OpinionHome And Away: Soccer's money wheel just spins on regardless
In era of tight budgets, the huge sums splashed out on player transfers makes everyone wince
The world's football clubs splashed out a record US$4.1 billion on international player transfers last year, according to Fifa's technologically advanced International Transfer Matching System, which tracks buying and selling of players across borders.
It is a 2.1 per cent rise on 2013 and the first time the collective spending spree has broken the eye-watering US$4 billion mark.
Spendthrift England splashed out the most, with the leagues' clubs paying US$1.2 billion and accounting for more than a quarter of the total spending worldwide - 67 per cent higher than the second-biggest spender, Spain, which spent US$700 million.
The lucrative (and absurd) television deals have bloated the coffers of EPL clubs and instilled an obsessive impulse to spend
The figures prove that while global stock markets wobble, national economies frantically tread water and economists predict doom and gloom, soccer's money wheel spins on regardless, and never before so prosperously.
It is no surprise prodigal England leads the extravagant pack. The lucrative (and absurd) television deals have bloated the coffers of EPL clubs and instilled an obsessive impulse to spend, no matter the plight of the hard-working exploited fan.
The latest tranche of EPL live domestic television rights for the next two seasons are about to go under the hammer, with a likely few hundred million more than the US$4.54 billion achieved in the last auction flowing into the clubs' tills.
