Football clubs splashed out £490m says Deloitte
TOP flight football clubs, including Manchester City and United, spent around £490m on player transfers during the summer trading window, according to business advisers Deloitte.
The firm’s Manchester-based Sports Business Group believes the new TV deal between the Barclays Premier League and BSkyB and BT may have helped clubs loosen the purse strings this summer.
Although many clubs are conscious of Financial Fair Play rules being imposed by UEFA, the governing body, spending was 1% above the £485m spent last summer, but short of the £500m splurged in 2008.
Alan Switzer, director in the Sports Business Group said@ “While the total spending this summer is still high, it should be considered in the context of increases of over 70% in the Premier League domestic broadcast deals announced earlier this year.
“Once overseas broadcast deals are factored in, the average Premier League club looks set to benefit from at least an additional £25m of revenue per year from next season.”
Partner Dan Jones added: “While the new broadcast deals further demonstrate the commercial strength of the Premier League, the key challenge for Premier League clubs is how they manage their costs – notably transfer expenditure and players’ wages – so as to retain more of this increased revenue, address falling profits and, in the case of the top clubs, continue on the road to compliance with UEFA’s Financial Fair Play regulations.”
Deloitte said five clubs, City, United, Arsenal. Chelsea and Tottenham had all exceeded £30m of gross transfer spending. In aggregate the clubs have committed to around 55% of Premier League clubs’ transfer fees in the 2012 summer transfer window.
