World football is richer than ever. The amounts of money pumped into the top clubs and competitions have always been enormous, yet these numbers seem to be reaching ever more dizzying heights as we reflect on the most monetarily significant transfer window in our game’s history.
An eye-watering $4.16 billion was spent on player acquisitions by clubs in the English Premier League alone this summer, highlighting just how powerful an industry professional football has become. Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal led the spending charts, as mega-money signings Alexander Isak, Florian Wirtz, Joao Pedro and Viktor Gyökeres headlined the lengthy list of Premier League incomings, with Liverpool recruits Isak and Wirtz each commanding fees in excess of $120 million.
Many experts mark Neymar Jr.’s historic move from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain for the princely sum of $263 million in 2017 as a turning point for levels of investment, as transfer fees have ballooned year on year since, with 15 of the 20 most expensive deals of all time taking place since Neymar’s move to the French capital.
This is a trend that looks sure to continue. Middle Eastern oil money is flowing into elite football faster than ever, with the financially fueled success of Manchester City and PSG well-documented in recent years, coupled with the Saudi-backed acquisition of Newcastle United establishing ‘sportswashing’ as a very real threat to the competitive integrity of our game. Footballing romance must be preserved, and this new era of monetary power could ring in the demise of Cinderella stories such as Leicester City’s unlikely Premier League triumph in 2016.
Football is historically a working-class game, and it is vital that fans do not become alienated by the astronomical figures involved nowadays. Top level football is at risk of becoming an elitist playground, losing the accessibility and inclusivity to all that it was built on. Nowadays, buying their favorite team’s jersey will set a supporter back anywhere from $80-$150, a huge sum of money for the average fan. In the UK and Ireland, purchasing all the necessary streaming subscriptions to watch the action week in, week out can cost hundreds annually.
It is paramount that the sport does not price out its most valuable asset – the fans, otherwise we risk losing the soul of our beautiful game to the corporate greed that casts a menacing shadow over so much of modern society.