Is the Super League already here?

Premier League clubs spent almost €830 million in January, with Chelsea's outlay bigger than Europe's other 'top five' leagues put together...

“Our beloved sport is sick,” Florentino Pérez said in October. The Real Madrid president was renewing calls for a European Super League – just over four months after his club had won the Champions League in Paris. Eyebrows were raised.

When Pérez presented plans for the European Super League in an extraordinary interview on Spanish show El Chiringuito in 2021, he had gone even further. “We’re all ruined,” he said.

This was the same Pérez who paid €60 million for Luís Figo in 2000, €76m for Zinédine Zidane in 2001, €94m for Cristiano Ronaldo in 2009, €100m for Gareth Bale in 2013 and the same for Eden Hazard in 2019. On his return for a second spell as Real Madrid chief in 2009, Los Blancos spent over €250m in one summer alone.

Real Madrid are not exactly paupers these days, but this last month has highlighted a major shift in European football. One league is now spending much more than the rest and if that trend continues, the others will find it difficult to compete. That league is, of course, the Premier League.

In the January transfer window, Premier League teams spent just under €830m. That was more than the next 10 leagues on the list put together. And the sixth of those (after the ‘top five’ European leagues) was England’s second tier: the Championship.

After the Premier League, the biggest outlays in January transfer deals came from Ligue 1 (€124.9m), the Bundesliga (€68.27m), LaLiga (€31.88m) and Serie A (€31.22).

Chelsea alone spent more than those four leagues combined, with an enormous €328m shelled out on transfers in January. The Blues had already splashed out €281m in the summer.

Some of these players are also relatively untried at the highest level. Winger Mykhailo Mudryk, signed for €62m (plus add-ons), had made just 44 appearances for Shakhtar Donestk prior to joining Chelsea; and midfielder Enzo Fernández, bought for around €120m, has featured in just 29 games in Europe with Benfica.

“European football needs a new system,” Juventus president Andrea Agnelli said last week as he stepped down amid false accounting accustions at the Italian club. “Otherwise, it risks a decrease in favour of a single dominant league which within a few years will attract all the talent of European football within its league, completely marginalising the other leagues and the others are already marginalised.”

Deloitte recently published its Football Money League and the annual report showed the extent of the Premier League dominance this time around, with 11 of the top 20 all English top-flight clubs. Manchester City, like last year, were at the top.

“The Premier League is earning more than double from international TV than any of the other ‘big five’ leagues,” Deloitte’s Chris Wood said.

“What they've done over the past 30 years is cultivate a brand that really resonates across not only the domestic market, but also the international market. The other big five are struggling to replicate that.

“Consequently, during the last decade or so, the Premier League clubs have pulled away from all of their European rivals in terms of revenue.”

That goes a long way to explaining why one of the Premier League’s smaller sides, Bournemouth, were able to outbid Italian giants AC Milan with a €30m offer for Roma’s Nicolò Zaniolo (who ended up staying at his current club).

“It’s an economic question: there’s more money in the Premier League,” player agent Jonathan Barnett said at the Football Forum in Rome at the weekend. Serie A has to rebuild again. We need to work on it, have more sponsors and get more money from televisions.”

Serie A is not alone, either. Europe’s biggest leagues are all playing catch-up with the Premier League. And it may be too late. Even though the ESL plans were shelved in 2021, the Super League may already be here.