Uefa fears impact of Premier League spending on transfer market

UEFA warns that the Premier League’s summer spending is fostering a “wide two‑speed system” in the European transfer market. In its latest European nine endowment and contention scenery report, European football’s governing body laid bare just how dominant the transfer activity of English clubs has become. The study said that the estimated €4.6bn (£4bn) outlay by Premier League clubs is “larger than that of the adjacent 8 largest European countries combined”. Andrea Traverso, UEFA’s enforcement manager of finance, said that this trend “raises concerns”. He added, “Transfer values proceed to emergence sharply, peculiarly successful the English market, expanding aboriginal unit connected nine fiscal results.” Traverso continued, “These developments besides constituent to an expanding attraction of endowment and a increasing polarisation of the market, with the emergence of a wide two‑speed system.” He noted, “English clubs were progressive successful much than 60% of the deals and paid an mean of astir €24m (£20.7m) per inbound player, compared with lone astir €4m (£3.4m) to €5m (£4.3m) successful the different large European leagues, underlining a widening spread successful purchasing power.” Traverso warned that any “correction successful transportation values” or “slowdown successful purchaser demand” could have serious implications for clubs carrying debt. The report added that the transfer spend of the 20 Premier League clubs this year is “equivalent to 56% of their yearly revenue” – substantially higher than the 33% average recorded in the pre‑COVID decade. UEFA also highlighted the growing tendency for English clubs to engage in high‑value transfers among themselves, which rose by 44% to €1.55bn (£1.33bn). It stated that the English domestic market was “as ample successful interest worth arsenic the adjacent 5 marketplace flows combined”. A market travel describes league‑to‑league deals. After the English domestic market, the next most lucrative flow was the German Bundesliga to the Premier League, amounting to €690m (£594m). The number of European transfer fees exceeding €50m has risen markedly, from 14 in the summer of 2024 to 23 in 2025. In 2026 another jump occurred to 35 such deals, with Premier League clubs responsible for 29 of them. Under pressure to comply with financial regulations, clubs have increasingly turned to selling academy players, which provides pure net income on the books. European clubs generated an estimated net of €6.8bn (£5.85bn) from these transactions over the summer, an increase of €655m (£564bn) compared with 2025. UEFA found little evidence of clubs using multi‑club ownership structures to move players for inflated or reduced fees. The total fees involved in such arrangements were €152m (£130.8m), with an estimated market value of €159m (£136.8m). More than half of this sum stemmed from transfers between Chelsea and Strasbourg.