Now the summer transfer window has closed for the English Premiership Football teams it is sometimes a hard one to work out how some teams are able to spend the big bucks and other teams none at all. I actually enjoy researching these types of articles as one learns so much and eventually it ends up making sense.
Understanding the spending rules is important and then the transfer market becomes easier to understand. You may ask yourself why have clubs sold players and yet spent so little during this transfer window? This is all about creating a profit as the last few season they could have had losses and thus cannot spend as much as they want this season or face financial penalties and deducted league points.
Last year there was some talk of Aston Villa and Newcastle trading players for what seemed like over inflated valuations so this is not always above the table dealings to stay in the good books. A home grown player bought through your academy is a 100% profit player when sold and when a purchased player is sold his purchase price and selling price is calculated at either a profit or loss. Manchester United not selling players and loaning/renting them out is better for the books than selling at a loss.
You may have heard the term PSR which stands for Premier League Profitability and Sustainability Rules which states a club cannot lose more than £105 million over a 3 year period. The FFP FIFA Fair Play Rules are exactly the same as PSR. This is actually easy to do as the majority of clubs were losing money and at one stage not that long ago only 6 clubs in the entire UEFA group only had 6 profitable clubs. That is 6 clubs out of 1170 professional football teams.
Lets take a look at Liverpool as they were the biggest spenders this time around yet their net spend was less than that of Arsenal. They sold quite a few players for profit and why they were able to spend nearly half a billion GBP.
Total club revenue last season was £614 million and the club made a profit of £47 million. Scary when you work this out as they made around 8% profit from this massive turnover which is not that much. This is after winning the league and the broadcast television right payment which each club received £96 million.
£93 Million season ticket holders (34 000)
£1.350 million per home game
£25.65 million season 19 home games excluding cup and Champions League matches
£3 million executive suites/boxes
£6.6 million per year shirt sponsors which forms part of their commercial sponsorship deals with advertising boards around the field totaling £308 million.
The balance taking the revenue to £614 million missing from the above would have been the Champions League payout and the Premier League payout.
What is interesting to note is that there have been discussions about the PSR rules changing for 2026/27 and how this will affect all the clubs next season. The thought or hunch going around is these numbers are going to decrease so clubs will have to run there clubs like a proper business or face penalties. there will be no more buying players and selling them at a loss as you cannot afford to do this. Scouting teams need to be on their game and no chances taken with an added effort more on club grown talent.