September 13 – Manchester City have spent over €1 billion on players since 2010, the most of any European club. In 2016, City also top the table spending €213 million. Manchester United are ranked third in spend since 2010, behind Chelsea, and second in the 2016 table, ahead of Juventus and Barcelona.
The tables compiled by the CIES Football Observatory tell an interesting story of English club dominance in the transfer market in 2016 – 11 of the top spending 20 clubs were in the Premier League – against a more even spread of international big spenders in the years from 2010 (six in the top 20).
However, the longer term spend chart does have three English clubs occupying the top three positions – Man City, Chelsea and Man Utd – and Liverpool in sixth spot.
They are joined by five Italian clubs, four from Spain, three from Germany and two from France.
All of Europe’s biggest clubs – Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Juventus and Paris St Germain – make both lists.
The smallest club on the lists is Bournemouth (stadium capacity 11,700) who ranked 20th on the 2016 list with a spend of €71 million.
Interestingly Spain’s Atletico Madrid also make both lists, suggesting that their challenged to the traditional Spanish powerbase of Barcelona and Real Madrid could have some longevity.
CIES says that since 2010, big-5 league club player spend has grown almost continually to reach a new record of €4.2 billion in 2016.
“Over the seven years analysed, the clubs from the five major European championships have paid €19.5 billion in transfer fees. Premier League teams have spent €7.5 billion, which accounts for 39% of total expenditure. This percentage reached 42% in 2016,” says CIES.
See the full report at http://www.football-observatory.com/IMG/sites/b5wp/2016/156/en/
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1734854924labto1734854924ofdlr1734854924owdis1734854924ni@no1734854924slohc1734854924in.lu1734854924ap1734854924