At the end of a season in which no Premier League representative made it as far as the quarter-finals of either major European club competition, it seems most odd to be thinking in terms of a new era of English dominance in European club football. Yet, recent developments look to be conspiring to make this all but inevitable.
For one thing, English top-tier clubs are assured of surging revenues for the rest of the decade thanks to the league’s TV deals. Clubs were just getting used to the benefits of a 2013-16 domestic broadcasting agreement that was worth 70% more than its predecessor, when league bosses in February unveiled a new £5 billion-plus domestic deal for 2016-19 that represents a further 70% increase.
Bear in mind too that Premier League revenues in 2012-13, before any of this took effect, were already not far off 50% higher than the nearest European counterpart.
This, though, is only part of the story. While the top English clubs have just entered this new period of spiralling revenue growth, some of their main European rivals are having to face up to changes that risk impairing their competitive edge.
Take, for example, FIFA’s clampdown on third party ownership (TPO). This will have no direct impact on Premier League clubs, other than perhaps making some player acquisitions simpler to conclude, since the practice was already not permitted in the UK (in common with France and Poland).
For some clubs in other European countries, however, the crackdown threatens to rule off-limits a way of financing the signing of new players they would otherwise be unable to afford. A KPMG study published in August 2013 estimated, for example, that the value of players under TPO in Portugal amounted to between 27 and 36% of the market value of players in the Portuguese league. KPMG said the practice was also “very common” in eastern Europe, while in Spain “football investment funds have also greatly increased in recent years, and are used particularly by clubs with difficulties in financing the acquisition of new players”.
Now, in a development that could affect two of the very biggest obstacles to a future Premier League monopoly of European silverware in particular, collective bargaining for broadcasting rights appears to be edging closer in Spain.
For now, the main issue has become lost in a power struggle over who runs the game in one of Europe’s biggest markets. But any switch away from the current system, under which each team is free to arrange its own individual TV deal, is likely to eat into, or at least reduce the future growth of, broadcasting revenue received by the big two – the present European Cup holders Real Madrid and Barcelona, one of this season’s finalists.
While Spain’s current modus operandi is undoubtedly a factor in helping to ensure that Real and Barça are among the best in Europe year in year out, it makes it all the harder for other Spanish clubs to compete successfully against them in domestic competitions.
According to Deloitte, “under their current agreements, Real Madrid and Barcelona will each reportedly earn at least €130 million per season, around seven times higher than the sum payable to the lowest earning La Liga club…The equivalent ratios in 2012-13 were broadly: Premier League 1.5:1, Bundesliga (Germany) 2.5:1, Ligue 1 (France) 3.7:1, Serie A (Italy) 4.4:1.”
In the same season, Deloitte calculated, the two biggest revenue-generating clubs in Spain got 54% of total La Liga revenue, against an equivalent figure of 25% for the Premier League.
Of course, as many will argue, money isn’t everything. And this season’s Champions League and Europa League results on the field of play give little grounds for optimism regarding the ability of English clubs to deploy their financial edge to best advantage.
But in modern football, financial firepower usually yields success in the medium- to long-term. The financial advantage enjoyed by Premier League clubs over the next five years looks set, moreover, to be so pronounced that it will be particularly difficult for others to counter.
So, hard as it may be to credit based on the distribution of this season’s honours, yes, a new era of Premier League dominance in Europe looks to be just around the corner.
David Owen worked for 20 years for the Financial Times in the United States, Canada, France and the UK. He ended his FT career as sports editor after the 2006 World Cup and is now freelancing, including covering the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 2010 World Cup and London 2012. Owen’s Twitter feed can be accessed at www.twitter.com/dodo938.