The EPL’s massive TV deals mean that the lowest team in the Premier League can pay wages that a mid-level team in Europe’s other top leagues can no longer afford.
The English Premier League is often branded as “the best league in the world” for football fans, and this season it may be living up to that hype. With the recent influx of massive amounts of cash into the league from TV deals, the league has had more competitive teams leading to more dramatic fixtures from top to bottom than any other time in recent memory.
The EPL’s television rights were sold to SkySports and other broadcasters for a record £5.136 billion for the 2016/17-2018/19 seasons, meaning that every Premier League team could net in excess of £100M per season just for competing in the top flight, and that money is just from domestic broadcasts in the United Kingdom, the foreign TV rights deals are expected to net another £3 billion in funds.
EPL leaders Leicester City (yes, that is correct) are currently 3 points clear of Manchester City at the top, something that seemed impossible at the beginning of the campaign, while sitting on a wage bill of just £48.2M, not a lot for England. However, when compared to say, Spain, that wage bill is massive.
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In La Liga it was revealed there is in fact a salary cap on wages, meaning each club is limited by the league on what they can spend on wages. Spanish paper Marca printed a list of these caps a couple of seasons back, and while the data old it is still relevant given the relative stagnation of the Spanish football economy compared to England’s Premier League.
Leicester City’s wages of £48.2M translates to about 63.3M Euro, a wage bill that according to the MARCA article published in September of 2014, would only be allowed by the following teams: Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Sevilla and Valencia. In reality, the listed wages from that season show that they would have beaten every club in La Liga outside of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid.
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The money at Leicester and elsewhere has allowed mid and lower table clubs in the Premier League to bring in players from other top-level leagues in Europe. Mid-level teams in Spain or Germany cannot compete with the high wages available in England, meaning that their talented young players will no longer only be preyed upon by the heavyweights in their domestic league, but that mid level teams in the Premier League could raid them as well. The January signing by AFC Bournemouth of AS Roma forward Juan Iturbe is a key example; 10 years ago who would expect a player leaving a club in Serie A to join Bournemouth?
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In the January window one would expect the usual EPL big spenders Chelsea or the Manchester clubs to lead the charge in purchasing players, but it was actually Newcastle United that topped the charts for splashing cash in England, with £24M alone spent to secure the services of Jonjo Shelvey from Swansea City and Andros Townsend from Tottenham.
The massive TV deals are already having an impact on the Premier League’s competitive balance, and if the money continues to increase and the teams continue to bring in more and more talented players, it seems as if EPL clubs will continue to dominate the transfer markets from top to bottom, potentially at the expense of foreign leagues.