Man United had world’s highest net transfer spend over past five years
“The high level of spending compared with non-English clubs is evident, with the Premier League hosting seven of the top ten most expensive playing squads by transfer fee assembled at the end of the 2025 financial year,” the report says.“Chelsea FC’s playing squad at the end of the club’s 2025 financial year was officially the most expensive ever assembled, with a combined transfer cost of €1,746million, up €90million on the record set by the club last year.”That surpassed the value of the Real Madrid squad of 2020, which cost about £1.13billion to complie, and the Uefa report says TV revenues continued to be the greatest polarising factor. Premier League clubs earned £1.3billion more in TV money in 2024 compared to 2014 — similar to the TV revenue increase of the rest of the top 53 European leagues combined.The report adds: “The increase in TV revenue among English Premier League clubs in 2025-26 is set to be more than double the combined increases communicated elsewhere in Europe.”The financial gap between the elite clubs and other teams in England’s top flight is much smaller than in Spain’s La Liga, however. In terms of commercial revenue, the top club in England earned nine times the amount of the middle club in the league, while in Spain it was 36 times as much.“The ability of competition organisers and governing bodies to reduce financial imbalance through solidarity payments and prize money distribution should therefore be viewed in this context,” the report adds.Uefa’s president, Aleksander Ceferin, said the findings of the report were “encouraging” as it showed European football was well on the road to recovery after the pandemic.He said: “After a decade that included one of the toughest periods our sport and our society have faced, European football has come through in a strong position.“Club revenues have grown steadily across the board, and top-division income is expected to pass €30billion in the 2025 financial year.”
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