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English dominance in Europe 

Real Madrid celebrated their Champions League win over Liverpool on Saturday night like any club would do after collecting their fourteenth European title. Whether it be Karim Benzema posing in the celebrations by gesturing that it was his fifth trophy or the club posting a humorous photo of Carlo Ancelotti and his extensive trophy collection, the Spanish giants wanted to make one thing clear: they deserved to be at the top of European football.

Liverpool 0-1 Real Madrid

Real Madrid are the undisputed champions of Europe for a time after beating Liverpool by a single goalpic.twitter.com/zgFZRU1jzO

— Transfermarkt.co.uk (@TMuk_news) May 28, 2022

In reality, Madrid had some truly heroic saves from Thibaut Courtois and even more last-ditch defending to thank for upsetting the odds in a match that Liverpool should have won. And despite the persistent insistence from the newly crowned champions of Europe, this result is likely to go down as a last gasp of resistance before Madrid and the rest of the continent are blown away by further English dominance in the Champions League. 

Indeed, Saturday’s final was the third time in the past five seasons that an English side had reached the conclusive game of the competition and over the course of that stretch of time no less than six of the 10 finalists came from the Premier League. And when we look at the amount of money being spent by the English top flight in the transfer market, it’s clear that that dominance is only going to become more and more obvious in the coming years.

In a league of its own – how the Premier League dominates the market 

While the likes of Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich or even Juventus may continue to reach the latter stages of the Champions League in the coming years, it’s now been clear for some time that the competition is dominated by English teams. And that’s largely down to how much money the Premier League has to spend in the transfer window. According to the Financial Times, the English top flight is set to take in £3.1 billion from television rights this season, compared to just £1.8b earned by La Liga and a similar sum for the Bundesliga. And, rather worryingly, next season will see that number rise to £3.4b for the Premier League, while Spanish football’s deal is set to fall to just £1.6b. And that disparity is clear to see when we look at which leagues are spending the most amount of money. 

Six of the last 10 Champions League finalist since the 2017/18 sesaon have come from the Premier League

And when we look at the money spent in the transfer market, we can perhaps see why… pic.twitter.com/ltrvDM8s42

— Transfermarkt.co.uk (@TMuk_news) May 28, 2022

As previously mentioned, English clubs have dominated the final since the 2017/18 season and it’s no coincidence that since that year the Premier League’s spending has also truly pulled away from the rest of the competition. Indeed, since 2017 the Premier League’s net spend on transfer fees stands at a daunting €4.73b, which is not only far more than second-placed Serie A but is also more than the next three leagues combined. It’s this unprecedented gulf in finances between the leagues that undoubtedly drove Florentino Pérez of Madrid and Juventus boss Andrea Agnelli towards the idea of a European Super League, that would have in theory allowed the biggest clubs from the likes of Spain, Italy, France and Germany to hop aboard the Premier League gravy train and regain a seat at the top table of European football.

As we all know, the Super League project fell apart rather dramatically and just as quickly as it erupted onto the scene. However, while football fans may have celebrated victory and the end of such a venture, it’s proving harder and harder to ignore the elephant in the room. The Premier League’s financial dominance in the transfer market and sporting dominance in the Champions League undoubtedly suggests that while Madrid, Barca & Co. aren’t part of it, the English top flight is now European football’s super league in everything but name. 

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