Ken Early: Big money in football may not last forever - Irish Times
Arsène Wenger is the only Premier League manager who regularly issues big-picture bulletins on the state of the game. Last week, the man who did more than anyone to popularise the notion of “financial doping” in football expressed his disgust at Uefa for apparently giving up the five-year struggle to reform the economy of the European game according to the... Uefa insist they have “strengthened” the FFP regulations but such a claim is hard to square with the fact Manchester City’s net spend this transfer window is £165 million (€227 million). That is equivalent to the entire 2014 turnover of clubs like Atlético Madrid or Inter. Kevin De Bruyne’s move to City is significant in that it is the first time a reigning footballer of the year from the German, Spanish or Italian leagues has left that league to join an English club. Jurgen Klinsmann was the German footballer of the year when he joined Spurs in 1994, but Klinsmann was already playing abroad at the time, with Monaco. In the past, the major European leagues simply did not lose their very best players to England, but the gigantic Premier League TV deals, in tandem with the recent appreciation of sterling against the euro, are ushering in a new era. The Premier League’s new domestic TV deal kicks in at the beginning of next season, at which point the team that finishes last in England will be earning more from domestic television than any European club except Real Madrid and Barcelona. Source: www.irishtimes.com
