The growing gap between the financial power of the Premier League and every other top league in Europe is beginning to make many uncomfortable. Although a disparity has existed for some time, the disparity is hitting eye-watering levels, with the likes of newly-promoted Nottingham Forest outspending what was supposed to be a big summer for Barcelona.
Over the summer window, La Liga spent a total of €505m according to Mundo Deportivo. That pales in comparison to the Premier League spend, which totals at €2.208bn, over four times that of their Spanish counterparts.
Many have commented that the Premier League is becoming a de facto Superleague as a result of that financial imbalance. The next highest spending league was Serie A at €748m. In fact, the sum spend of the other four major European leagues, La Liga combined with Ligue 1, Serie A, the Bundesliga, equals a roughly similar spend to that of the Premier League at €2.296m.
Just as worrying is the fact that Real Madrid and Barcelona’s total spend, €233m, makes up nearly half of the total spend within La Liga. It highlights a similar imbalance within Spain.