Sports
Europe’s Top Leagues Spend Record £5bn On Transfer
The top five leagues in Europe spent a combined record £5bn in the 2019 summer transfer window, an increase of £800m on the previous record set in 2018, according to Deloitte.
Premier League clubs spent £1.41bn, following a flurry of signings on their deadline day on 8 August.
Spanish top flight clubs paid £1.24bn in 2019, doubling spending from 2017.
Clubs in Italy’s Serie A, Germany’s Bundesliga and France’s Ligue 1 all set new transfer records in their leagues.
La Liga sides spent a combined total of more than £1bn for the first time, with Antoine Griezmann moving from Atletico Madrid to Barcelona for £108m, Joao Felix switching from Benfica to Atletico for £113m and Eden Hazard transferring from Chelsea to Real Madrid for £90m.
Scottish Premiership sides spent an estimated £25m, with Old Firm rivals Celtic and Rangers making up the majority of that total, while other top teams utilised loan and free transfer methods for players.
Head of Deloitte’s sport business group, Dan Jones says the record spending is “unprecedented” and has been driven by a number of factors, including additional money from new television contracts, and squad revamps resulting from managerial changes.
“The improved financial performance of European football clubs has also reduced the need for clubs to sell their best players,” Jones said.
He added, though, that Premier League spending has fallen.
“Looking to the Premier League, this summer’s player transfer expenditure fell narrowly short of record levels, and net spend was at its lowest level since summer 2015,” he said.
“While this level of net spend as a proportion of revenue of 11% is the lowest since summer 2011, we still expect wages to increase at a greater rate than revenue in the next couple of seasons.”
The European transfer window closed on 2 September.
Iwobi spoke to Tidesports source ahead of Nigeria’s crunch playoff semi-final against Gabon on Thursday, November 13, in Rabat, Morocco.
The 28-year-old was reacting to Nigeria’s shaky World Cup qualifying campaign that saw the Eagles finish second in Group C behind South Africa’s Bafana Bafana.
“We’ve managed to rescue ourselves from the dead,” Iwobi told Tidesports source.
We know we have the players and the abilities to compete against any other country in the world.”
The Fulham star pointed to Nigeria’s star power, highlighting African Footballer of the Year winners Ademola Lookman and Victor Osimhen as proof of the squad’s quality.
“We have last year’s African best player (Ademola Lookman), the year before that (Victor Osimhen),” he said.
“It’ll be a shame if we don’t make it, but we have a lot of confidence. We just have to prove it to ourselves.”
Nigeria’s path to the United States, Canada and Mexico has been turbulent, with two coaches departing during the early stages of qualifying before Éric Chelle steadied the ship to steer the Super Eagles into November’s CAF playoffs.
Four nations from the continent – Nigeria, Cameroon, DR Congo and Gabon – will vie for a solitary spot to compete in next March’s inter-confederation playoffs, with a view to joining the already nine qualified African nations at the Finals.
It would mark Iwobi’s second appearance at the World Cup Finals and the Super Eagles’ first since the 2018 edition of the competition.
Back then, Iwobi featured in all three games as Nigeria was knocked out in the group stage.
The Chief Executive Officer(CEO) and Publisher of the Atlantic Bell Online medium, Mr. Celestine Ogolo has advised sports writers in Nigeria to diversify in sports writing and not to concentrate on football reporting alone.
The Deputy National President of Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) Mr. Bonny Nyong has expressed commitment to support sports development and move SWAN forward.