English clubs dwarfed rivals in football transfer spending, report reveals

Clubs from England spent £1.78bn on international deals last year with Italian clubs second with £543.6m

The arrival of international stars to like Manchester City’s Erling Haaland last summer contributed to English clubs spending by far the most on international deals in 2022 (Martin Rickett/PA) (PA Wire)

The Premier League’s dominance of the international transfer market has been highlighted again in a new FIFA report.

The world governing body’s Global Transfer Report for 2022 found English clubs spent just under 2.2 billion US dollars (£1.78bn) on international deals in the January and summer windows last year, with Italian clubs a distant second with 673.3m US dollars (£543.6m) spent.

England’s total spending accounted for just over a third of the global total for international deals, which FIFA put at 6.5bn US dollars (£5.25bn). This was an increase of 33.5 per cent compared to 2021 but still lower than the record mark of 7.35bn US dollars (£5.93bn) set in 2019.

English clubs were the buyers in six of the 10 biggest transfers identified in the report, which included Manchester City’s purchase of Erling Haaland from Borussia Dortmund, Liverpool’s signing of Luis Diaz from Porto and Manchester United’s recruitment of Brazilian duo Antony and Casemiro.

The top 10 deals accounted for 12.5 per cent of the overall total spend, FIFA said, while the top 100 deals accounted for almost 50 per cent of it.

France was found to be the association making the most from international transfer deals, with total receipts of 740.3m US dollars (£597.7m). Premier League clubs recouped 600.5m US dollars (£484.8m), the fourth-highest total.

Deloitte said earlier this week that Premier League clubs had already smashed the previous record for spending in the current January transfer window, when there was still a week of it to go.

The financial services firm said their gross spend by 3pm on Tuesday was £440m, already surpassing the previous record of £430m set in January 2018.

The report also identified a 22 per cent year on year increase on international deals in the women’s game, from 410 in 2021 to 500 last year.