European football spending shoots past $3.7 billion mark
Europe's top football clubs spent more than US$3 billion ($3.76 billion) in the recently closed summer transfer window, according to Deloitte.
The business consulting firm reported that the 20 English Premier League clubs topped the big spenders list with around £835 million ($1.73 billion) spent on players, with Manchester United leading the way with a £150m splurge on new recruits.
Dan Jones from Deloitte told Sky Sports that improved television deals were behind the EPL's summer spending spree, which blew away last year's record spending of around £630m.
La Liga clubs were the next biggest spenders after the English, splashing out around 530 million euros ($871.4m) on transfers. Usual suspects Barcelona and Real Madrid led the way with their mega money captures of Liverpool's Luis Suarez and World Cup star James Rodriguez from Monaco.
Italy's Serie A came in third with 345m euros spent while German Bundesliga clubs accounted for 315m euros worth of transfers.
France's top flight were the fifth biggest spenders on the continent at 125m euros.
According to Fifa's transfer matching system, 1,164 players joined clubs among the top five spenders, who were responsible for 85 per cent of the money that exchanged hands during the summer among Europe's 26 biggest leagues.
Source: AFP, Sky Sports
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