English clubs spent record $1.0b on players this summer

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LONDON, Sept 4 (AFP): English football teams spent more than 500 million pounds (741 million euros, 1.007 billion dollars) on new players over the summer, a record amount, as club coffers soared, a report said Tuesday.
"New owners at Premier League clubs combined with the increase in broadcast payments to clubs for the 2007/08 season, are key drivers of the unprecedented rise in spending," financial group Deloitte and Touche said.
"Transfer spending by English clubs (in the top four divisions) has exceeded 500 million pounds this summer, around two thirds higher than the previous record of 300 million pounds spent in summer 2006."
Premiership clubs, led by Manchester United, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and Sunderland have spent unprecedented amounts of money during the close season to acquire players including Anderson, Fernando Torres, Darren Bent and Craig Gordon.
Over the summer, Newcastle United and Manchester City became the latest Premiership clubs to be bought by wealthy tycoons.
"This summer's transfer spending by English clubs has beaten all previous records, but as Premier League clubs will receive around 300 million pounds of extra broadcast payments during the 2007/08 season the increase in transfer spending is not a surprise," said Paul Rawnsley, a director in Deloitte's Sports Business Group.
The English clubs which invested the most in new players during the summer of 2007 were Manchester United (51 million pounds), Liverpool (50 million pounds), Tottenham (40 million pounds) and newly promoted Sunderland (35 million pounds).
Twelve Premier League clubs spent more than 20 million pounds on transfers, up from three a year earlier.
"Looking further a field, it comes as no surprise to see (Spanish giants) Real Madrid and Barcelona spending at least as much as their English rivals on transfers," said Alan Switzer, who is also a director in Deloitte's Sports Business Group.
"Broadcast revenues are again the key to explaining the high transfer spending by the two giants of Spanish football, who unlike their Premier League counterparts can sell their own broadcast rights."