England’s Premier League Sets Spending Record
Listen to the story (Irish accent)
Many people in the UK are struggling with higher prices for food and energy now, but England’s Premier League football teams spent more money than ever.
This past summer, the 20 teams in the Premier League spent more than €2.24 billion on players. The league’s net spend was €1.3 billion.
Of the top football leagues in Europe, La Liga in Spain was the next closest with a net spend of €52.5 million. The German Bundesliga, France’s Ligue 1, and Italy’s Serie A all made profits from selling players.
In the Premier League, Chelsea and Manchester United both spent around €227 million, the most in the league.
Eight of the top 10 spending teams this summer were in England. FC Barcelona in La Liga and Paris Saint-Germain in France were the two teams in the top 10 that are outside of the Premier League.
There are different reasons for the record spending this summer. New deals with TV stations, new sponsorships, higher ticket prices, and new, rich team owners are examples.
11 clubs in the Premier League spent €40 million or more on players. Manchester United laid out €100 million for just one player, Antony from Brazil.
The UK is currently in a difficult economic period, but the situation seems to be the opposite for the Premier League. Other football clubs in Europe are still trying to recover from financial losses due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Vocabulary14 words
- Struggle
- to fight; to try very hard to do a difficult thing; strain
- Energy
- fuel; electricity; power; oil
- More than ever
- the most; more than the previous time
- Net spend
- The total money that the league spends for new players minus the money the league receives for selling players (e.g., $100 spend on new players - $20 received for selling a player = $80 net spend)
- Profit
- extra money, financial gain
- Record
- the most or least ever; the highest level ever; achieved for the first time
- Deal
- agreement; business contract; arrangement
- Sponsorship
- the agreement when a company/person pays support money and can advertise or show their name (Coca-cola sponsors the Olympics)
- Lay out
- pay; spend
- Economic
- related to or connected to the economy, business and money
- Period
- a length of time; or portion of time
- Recover
- to return or come back to normal; rally; rebound; to get back something you lost
- Financial
- related to finance, money or banking
- Pandemic
- when a disease or sickness goes all over the country or world
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