Uefa says the Premier League’s enormous summer expenditure is creating an unmistakable two-tier transfer market.
European football’s governing body outlined the growing dominance of English clubs in its latest report on the continent’s talent and competition landscape.
According to the report, Premier League teams spent an estimated €4.6bn (£4bn), exceeding the combined total of Europe’s next eight biggest-spending countries.
Andrea Traverso, Uefa’s executive director of finance, warned that the pattern is a cause for concern.
Traverso said transfer prices are climbing rapidly, especially in England, placing greater future pressure on clubs’ financial performance.
He added that the trend suggests talent is becoming increasingly concentrated and the market more divided, resulting in a distinct two-tier structure.
English teams participated in more than 60% of all deals and spent roughly €24m (£20.7m) on each incoming player. By comparison, clubs in the other leading European leagues averaged only about €4m (£3.4m) to €5m (£4.3m), highlighting the expanding difference in buying power.
Traverso cautioned that falling transfer valuations or weaker demand from buyers could create major problems for clubs burdened by debt.
The report also stated that this year’s expenditure by the Premier League’s 20 clubs amounted to 56% of their annual income, well above the pre-pandemic decade’s average of 33%.
Uefa additionally noted a rise in expensive transfers between English clubs, with their total value increasing by 44% to €1.55bn (£1.33bn).
Measured by fees, England’s domestic transfer market matched the combined size of the next five biggest market flows.
A market flow refers to transactions between leagues. Behind transfers within England, the most valuable route was from Germany’s Bundesliga to the Premier League, worth €690m (£594m).
High-value European transfers have also become much more common. The number of deals exceeding €50m rose from 14 in the summer of 2024 to 23 in 2025, before reaching 35 in 2026. Premier League clubs accounted for 29 of the latest total.
As teams face pressure to comply with financial rules, many have increasingly sold academy graduates because those transactions can be recorded as pure accounting profit.
European clubs made an estimated €6.8bn (£5.85bn) in profit from those summer sales, €655m (£564m) more than in 2025.
Uefa found limited evidence that clubs were exploiting multi-club ownership arrangements to transfer players at artificially high or low prices.
Deals of this kind produced €152m (£130.8m) in transfer fees, compared with an estimated market value of €159m (£136.8m).
Transfers involving Chelsea and Strasbourg represented more than half of that expenditure.
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