An excerpt from the SI/Fortune - http://www.si.com/planet-futbol/2015/02/11/english-premier-league-soccer-new-tv-deal --------------------------------------- The Premier League stopped saying five years ago exactly how much it sells its overseas rights for, but they grew from an average of 8 million pounds a season in the first deal in 1992 to 216 million pounds a season for the 2007-2010 deal, a 27-fold increase. For comparison, the price of the domestic rights “only” went up by a factor of 15 in the same period. --------------------------------------- So, $130M/Y average per club in just the UK TV revenues alone. With global TV sales, this should rise to above $150M/Y. Add the paying attendance, sponsors and the axillary revenues and pretty much every EPL club should take in about $200M gross at the very least. Every EPL club is already in the global "richest 40" list. With this, they should among the Top 30. The average EPL wage should likewise jump from around $3M to ~ $5M. Nice job if you can get it. This is probably better news for the EU players, as even the lower tier EPL clubs will begin siphoning the best German, Spanish, French and Italian players who are not employed by the top dozen richest clubs (from Real down to Schalke-Lyon level). The news for the US players is less rosy, as Italy, France and Spain aren't as open to the non-Latin non-EU players as the UK has been in the past. It is the worst news for the homegrown UK players, as soon every EPL roster will begin resembling the New York Cosmos circa 1979. The money will obviously trickle down to other leagues, from the English Championship to everywhere across the globe. The FA might also be in a bind. With any $15M transfer now being able to enter the English leagues without a labor board, there'll be a number non-first team Brazilians, Argentines and Africans gladly accepting the EPL largesse. To some extent, this rule might have also benefited the most talented of Americans ... if there were any worth the minimum $15M.
Really bad news for young UK players. The BPL just solidified its place as the apex predator of global football. A few exceptions aside, apex predators tend to be consumers, not producers.
This will mostly lead to players becoming even more expensive (transfer fees and wages) within the league. Especially English players have been overpriced for quite some time and that will only get worse now. The very best PL players still prefer to leave England for the more prestigious Spanish clubs Madrid and Barcelona. In 2014 it was Suarez. In 2013 it was Bale. The PL has been the richest league in the world for many years now, but the quality of play remains far behind the PD, as can been seen in the UEFA 5-year-ranking. Paying more money to the same players won't change that.
Staggering amount of money. What are the current homegrown requirements? It just extends to a roster spot, correct? US guys without an EU passport should start learning a romance language. Now is the time for MLS to steal a page from the Bundesliga playbook from 15 years ago. There is zero chance competing for top-tier salaries with that kind of money. Embrace the production model: we have a massive country, the next generation will always have known a professional league (and more likely have parents that played), tighten up the pyramid for the crucial development of 17-21 year olds, and for the love of God, stop at 24 teams for a while.
Well, the crux of the matter is that, while the English players don't lack in grit, they often do lack the technical skills of their European brethren. In olden days - hey, I remember those! - a bunch of English lads found themselves in Serie A, when that was the hub of the football world (the Platini-Bonek-Gullit-Klinsmann era). They may have to check out those Italian vistas again. I won't say that that the UEFA rankings are meaningless but the EPL is far more competitive from top to bottom than La Liga or even the Bundesliga. One can only look at points-per-game or goals-per-game in these leagues. There are, obviously, different standards of what constitutes the best league but Real-Barcelona-Atletico are only three out of twenty Spanish teams. I will postulate that the English middle class of Stoke-Everton-Newcastle type of clubs is very solid and is arguably superior to any other competition. They passed the NBA and are inching toward the NFL (arguably the top EPL clubs will exceed NFL clubs, since they don't have to share their merchandising and sponsorships) I think the minimum is eight players who were raised in England on a 25-man roster with U-21's not counting against the 25-man limit. So, the top clubs will begin courting the Englishmen just to fill out the 25-man roster. The mid-table and lower will settle for their leftovers.
So, how come these English middle class clubs never win the EL, but the Spanish middle class clubs regularly do (and please don't mention Chelsea, as they are not second tier and only played in the EL because they dropped out of the CL)? I don't see any reason to believe that Stoke, Everton and Newcastle are of higer quality than Valencia, Sevilla and Bilbao. They have certainly never proven it. The super-rich English champion Manchester City has never gone beyond the CL round-of-sixteen, and Liverpool can't even get out of the group. Why should the second tier of PL teams simply be considered great then, when even the first tier is nothing special apart from Chelsea? If they were really better than the Spanish second tier teams, they would have better results than them. But they don't, and that is correctly represented by the UEFA 5-year-ranking which is entirely based on results. The PL has been the richest league in the world for years now and soon they will be even richer, but that does not necessarily lead to higher quality. They already pay the highest wages, so they could afford anyone who wants to play in the PL even now. The absolute best players (Ronaldo, Messi, Suraez, etc.) would rather play for Madrid and Barcelona, and that will not change with yet more money. Where are those better players supposed to suddenly come from? It is much more likely that this new mega deal will just raise prices for everyone. Higher player wages and higher transfer fees especially for "PL proven" players.
Valencia, Seville and A. Bilbao aren't the middle-class of La Liga and the second reason is obvious - a good finish in the EPL is more important financially than another round in the Europa League for the EPL clubs than for other leagues ... which is why the EPL clubs will usually play their second stringers there and La Liga clubs will remain with the top tier force. (this has been covered on other threads before, by the way) And, btw, the weakest EPL EL member (aside of the relegated FA Cup winners like Wigan and Birmingham) was arguably Fulham and then did reach the EL final and took it into the overtime against the Agüero-Forlan led Atletico Madrid. Now, compare midtables - Swansea, Stoke, Newcastle in the EPL vs. Espanyol, Celta and Depor -and the three Spanish clubs have a negative 23 goal difference in La Liga compared to negative 16 for the EPL. And here, compare top three teams - Chelsea, Man City, Man Utd vs. Real, Barcelona, A. Madrid - + 79 combined goal difference in the EPL vs. 124 for La Liga. So, clearly, La Liga is heavy at the top but its middle is very suspect. Its UEFA ranking is based on the top 4-6 clubs but the rest barely compete.
This is nothing exclusive to the PL. Every team from the top leagues rests players in the group phase of the EL. It happens in England, Spain, Germany, Italy and France. Later in the knock out rounds when the opponents get tougher and the teams actually get close to winning something they will play their best line-ups. Even Chelsea didn't play their second string when they were getting close to the trophy. Yes, but that was a long time ago. In season 09/10. Back then the HSV was actually good and reached the EL semi-final. These days they are happy to stay in the 1st division. Fulham has already left it. I would argue that the reason is that the top teams in the PD are better than the top teams in the PL (just look at their CL results), and therefore it is harder for the smaller clubs to take points off them. Real Madrid, Barcelona and currently Atletico Madrid are better than any team in the PL (except maybe Chelsea). Swansea, Stoke and Newcastle wouldn't take points off them either, and their results against them wouldn't look any better than Espanyol's, Celta's and Depor's. Stoke has qualified for the EL in season 11/12. They lost against Valencia in the round of 32. Newcastle played in the EL in season 12/13. They actually did very well and reached the quarter-final where they lost to Benfica. I would imagine at that point they played their best line-up and tried very hard to reach the semi-final. Everton plays in the EL this season. Let's see how far they get. These three teams were your original examples for PL middle class teams. ("I will postulate that the English middle class of Stoke-Everton-Newcastle type of clubs is very solid and is arguably superior to any other competition.") Now you say they shouldn't be compared to Valencia, Sevilla and Bilbao which you consider higher level teams. However, both Newcastle and Everton have qualified for the EL by reaching 5th place in the PL table (only Stoke qualified via cup competition), meaning they were at the same level in the PL hierarchy as Valencia, Sevilla and Bilbao were when they qualified for the EL. Newcastle and Everton were part of the top 4 to 6 teams which make up the UEFA 5-year-ranking. Btw., you still haven't answered the other part of my post. Which players can the PL buy with even more money that they couldn't already buy before? You say: "the lower tier EPL clubs will begin siphoning the best German, Spanish, French and Italian players who are not employed by the top dozen richest clubs (from Real down to Schalke-Lyon level)". I highly doubt that clubs with wages below Schalke or Lyon level have any players that the English clubs couldn't already afford right now, nor would these players significantly improve the English middle class clubs. And the PL will not attract Ronaldo and Messi, no matter how much TV money they get. The two Spanish giants are simply more attractive and can pay just as well.