Every summer, the Premier League becomes the protagonist of the transfer market. English clubs wave their checkbooks, often strengthening their squads at extremely high prices. La Liga, whose philosophy is completely opposite to that of English clubs, warns that they are creating a bubble that will soon burst and drag everyone down with it. "If the English government does not act, Premier League clubs will disappear," said La Liga executive Marta Alonso to AS.

According to the latest "Deloitte Football Finance 2026" report, La Liga's revenue is around 4.1 billion euros, while the Premier League is approaching 8 billion euros, reaching 7.979 billion euros. This also means that, as La Liga president Javier Tebas has repeatedly stated publicly, English clubs' transfer spending is at most only about twice that of Spanish clubs—but this is not the reality. La Liga's annual spending is typically around 800 million euros, while the Premier League spent 4.062 billion euros in the 2025-26 season and has already reached 2.868 billion euros this season.

"This is wasteful," said Tebas. The problem is that English clubs rely on a loss-making model to sustain this uncontrolled spending. La Liga's report shows that Premier League clubs collectively lost 2.027 billion euros in the 2024-25 season, and these losses are ultimately covered by club shareholders. In Spain, this would not happen, because capital increases are restricted, and there are strict financial regulations to prevent a repeat of the loss-making model that brought Spanish football to the brink of collapse a decade ago.

La Liga's deputy general manager Marta Alonso, in an interview with AS, spoke about the Premier League model: "Premier League financial control is like La Liga's 15 years ago. Clubs do whatever they want all season and only report it at the end of the season. As Tebas said, it's like confirming that the patient is already dead and cannot be saved." She first pointed out problems with English financial fair play rules: "Their financial control has fundamental flaws from the start, failing to control market prices. Now they are introducing some changes that we believe will not work.

They have set squad spending limits based on revenue. For clubs participating in European competitions, around 70%, while for other clubs, it is increased to 80% to 90%." She continued: "The Premier League allows them to spend more money and also allows them to sustain more losses, which makes the league more vulnerable to division, and clubs not competing in European competitions could eventually go bankrupt. 80% means you can spend more money on the squad, but non-squad expenditures still exist, which are structural costs. This way, total spending could reach 120% or even 130% of revenue. They are effectively saying that clubs not competing in European competitions and with lower revenues can lose more than clubs competing in Europe."

To make their books look balanced, Alonso warned that the Premier League might use some tactics: "Revenue might include shareholder sponsorships, and it's difficult to say whether these sponsorships match market value. We are concerned they will also include player transfer proceeds in their revenue. This would create inflation in the market. The more they sell and the higher the selling price, the better their squad spending ratio looks. This will drive up transfer fees and cause a large number of player trades.

If they only trade within the Premier League, they will consume each other, but this impact will also spread to other leagues." This situation is already becoming visible. Taking the most expensive transfer of this summer as an example, Chelsea paid 138 million euros for Morgan Rogers, which is 53.33% higher than his market value. Another example is Tottenham Hotspur signing Matheus Fernandes at a price 98% higher than his estimated value on Transfermarkt.

To balance their accounts, they will try to sell players at high prices, and often this is done between English clubs. Alonso said: "This is what we call swap deals. I buy your player for 10, and you buy my other player for 10. The books show 100 and 100, everyone is happy, and profits of 100 are achieved. This happened in Italy before, and even led to criminal charges for distorting the market."

She went on to expose the core of the English model: "If you buy a player at a very high price, amortization costs will be incurred. If you then want to sell him, it will result in a loss for the club. It's like drinking poison to quench thirst. So we believe this is not the right way to maintain club sustainability. Don't forget, the Premier League already lost 2 billion euros last season. What we need to do now is make the Premier League correct these deviations, because it drags everyone down with it." La Liga has warned for years that the English loss-making model is not sustainable. Warnings like "the wolf is coming" have been sounded long ago, but the wolf has not actually arrived yet.

However, La Liga insists that the consequences will eventually emerge, and there are already some signs: "Although not yet fully proven, we are very confident it will happen. You will find that Premier League clubs have frequently changed hands in recent years. A shareholder comes in, the club loses money, he covers those losses, and then sells it to the next shareholder to recover his investment.

But in the last few seasons, even Saudi sovereign wealth funds are no longer acquiring Premier League clubs. So shareholders will gradually find that they are investing more money but can no longer recover it, because no one will buy their clubs. In the last two or three seasons, acquisitions of English clubs have clearly stalled, which means owners will start turning off the tap."

She concluded: "If a club's finances are not healthy and cannot sustain itself on its own revenue, it will collapse. The English Parliament has realized this. Warning signs have also emerged for clubs relegated to the Championship. After teams are demoted, shareholders lose interest and people leave."

"Then the consequences will come: if a club is relegated to a lower league and the shareholder withdraws, it will go bankrupt. Regarding financial fair play, judging from English government statements, they seem to be using these losses and sustainability provisions to rescue clubs. I think if the English Parliament truly intervenes and regulates as they say, these consequences will be corrected faster; if not, Premier League clubs will disappear." The threat looms large, yet English clubs continue to rush into the transfer market without brakes.

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