Football clubs feel squeeze as spend drops
Sep 2 2010 by Iain Laing, The Journal
THE tough economic times are impacting the country’s football clubs with transfer fees paid by English clubs down on the previous year.
Sunderland were one of the highest spenders with their deadline day capture of Asamoah Gyan for a club record £13m from French club Rennes.
But overall the fees paid this year to English clubs were around £50m down on 2009 at around £350m, according to research by accountants and business advisors Grant Thornton .
Joe McLean, partner at Grant Thornton in the North East, said: “English football clubs continue to be in a state of financial uncertainty. With the exception of Manchester City, no one is really spending. City’s expenditure has been with overseas clubs and so there has been no trickle-down effect for other English-based clubs.
“We have seen more high-profile free transfers, for example the moves of Joe Cole and William Gallas, as we see clubs looking for ways of reducing or restructuring their wage bills,”
Manchester City’s acquisitions of Yaya Toure, David Silva, Jerome Boateng, Mario Balotelli and Aleksander Kolarov and James Milner meant they were the highest spenders at more than £100m.
The Premier League recently argued that the newly-introduced squad composition rules – eight homegrown players in a squad of 25 – would make buying home-grown talent more attractive. However, this does not appear to have been reflected in this transfer window.
English and Welsh players accounted for 16% of all Premiership clubs’ expenditure, down from 36% in 2009.
McLean added: “There was much talk when the rules were introduced that this may positively influence the buying behaviour of Premiership clubs.
“It may be that it is too soon to tell if this will have the desired impact .”
But it does appear that clubs are utilising the fact that regardless of status, any player under 21 may be used to augment the squad. “Transfer fees and player wages are two key areas of expenditure for clubs – the data from this window shows that transfer spending at least is being reined back.”
Dan Jones, partner in the Sports Business Group at Deloitte, said: “Premier League clubs’ spending in this transfer window has been relatively restrained, after three years in which the clubs had spent in the region of £450m to £500m each summer.
“In general, an absence of new owners and clubs striving to improve their financial balance has diminished the vibrancy of the transfer market.”
Newcastle spent frugally this year with the £3.5m purchase of Cheik Tiote form Dutch side FC Twente being the highlight.
