The Premier League premium is £20m - and that worries European clubs
September 3, 2026 11:13
Premier League clubs paid significantly more for players already playing in England this summer, with the average fee for signings from another Premier League club at £39.4m — almost double the £20.2m spent on players arriving from abroad. Kieran Maguire, professor of football finance at the University of Liverpool, described the disparity as "a Premier League tax".
TREND AND EXAMPLES
High-value domestic deals have surged. Two years ago there were six transfers worth £40m or more between Premier League clubs; this summer that figure rose to 18. By contrast, continental Europe saw seven such deals two years ago and nine this summer. Only seven signings of £40m or more by European clubs were recorded this summer, and those were all made by Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Paris St-Germain.
Notable domestic moves cited include Savio (£75m), Iliman Ndiaye (£65m) and Carlos Baleba (£70m). Brighton bought Baleba from Lille for £23m three years ago and last week sold him to Manchester United for £70m.
WHY IT MATTERS
The pattern concentrates spending inside England and leaves only Europe's richest clubs able to match Premier League prices. Trevor Watkins, a former Bournemouth chairman, said the league "almost operates within its own bubble" because "the revenues dwarf what other leagues generate" and Premier League clubs are often the only ones able to pay the fees and wages on offer.
Financial rules are reinforcing the trend. Profit on transfers matters for the Premier League's new squad cost ratio (SCR) rules, which smooth transfer income and affect how much clubs can reinvest. The case of Elliot Anderson was used to illustrate the accounting: Nottingham Forest bought him for £35m, sold him for £116m, but about £21m remained on the club's books. Under SCR that counted as a profit of roughly £95m, averaged over three years at about £31.67m for Forest.
The spending split also highlights the scale gap within the division. The 'Big Six' — Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham — spent £1.658bn this summer, while the other 14 Premier League clubs together spent £1.833bn. Maguire noted that clubs with larger commercial revenues and expanded stadia have effectively "future-proofed" themselves.