La Liga has hit out at the Premier League for “cheating” and “doping” after an analysis from Deloitte’s Sports Business Group said clubs spent a record £815million ($1 billion) in the January transfer window.
The biggest spenders were Chelsea, responsible for 37 of the total — original to further than the combined spend by all clubs in the Bundesliga, LaLiga, Serie A and Ligue 1, it said.
The London club, lying 10th in the league, paid a British- record £106.8m for Argentina midfielder Enzo Fernandez from Benfica on Tuesday’s transfer deadline day.
La Liga chairman Javier Tebas shared a videotape on Twitter of corporate general director Javier Gomez saying that the Spanish league would ask UEFA to do more on transfers.
We’re cognizant there’s a lot of talk about how LaLiga’s economic control means Spanish clubs sign lower than Premier League clubs, ” he said.
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Let’s explain what’s behind that. What’s the truth? The reality is that at LaLiga we want clubs to spend what they can afford and generate themselves, that’s to say, their own earnings.
It’s true that shareholders are also allowed to support the club and put money in to spend further than the club itself can generate, but within certain limits.
The opposite is true in the Premier League, Gomez said. “ The data is as follows With data compared up to June 30, 2021, and across the five former seasons, the PL and Championship — top two categories of English football — lost €3bn. In that same time, the Spanish league lost — we all suffered in the pandemic —€250m. But what transpired? During that same period, shareholders across the PL and Champ put in €3.5bn. Across that same period, shareholders in Spain put in €450m.
What’s the issue? Basically, they’re ‘ doping the club. They’re injecting money not generated by the club for it to spend, which puts the viability of the club at threat if the shareholder leaves. In our opinion, that’s cheating, because it drags down the rest of the leagues.
That’s our fight, demanding that UEFA implements a new profitable regulation that prevents the shareholder of a club from putting in further than a certaine amount and that it enforces this rule and sanctionsnon-compliant clubs. It does n’t matter which league or country it is, they should sanction clubs that do n’t conform with this regulation.
The top- flight English clubs ’ expenditure was nearly three times advanced than in January 2022. Over the total of the 2022- 23 season they’ve spent £2.8bn on player transfers, beating the former record of £1.9bn set in 2017-18.
Relegation- threatened Bournemouth were the alternate- largest spenders within the Premier League.
Premier League clubs have outspent those within the rest of Europe’s “ big five ” leagues by nearly four to one in this transfer window, ”said Tim Bridge, lead partner in Deloitte’s Sports Business Group.
Howbeit, while there’s a clear need to invest in team size and quality to retain a competitive edge, there will always be a fine balance to strike between prioritising success on- pitch and maintaining financial sustainability.
