English Premier League spending: where does the money go?

There goes a saying, love is in the air. But in English Premier League it's more like, money is in the air. But the clubs in other countries are succeeding in European competitions.

Therefore the question arrives, is the money going into the Premier League from the TV deals going out of the country and indirectly helping other countries or is it staying in the Premier League or even flowing down into the English Football Leagues?

To find out the answers, we need to look at all the clubs in the Premier League over the last five years (this year included) and see which leagues have received the money those teams have spent. We will try to break it down step by step.

Our first step is to find out the spending of Premier League clubs over the last five years. And thanks to www.transfermarkt.co.uk, as we will use their data. 

What do you think, which club is spending more money? If your answer is Manchester City, you're 100 percent correct. Over the last four full seasons and the latest transfer window, they have spent £587.14 million.

And the result is sweet as well. There was a time when they don't even secure their place to play Europa League, last season they played the Champions League final. 

Pep Guardiola spent £181.05 million in just his first transfer window in charge. And that is greater than any sum of transfer windows in the past four seasons.

Now let's follow the plan. We will look at where all this money has gone. We need to find out which leagues have received the money spent by these Premier League teams, how much money stays at the same league and how much has gone to the other leagues or even filtered down into the English Premier League system.

Quite unbelievable, but the truth is, over the last four full seasons and the latest transfer window this season, Premier League clubs have spent a staggering £4,908,870,000. Yes, this is around five billion pounds.     

Of that huge amount of money spent, deals between Premier League clubs with £1,229,450,000 have seen the most amount of money spent, that is approximately 25% of the total spend that has stayed between the Premier League clubs. And When we combine this figure with the amounts paid to Championship and Football Leagues 1 & 2 clubs, we can see that £1,718,280,000 has been kept in the English Football League system, which is 35% of the total spend.

That's the story of EPL. Now we need to know, which league gets more money from the English clubs. And it's the Spanish league (La Liga) that receives the most amount of money. 

La Liga gets £515,300,000 which is 10.50% of the total spend. So, it's pretty much clear that the Spanish teams are the best foreign League to take advantage of the big money willing to be spent by the Premier League.

On the other hand, the French league (Ligue 1) is in third position. Because in that league, only Paris Saint-Germain are making some sort of headway in the Champions League. And La Liga have six finalists in the Champions League and five finalists in the Europa League in the last five seasons. 

No surprise, Premier League clubs have spent more on Championship players than those in the German Bundesliga, Serie A in Italy, Eredivisie in Holland, Liga NOS in Portugal, Jupiler Pro League in Belgium, Premier Liga in both Russia and Ukraine, Serie A in Brazil and the Scottish Premiership.

We need to move forward now. We are going to look at the breakdown per season of spending patterns of the English clubs. From that, we will be able to know whether the clubs are on an upward trend or downward trend in terms of money received by Premier League clubs.

Premier league spending patterns have remained steady and consistent when buying players in the last five seasons from fellow Premier League clubs, The Championship, Football Leagues 1 & 2, Eredivisie (Netherlands), Liga NOS (Portugal), Jupiler Pro League (Belgium), Premier Liga in Russia and Ukraine and the Scottish Premiership; whilst the percentage of total spend on players from Brazil has reduced in recent seasons after peaking due to the transfers of Paulinho to Tottenham and Oscar to Chelsea. 

There is no issue with the Italian league (Serie A). because over the last five seasons, the English clubs' spending remains consistent. 

But if we look at the French league, the story is different. Spending in Ligue 1 has been largely inconsistent. in 2012/13 and 2015/16 they received the second-highest percentage of total transfers, with the transfers of Hazard, Lloris, Giroud and Remy in 2012/13 and Martial in 2015/2016 contributing factors to the fluctuating numbers.   

La Liga gets more money than other leagues. The total value of transfers of players from La Liga (Spain) to the Premier League increased in season 2013/14 before peaking in 2014/15. But in recent seasons the spending has dropped down. 

On the other hand, the German league (Bundesliga) is going upwards with the Premier League money. Premier League clubs spent 15% of their total spend in 2015/2016 and 13.43% in the summer 2016 window, compared to a low of 1.16% in 2014/2015. 

It is clear that 35% of total transfer fees spent by Premier League clubs over the last five seasons (including the latest transfer window) have remained in the English Football League system. La Liga and Ligue 1 are the most benefited leagues. Recently Bundesliga joins them.