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The gap between the haves and the have-nots is widening because of the Premier League and it’s not good for European football
There will no doubt be plenty of backslapping at Premier League headquarters this morning. Five of its Champions League participants qualified for the round of 16 without the need for play-offs while players like Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain will have to fight for their lives next month.
It was another coup by the European financial heavyweight. Is this good for the Premier League? Absolutely. Is this good for football or for UEFA? Absolutely not.
The biggest obstacle in sport is imbalance. We all love underdog stories – and Bodo/Glimt’s successes in beating Manchester City and Atletico Madrid despite closing out domestic seasons warms the heart – but they are rare in a world where money talks.
Premier League money begins to dominate the continental scene
The recently released Deloitte Football Money League shows that of the 10 highest revenue-generating clubs across the continent, six are from the Premier League. Bigger revenue = more opportunities to attract top players = success on the field.
Another worrying statistic is that the total spending of Premier League clubs during the last summer window was more than that of Bundesliga, La Liga, Ligue 1 and Serie A clubs combined.
Most of the aforementioned leagues are dominated by one or, in some cases, two clubs who financially overshadow the others. The Bundesliga and Ligue 1 were dominated by Bayern Munich and PSG for years while La Liga is a two-horse race. Serie A is more competitive but generally lags behind due to a lack of business acumen.
Real Madrid and Barcelona top the Deloitte list, but they lack the spending power of the Premier League big boys, which perhaps explains their desire to join England’s elite in the now-abandoned Super League.
Barca have only bought one player for more than £50m since 2020 – Raphinha – as they struggle with inherited debts, while Madrid’s net transfer spending over the last five seasons is around £245m. Arsenal’s net spending last summer alone was around £243m.
The disparity was on full display last week when the Gunners traveled to Inter Milan – one of the greats of European football – made seven changes and won 3-1. It was no different approach to the one they would take against Newport in the early rounds of the EFL Cup.
Their north London rivals Tottenham can barely win a game domestically but finished fourth in the Champions League after losing just once.
There’s no sign of this heavyweight stopping either. As long as TV money keeps flowing in, Premier League clubs will get richer and richer. This is a worrying moment for the rest of Europe.
Is it harder to win the Premier League than the Champions League?
The brutal reality is that few people in England will care. We get to watch the best players and the best teams week in and week out.
There are more and more arguments claiming that it is more difficult to win the Premier League than the Champions League.
If table leaders Arsenal cross the finish line they will have played 10 games against five of the world’s richest clubs. They reached the knockout stages of the Champions League by playing only one. There will of course be trickier tests ahead, although a place in the quarter-finals seems more than likely given their opponents will be Olympiacos, Borussia Dortmund, Atalanta or Bayer Leverkusen.
Romantics will cheer for Bodo/Glimt, a small club located inside the Arctic Circle. Their biggest challenge now is to keep their players while the clubs are already on the lookout.
The winner of last night’s match against Atletico Madrid, Kasper Hogh, will likely be eliminated. Not by an elite club in Italy, Germany, Spain or France. They cannot afford the £7m fee. His reported suitors are none other than Norwich City, 18th in the English championship.
