There is stiff competition among the football leagues around the globe to be in the spotlight. Be it boasting the most expensive squads or having the most successful team in Europe, leagues from England, Spain, and Italy are always the frontrunners.
Success in European competitions has always been the main objective for the football powerhouses to sustain their greatness to their worldwide followers. Having star players in your league like the Premier League has Erling Haaland, Mohamed Salah, and La Liga has Kylian Mbappé, Robert Lewandowski, not only elevates the league’s brand value but also enlarges its popularity and viewership.
To stay competitive across all tournaments, football teams have to spend a huge amount of money, which collectively increases a league’s net spend per year. With that said, let’s delve into the leagues with the highest net spend in the last nine years.
Premier League (ENG): € 23.02 bn
The Premier League is the richest league in the world by a mile. The Premier League’s opulent standards have taken the transfer market on fire as the final outlay of €23.02 billion was broadly spent over the last nine years.
Serie A (ITA): € 10.84 bn
Serie A became the second-highest-spending league only behind the Premier League as clubs like Inter Milan, Juventus, and AC Milan broke their transfer records to acquire the services of big names and promising young talents. The Italian league has set ambitious financial goals to meet in terms of transfer spending, as they come second with €10.84 billion in net spend in the last nine seasons.
La Liga (ESP): € 7.94 bn
Spanish giants Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Atlético Madrid have fueled the spending spree as their collective net spend is more than two-thirds of La Liga total. Despite La Liga not coming into the spotlight in terms of bank-crashing transfers in comparison to the Premier League, modern-day legends like Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo escalated the Spanish top-tier’s prevalence, and now it’s on the shoulders of Vinicius Junior and Lamine Yamal.
Ligue 1 (FRA): € 7.44 bn
Despite Paris Saint-Germain’s highly negative balance (-€868M), the French Ligue 1 is the only competition from the big-5 recording positive net transfer spending (+€350M) over the last decade. Financially, the league has been steadily declining compared to other European leagues because of its escalating costs and an overdependence on player trading.
Bundesliga (GER): € 7.17 bn
Bundesliga clubs have also spent record figures in the transfer windows over the last couple of years. While Bayern Munich tops the list among the other clubs from the German top-flight in this regard, Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig, and Bayer Leverkusen’s overall revenue have seen sizeable growth, increasing the Bundesliga’s combined expenditure.
England’s second division Championship (€ 2.55 bn) and Saudi Pro League (€ 2.09 bn) are also on the top-spending list with their latest signings in recent years.
