September 6 – Further analysis of the trends of the 2024/25 summer window by Football Benchmark highlights shifts in league spending patterns, and a “remarkable turnaround” by England’s Premier League, showing an improved transfer balance of more than €550 million.
In the summer of the 2023/24 season, the Premier League and the Saudi Pro League posted “staggering” net spends of €-1.27 billion and €-882 million.
The Premier League has improved that to €-716.2 million in the 2024 window while the Saudi Pro League balance more than halved to €-383.2 million this year as the Saudi clubs cut their spending.
“To provide some context, the net spending gap between Serie A and the Saudi Pro League last summer stood at €1 billion, but this has now shrunk to €86 million for the 2024 window,” highlighted Football Benchmark.
The Spanish, German, Italian, French, Dutch, and Portuguese leagues all recorded positive balances. This summer, only the Dutch and Portuguese leagues managed to maintain a surplus.
The report recognises that with Premier League transfer expenses totaling €2.332 billion, “the figures from other leagues around the world still pale in comparison”, but point out that the “restrained spending “ is significant because “it follows the first season where the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Rules genuinely started to make an impact.”
Italy’s Serie A clubs boosted spending by €100 million but saw revenue from player sales drop from €1.033 billion in 2023/24 to €702 million this year. Thus resulted in a net spend difference between the two summer windows shifting from €+124 million to €-297.7 million. It is a narrowed gap of €86 million to the Saudis.
Looking at clubs, in Serie A 11 teams ended the 2023 summer window with a positive transfer balance, while 11 clubs had a negative net spend in 2024. In comparison nine Saudi Pro League clubs reported a positive transfer balance in 2024, compared to just two in 2023.
In Spain’s LaLiga, 14 of the 20 teams reported a positive transfer balance, up from just 8 teams in 2023.
In the Premier League, six teams showed a positive transfer balance, two nore than last year, with Football Benchmark highlighting the average net spend per club improving from €-63.6 million to €-35.6 million.
Brighton & Hove Albion with a transfer balance of €-182 million lead the way after spending €231 million after years of selling high-profile players like Moisés Caicedo, Alexis Mac Allister, and Ben White.
Newly promoted Ipswich Town and Southampton both spent about €120 million with Southampton’s transfer balance higher at €-75.6 million, compared to Ipswich Town’s €-124.8 million.
Manchester City and Liverpool spent the least while Arsenal spending is lower than that of the newly promoted clubs.
Talk in England inevitably turns to Chelsea’s big spending and they lashed out another €238 million but it was mitigated this with nearly €200 million in revenue from player sales, leaving a net spending of €-40.5 million. Seven other Premier League teams reported worse transfer balances, highlights Football Benchmark
To see the full report, click here.
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