For the first time in a long time, the RPL closed the transfer window with a positive balance

The summer transfer window that closed yesterday in the Russian Premier League (RPL) confirmed that the influence of “isolating” sanctions on the domestic football market in the second year of their operation remains extremely powerful. Representatives of the RPL again spent an extremely modest amount by their previous standards, falling short of €90 million, to strengthen their squads. At the same time, for the first time in a long time, the Russian top division received more from the sale of football players than it invested in their purchase. It is not surprising that the assessment of the total cost of RPL in such conditions is constantly falling down.

On Friday night, the summer transfer window closed in the Russian Premier League. It was the second after the entire domestic sports industry faced serious restrictions imposed by international sports federations in the spring of 2022 against the backdrop of a military special operation in Ukraine. In relation to football, they resulted in the still unresolved suspension of all domestic clubs and national teams from participating in international tournaments. The version that due to sanctions, which mean a loss of part of the income and a decrease in the interest of foreigners in the Russian championship, the RPL will reduce activity in the transfer market, was confirmed a year ago. This window can be considered confirmation of the version that neither the adaptation of clubs to new conditions, nor the more profitable media contracts that entered into isolation before they entered into isolation, nor the emergence of a reformatted Russian Cup, which has acquired a rather noticeable commercial component, can stop the effect of the sanctions. .

As part of the completed summer campaign, according to Transfermarkt as of Thursday evening (no major deals were expected in the final hours before the window closed), 16 clubs in the Russian top division spent a total of €84.1 million on signing newcomers. This figure is approximately the same as last year – € 85.05 million – and looks extremely modest not only against the background of the indicators of European giants, such as the English Premier League, whose teams invested an incredible €2.8 billion in players, but also against the backdrop of the investments of the RPL itself in previous seasons. In the summer of 2021, even before all the restrictions, Russian clubs allocated €125 million to strengthen their squads, in the summer of 2020 – €124 million, in 2019 – €247 million.

The situation is even more clearly indicated by some nuances. During the previous transfer campaign, the RPL still found itself at least close to the top ten championships that spent the most funds. Now competitors, who were previously held back by problems associated with financial subsidence during the coronavirus pandemic, now practically resolved, have rushed far ahead. The gap between the top ten Belgian championship and the RPL, although half a decade ago the Russian league looked down on it, is about €75 million. At the same time, the lion’s share of its total spending, more than €60 million, was provided by a small handful of leading clubs – Spartak, Zenit “, CSKA and Dynamo (see information). The rest often behaved as if they were tasked with saving the club budget at any cost. And of the top four, only Spartak actually increased spending compared to the summer of 2022.

Of course, Russian clubs did not make any truly expensive acquisitions for the second year in a row. The record for this window belongs to Zenit: Serbian defender Strahinja Erakovic cost him €8 million. The midfielders Theo Bongonda and Luis Chavez, bought by Spartak and Dynamo, cost a little less. In a similar English ranking, Erakovic would not even be in the top hundred.

The most interesting result of this transfer window – and one more touch that perfectly complements the picture – is hidden in other data. For a very long time, the RPL had a strong reputation as a buying league and in this sense was similar to the same “Big Five” championships. Every year, she invested more money in recruits than she received from deals on the sale of football players who played on her teams. This was the case last season as well. In the summer of 2023, for the first time in five years, the balance of the RPL turned out to be positive: the total amount spent on its players by the clubs interested in them exceeded €123 million. In the classification formed by this indicator, the Russian championship is close to the top ten. And transactions that are noticeable by any domestic or even international standards are present in this column. We are talking primarily about the sale by Zenit and Dynamo of Malkom and Arsen Zakharyan to the Saudi Al-Hilal and the Spanish Real Sociedad for €60 million and €13 million, respectively.

A positive balance of 40 million is, however, in this case not so much an achievement as an illustration of how the status of the RPL, its capabilities, ambitions and preferences has changed. Although, probably, the transformation is demonstrated even better by the valuation of all football players in the league, which is decreasing year after year (see reference). And it seems that this decline will not be stopped in the near future.

Alexey Dospehov, Evgeny Fedyakov