Premier League clubs break the piggy bank

During the last transfer window, Premier League teams invested an all-time high of €2.6 billion (including add-ons) to sign new players.

Overall, the big-5 league clubs’ expenditure reached €5.2 billion for the summer and €6.2 bn for the whole 2022 calendar year.

This is the second highest figure ever observed, an increase of 61% compared to 2021 and just 7% below the record high of 2019.

More exclusive transfer fee data is available for free in the freshly published 77th edition of the CIES Football Observatory Monthly Report.

An all-time high was also recorded with regard to the share of transfer fees paid by English Premier League teams out of total big-5 league clubs’ investments. From an average of 38.7% during the ten-year period studied, this percentage reached a peak of 48.5% in 2022.

In ten years, the English Premier League cumulated a transfer deficit of -€9.5 billion, followed by the Italian Serie A with “just” -€1.4 bn.

The French Ligue 1 is at the opposite end (+€350M).

Three French clubs, LOSC Lille (+€379M), Olympique Lyonnais (+€282M) and Monaco (+€215M), are at the top of the rankings for current big-5 league teams with the most positive net transfer spending over the past decade.

Manchester United is at the opposite end (-€1.27 billion), followed by Manchester City (-€902M) and Paris St-Germain (-€868M).

Manchester City (€279M) heads the table for transfer fees received from big-5 league clubs in 2022, ahead of AFC Ajax (€226M).

All CIES Football Observatory’s reports available for free here!

About the CIES Football Observatory

The CIES Football Observatory is a research group created in 2005 within the Swiss-based Centre International d’Étude du Sport (CIES). It specialises in the statistical analysis of football, in particular in the areas of demographics, transfer values and performance. Click here for more information.

About the CIES

The International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES) is an independent study centre located in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. It was created in 1995 as a joint venture between the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the University of Neuchâtel, the City and State of Neuchatel. Click here for more information. Click here for more information.

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