4m and Jackson Martinez [Atletico Madrid - Guangzhou Evergrande] £31m are more testament to the Super leagues growth and draw. Worryingly Teixeira was a target for Liverpool but has opted for china’s bright neon lights.
Stars are now leaving our shores for China, with Chelsea star Ramires joining Chinese club Jiangsu Suning on a four-year contract with the transfer fee being a reported £25 million.
In the summer In England, the biggest spenders Manchester City, paid the two biggest fees, £55m for Kevin De Bruyne from Wolfsburg and £49m for Raheem Sterling from Liverpool adding to the 2015 summer transfer window of £870m being spent, making the total for the 2015-16 season £1,045bn. Our European rivals cannot compete with this spending, but maybe China’s super League clubs can?
It’s Chinese new year, lets hope and pray its not the end of an era of English footballs financial dominance. We don’t want to see our power decreasing before it has really taken over the world of football.
Source: DSG
