Economic Crisis? Not according to the English Premier League

The world maybe in the midst of one of the worst Economic crisis in post-war history, but clearly that doesn’t count when it comes to the high spending world of top flight football. Yesterday saw the closing of the January transfer window, which means clubs throughout Europe can no longer sign new players until the season has finished. The English Premier League is always the place in Europe where the big money gets spent in January with £150m being spent in 2007 and £170m spent in 2008. Last year saw a dramatic drop in transfers during the winter window, with only a modest £30m being spent by English clubs. That figure was credited partially to the instability in the economic market, but that theory has been quelled this year as English clubs spent over £214m on player transfers during January.

The main spenders in the transfer window were Russian-backed Chelsea, spending £50million on Fernando Torres from Liverpool and £21m on David Luiz from Benfica. Chelsea’s owner Roman Abramovich has once again shown that money is no object for the West London club when it comes to strengthening their team. Liverpool spent big also, backed by their American owner John Henry, sending out £23m to Ajax for Louis Suarez and £35m to Newcastle for Andy Carroll. The windows other bid spenders were the richest club in the world, Manchester City, who spent a modest £27m on Edin Dzeko.

Many of us can not even comprehend just how much £200million actually is, and for football followers, who hear about massive transfer’s and wages practically everyday, that figure is even more distorted. To bring some kind of perspective to that sum of money, here are some examples of things you could buy for £200m:

• You could redevelop the entire London Underground system (source)
• You could have purchased the DVD postal-rental service, LoveFilm (source)
• Buy five months worth of consulting, PR and marketing,just like our coalition government (source)
• Buy a Scottish wind-farm which would provide power to 100,000 homes (source)
• and finally, Reimburse the NHS in Manchester the money cut in the latest spending cuts (source)

I think everyone can agree that all the above (with the exception of the PR fees) would effect a lot of peoples lives, be it for securing their jobs, heating their homes or saving their lives. It kind of puts the whole thing in perspective, don’t you think?

With the money being spent by clubs on wages and transfer fee’s, football’s finances seem out of control. The big clubs making these transfers mostly have big foreign backers who have a lot of money to fund these fee’s. But these owners aren’t stupid, they want to make money on their investments. So how do the club’s make their money back? the fans will certainly be effected as tickets go up and the whole match day experience begins to cost a whole lot more. Football is in danger of becoming an elitist sport at the top level and with it, alienating the very fans who pump their hard earned cash in to the clubs that they love. No one can predict what the future holds for ‘the beautiful game’, any more than we can predict what the future holds for the NHS or the national deficit. Its just a shame that the realities of the two have become so far apart, so far distorted, that £214million becomes little more than a number.

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