Richard Masters, the Premier League’s chief executive, has denied that the English top flight’s transfer spending is damaging European football, arguing instead that it “breathes life” into rival competitions.
Masters made the claim as he took stock of the Premier League’s global position and laid out plans for its growth. Noting that England’s elite clubs had a “bigger share of the world’s best players” from this summer’s record-breaking £3bn spending, Masters said: “Seven of our clubs were net recipients in lots of inter-Premier League transfers. But a lot of that money does percolate out of the big European leagues, a substantial portion of that, and breathes life into their own transfer markets. So I don’t see how it’s suffocating [the European game].
