English Premier League Still Spending Millions

Posted by: Mark Scott on February 03

Unemployment is on the rise, manufacturing output is on the wane, and house foreclosures are skyrocketing. We’re entering a global recession, right? You wouldn’t have guessed it from the record player transfer fees just notched up in the English Premier League (EPL) — the world’s most lucrative soccer league.

According to consultants Deloitte, the EPL’s twenty clubs, including such global brands as Manchester United and Liverpool FC, spent £160 million ($227 million) during the January, 2009 player transfer window (a month-long period halfway through the domestic season that allows clubs to bring in new talent). That’s £10 million ($14 million) extra than last year’s record total — and a staggering £100 million ($142 million), or 166%, more than the 2007 figure.

“The level of transfer spending is far in excess of spending by clubs in other European leagues,” Paul Rawnsley, director of Deloitte’s Sports Business Group, said in a statement.

Indeed, Deloitte reckons that the EPL's 20 teams spent more on players than "the aggregate disclosed amounts spent by all top division clubs in the other 'Big 5' European leagues in France, Germany, Italy and Spain." Not bad for a league that's barely 17 years old.

That's not to say English soccer is bucking the global downturn. Indeed, the American owners of Liverpool are looking to offload the club to wealthy Mid-East investors to repay millions of dollars worth of debt. Rumors also persist that Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich -- owner of London-based club Chelsea FC -- also wants to cash-out to free up much needed equity. Abramovich denies the speculation.

Yet with a $5 billion global TV deal in place, billions of avid followers worldwide -- let alone the cache from owning an EPL club -- English soccer certainly will continue to attract interest. For all future investors, though, beware the old expression: "The only way to make a small fortune in soccer is to start off with a big one and then buy a club."