EPL Accused Of ‘Cheating’ After $1bn January Transfer Spend

The Premier League has been accused of “cheating” by La Liga’s corporate general director after clubs spent a combined $1 billion (£815 million) in January.

According to a recent analysis by Deloitte’s Sports Business Group (via ESPN), Enzo Fernandez’s record-breaking £106.8 million (£131.6 million) transfer from Benfica to Chelsea is the biggest and most recent deal to close.

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Chelsea alone was in charge of 37% of expenditures, racking up more cash than all of the teams in the Bundesliga, La Liga, Serie A, and Ligue 1 put together.

La Liga’s corporate director Javier Gomez has urged UEFA to take additional action in light of this blatant English monopoly in the transfer market.

“We are aware there is a lot of talk about how LaLiga’s economic control means Spanish clubs sign less than Premier League clubs,” Gomez said in a video posted by La Liga president Javier Tebas on Twitter.

“The reality is that at LaLiga we want clubs to spend what they can afford and generate themselves, that is to say their own revenues. It is true that shareholders are also allowed to support the club and put money in to spend more than the club itself can generate, but within certain limits.

“Essentially, [in England] they are ‘doping’ the club. They are injecting money not generated by the club for it to spend, which puts the viability of the club at risk if the shareholder leaves. In our opinion, that is cheating, because it drags down the rest of the leagues.

“That is our fight, demanding that UEFA implements a new economic regulation that prevents the shareholder of a club from putting in more than a certain amount and that it enforces this rule and sanctions non-compliant clubs.”

In the video, Gomez hinted at a financial hegemony beginning in June 2021, yet just the month of January was enough to show the sharp rise in spending across England.

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Newly promoted Bournemouth was second in the spending rankings behind Chelsea, with top-flight English clubs’ spending nearly tripling from a year earlier. Premier League teams spent £2.8 billion ($3.5 billion) overall in 2022–23, well breaking the previous high of £1.9 billion ($2.3 billion) from 2017–18.

Although UEFA has limited contract lengths starting in 2023–24 as a result of Chelsea‘s transactions this season, they have not yet commented on the adoption of stricter legislation tracking money spent, despite the concerns from Spain and other countries continuing to rage.