By Paul Nicholson
March 18 – New data from the CIES Football Observatory shows that the average cost of a squad has risen by 24.5% between 2009/10 and the current season. The CIES research looks at transfer spend in the Big-5 leagues of England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
Big-5 league teams spent €6.9 billion to recruit players in 2009/10 (€70.4 million per club). This figure ballooned to a massive €8.6 billion in 2014/15 (€87.7 million per club).
But the average figure doesn’t tell the whole story as the bulk of the spending came from the biggest clubs – effectively buying them the best players to retain the highest league positions. The effect of concentration of spend at the top of the pyramid has been to reinforce the domination of the wealthiest clubs.
The clubs that achieved top three places in the 2009/10 season spent on average €189 million signing players. This figures has jumped to €278 million (+47%) this season.
The biggest of the big spenders between 2009 and 2014 has by far been the English Premier League. Total spend by the English rose from €2.43 to €3.43 billion (€171 million per club) over the period. The 2009 figure was 35% of the total for the big-5 leagues. That has grown to 40% of the total spend in 2014/15.
The CIES data also dispels the myth that big transfer fees are good for the rest of the football business. Actually, the redistribution of wealth is limited. Between 2009/10 and 2014/15, 67% of transfer fees were paid out to other teams participating in the five major European championships. That rose to 70.5% in the last two transfer windows.
Transfer fees generated by big-5 league players during their career (2009/10-2014/15)
Average transfer expenditure for squad members of the three top ranked clubs, per league (2009/10- 2014/15, million €)
The CIES concludes that if the aim is to improve competitive balance the transfer system needs to be reformed with a view to promoting ‘solidarity’. The CIES suggests that on way of achieving this is for each team in which a player has played to receive compensation for each fee paying transfer taking place over the course of the player’s professional career on a pro rata basis to the number of official matches played at the club.
Read the full CIES report at http://www.football-observatory.com/IMG/pdf/mr03_eng.pdf
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