“Top clubs are now spending incredible money on football players” – Kommersant FM

The richest clubs began to spend record amounts on football players. The International Center for Sports Research found out that their current squads cost four teams more than €1 billion. We are talking about Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea and PSG. Experts explain these statistics by inflation in world football. In recent years, the value of players on the market has been consistently growing. Of the 20 most expensive deals in history, half of the clubs concluded in the last two years. Why did this happen? Kommersant FM sports commentator Vladimir Osipov looked into it.

Just recently, FIFA and UEFA officials were extremely proud of their invention called “financial fair play” (FFP). But the ideal world in which clubs had to spend as much as they earned quickly collapsed. Yes, the leadership of world football even punished someone.

In the best years, even our teams – Zenit, Rubin and Anzhi – fell under the rink of fighters for financially honest football. But in the end, everyone without exception learned to bypass this same financial fair play. And even attempts at exemplary vices ended sadly for FIFA. The same “Mancity”, violating everything possible, always got off with some kind of ridiculous fines, and as a result, everyone forgot about the invention of football officials. So now financial fair play is for the poor, commentator Mikhail Mossakovsky is sure:

“Serious punishments for violating the rules of financial fair play in Europe are received by small clubs – those that cannot stand up for themselves, that do not have such serious opportunities as the giants. And the grandees allow themselves to do outrageous things and, to one degree or another, remain unpunished. But until things become politically motivated.”

The rebellion that 12 clubs staged when they created the Super League can also be considered politically motivated. After this, many followers of the project miraculously began to have problems. But in the end, this story moved the matter forward and allowed the clubs to earn significantly more, football agent Dmitry Selyuk is sure:

“After the organization of the FIFA Super League, in order to please other clubs, we increased income, began to share, and began to think about how to earn money together. And the teams’ incomes have increased.”

And yet these earnings can hardly cover the amounts that, for example, Manchester United spent on players. Just think about it – €1.15 billion. In second place on this list is Chelsea – €1.13 billion. An honorable third place is Manchester City – €1.04 billion. PSG is in fourth place – €1 billion

Against this background, Real Madrid, which invested €700 million in its squad, looks somehow modest, not to mention Bayern, which spent less than €500 million on players. Another version of why top clubs are now spending such incredible amounts money for football players, suggested the former owner of Spartak, businessman Andrei Chervichenko:

“The machine is working non-stop now. When someone who has it spends, he doesn’t care what the amounts are. If they started giving €300-€500 million for football players and paying them €200 million in salaries, like Cristiano Ronaldo, what is there to talk about.”

But not all top clubs have spent billions on their squads. For example, Barcelona cost €375 million, which is even less than the Saudi Arabian team Al-Hilal, for which Malcolm and Neymar currently play.

By the way, the richest club in Russia, Zenit, after parting with Malcolm, has a squad worth only €155 million. This result will not even allow it to enter the top 100 of the ranking published by the International Center for Sports Research. But there are four clubs from Saudi Arabia on this list. Otherwise, no sensations. The top 100 included 19 English teams, 15 Italian, 12 Spanish, 11 German and 11 French.

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