The Barclays Premier League's standing as
the world's richest sporting competition
remains intact after the transfer window
closed late on Monday night.
.
The 20 Premier League clubs between them shelled
out a massive total of £630 million on players, almost
as much as the Spanish and Italian top-flight clubs
put together.
.
Financial analysts Deloitte point out that that figure
is £130m more than a year ago, an increase of 29
percent, fuelled largely by a massive increase in Th
funding.
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Spanish clubs, led by Real Madrid's reported €100 million capture of Gareth Bale from Tottenham Hotspur and the €57 mllion Brazilian Neymar is said to have cost Barcelona, paid a total of €395 million in fees, a staggering 205 percent more than 2012.
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That figure was matched by Italian Serie A clubs, but it represented an increase of only eight per cent year on year, with the key deal seeing Napoli part with €37 million for Real Madrid's Argentine striker Gonzalo Higuain.
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This year, that total was almost rivalled by the French league, where massive injections of foreign cash into Paris Saint-Germain and Monaco, saw an outlay of €375 million, up 66 percent on 2012.
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PSG led the way, paying Napoli €64 million for Uruguayan Edinson Cavani and a further €31 million to Roma for Brazilian Marquinhos, while Monaco landed Radamel Falcao from Atletico Madrid for 60 million and made a double 70 million swoop on Porto for James Rodriquez and Joao Moutinho.
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But at a time when the pressure is on clubs to toe the line drawn by Uefa's financial fairness code, Germany's Bundesliga again proved an appropriate role model.
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Clubs have long learned to limit their outgoings and this year they were the lowest spenders in the window, parting with €270 million which was, nevertheless a 10 percent increase on the year before.