Top soccer stars are well-placed to continue to command record transfer fees from English clubs, with wages to match, but less famous teammates could see their pay come under increasing pressure.
Analysis from consultancy firm Deloitte shows the credit crunch has not dented soccer transfers, with around 500 million pounds ($894 million) spent on new players by English Premier League clubs this summer, up from around 470 million in 2007.
Last-minute deals in the summer transfer window, including Robinho's move to Manchester City from Real Madrid for around 32.5 million pounds and Dimitar Berbatov's signing to Manchester United from Tottenham Hotspur for $57.7million, helped secure the record spend, with January transfers taking the total for 2008 to around $1.2 billion.
Paul Rawnsley, director of the Sports Business Group at Deloitte, said he was not surprised at the significant level of spending over the summer and said a premium is being paid for the very top talent.
Rawnsley told Reuters he expects spending across the Premier League to be "at least maintained" in coming seasons, thanks to new investors like the Abu Dhabi United Group, which is taking over ownership of Manchester City from Thaksin Shinawatra, and the continuation of the league's lucrative television deals until the end of next season.
The change of ownership at Manchester City and its subsequent move for Robinho helped boost trsnfer spending on Monday, the final day in the summer transfer window, to almost 100 million pounds.
While Rawnsley believes the sums being spent this summer show the Premier League to be recession-resistant, he does see potential for transfer fees for the less-famous squad players, and the wages they can command, to come under pressure, however.
"At that level, there can be squeeze in terms of the amounts that are paid both in transfers and how much those players receive through wages," Rawnsley said. "That's not to say they are not receiving very significant and healthy pay packets each month."
Geoff Mesher, head of the forensic sports dispute team at KPMG, said he would not be surprised if the British transfer record set for Robinho was surpassed in the next transfer window in January.
"We are getting a real ratcheting up of the spend, rather than what one might expect, which is a dying down," he said.
He disagreed that squad players would increasingly feel the squeeze, with "prices holding up across the board".
Mesher said that average price paid for a premiership player in the summer transfer window increased to 5.4 million pounds this year from 4.9 million last year, but noted that values for players in the lower Championship league dipped to 700,000 pounds from 800,000 pounds in 2007.
The spending by English clubs on new players far outstrips that of their continental counterparts, with Rawnsley estimating total spending in both Italy's Serie A and the Spanish Primera Liga was around half that of the Premier League.
However, Mesher acknowledged nearly 250 million pounds of Premier League money went to overseas clubs over the summer, which he said will provide opportunities for those clubs to spend as well.
(Agencies via China Daily September 4, 2008)