The deputy editor of AS wrote that the so-called financial fair play policy in the Premier League is nothing more than a dead letter, with several clubs having spent over 100 million euros.

Before July is even over, Chelsea has paid 138 million euros for Aston Villa's attacking midfielder Rodgers, who spent most of the last World Cup as a substitute for the England national team. It should be noted that Chelsea has no European competition to participate in this season, which means the club is missing out on a huge chunk of revenue. Before finalizing a potential transfer for Rodri, Manchester City had already paid 135 million euros for Anderson, the undisputed key starting midfielder of the England national team.

Tottenham Hotspur, which narrowly avoided relegation last season, has already spent 267 million euros on signings so far, with 207 million euros going to Matheus Fernandes and Tonali — the former didn't even make Portugal's World Cup squad, while the latter's Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup finals. Last season, the Premier League played a cheating game by passing new financial control rules. The rules require that a club's total expenditure on wages, transfer fees and agent commissions must not exceed 85% of its revenue, but at the same time, an "emergency exit" was included: as long as the club pays a fine, the expenditure cap can be relaxed to 115% of its revenue. To put it bluntly, you can spend more money just by paying a fine.

But it is precisely these clubs that rejected a proposal that would have truly implemented an expenditure cap: a team's total squad investment must not exceed five times the revenue of the bottom team in the league. Their reason was that this would harm the competitiveness of English teams in European competitions. In fact, this rejected proposal was originally intended to limit the spending of clubs with state-owned capital backgrounds and curb the current spending inflation sweeping European football — an inflation largely driven by capital from other industries such as oil and natural gas.

This spending spree has spread to Barcelona and Atlético Madrid, with both clubs having spent over 100 million euros in this summer transfer window. Real Madrid has only signed Marc Cucurella and Denzel Dumfries so far, and will soon join the "100 million euro spending club". Seven Premier League teams have already spent over 100 million euros in this summer transfer window, three of which — Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea and Newcastle — have no European competition revenue. Paris Saint-Germain will also make big-money signings next, while UEFA has so far turned a deaf ear and done nothing.

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