There are several ways to evaluate the financial means of any team. One could look at total revenue, total spending, or total profits in any given season. On a smaller scale, it is also possible to get an idea of a club's spending power by looking at how much cash they spend in a transfer window. To get a better idea of the recent spending of clubs, we will look at the 2011/2012 summer transfers. Because there are 20 teams in La Liga, we will specifically look at a couple of the top and bottom teams in terms of summer spending.
1. Athletico Madrid: €65.5 Million - Los Rojiblancos made a huge splash in the transfer window, signing a total of 11 players from different clubs. Of these 11 players, only five were actually purchased (the others were on loan or free transfers). The most notable was Colombian striker Falcao, who arrived for €40 million from Portuguese side Porto. It is important to keep in mind that Athletico sold Diego Forlan, Sergio Aguero, David De Gea and others for €85.8 million.
2. Malaga: €58 million - With their new owner, Malaga bought eight new players and acquired ex-Madrid star van Nistelrooy on a free transfer. Their two most expensive signings were Santi Cazorla from Villarreal for €21 million and Jeremy Toulalan from Lyon for €11 million. That being said, Malaga did not sell a single player during the summer transfer window.
3. (tie) Barcelona: €55 million - The Blaugrana spent a load of money on two star players in the form of Cesc Fabregas (€29 million before incentives) and Alexis Sanchez (€26 million before incentives). With the sales of Bojan Krkic, Oriol Romeu, Jeffren Suarez, and Martin Caceres, Barcelona recovered €21.5.
3. (tie) Real Madrid: €55 million - The royal whites made some high profile moves in order to try to compete with Barcelona. The additions to the squad were Fabio Coentrao (€30 million), Raphael Varane (€10 million), Jose Callejon (€5 million), Nuri Sahin (€10 million), and Hamit Altintop (free). With all this cash spent, Madrid only made back in the region of €10 million from the sale of a couple players.
For comparison, five teams spent under €3 million in the summer transfer window. The bottom two teams are as follows:
19. Mallorca: €1.1 million - The small island team only spent money on two players this summer. Alejandro Alfaro from Sevilla cost a mere €0.7 million before incentives, while defender Pablo Caceres made up the rest of the transfer budget with a fee of €0.4 million. They sold two players for €9.25 million.
20. Levante: €1 million - Levante received a load of players from other teams, but only spent cash on Felipe Caicedo from Manchester City (€1 million). Interestingly enough, they immediately sold the same player to a Russian team for €7.5 million.
Through these statistics, it is easy to see that there are only a couple teams that are able to spend above their costs. Even though Athletico was first in the spending category, they sold many of their best players so they did not incur a loss. Even the teams that spent very little sold players so they did not lose money in the transfer window. Does this demonstrate the power of the top couple clubs? Does Malaga's new owner just increase the uncompetitive balance? Will Malaga challenge Real Madrid and Barcelona in the next couple years like Man City has done in the Premier League?
Sources: http://www.betinf.com/spain_transfer.htm ; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Spanish_football_transfers_summer_2011 ; https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYIykJbaIfv6QzVDDIn5d_8YMqu-jB-psvtdhBdiuOj-9I1JcWLJuFL8uK1-1DhQLStHaF6s2bJ6CQSkvFXwn1ZzQHG7Ghe9QWyCkahv8CKqmZixF9iKlfk10-F4lFhY8zXG1Z5eKhb6Y/s760/radamel-falcao-atletico-madrid-fotofootball-002.jpg
20. Levante: €1 million - Levante received a load of players from other teams, but only spent cash on Felipe Caicedo from Manchester City (€1 million). Interestingly enough, they immediately sold the same player to a Russian team for €7.5 million.
Through these statistics, it is easy to see that there are only a couple teams that are able to spend above their costs. Even though Athletico was first in the spending category, they sold many of their best players so they did not incur a loss. Even the teams that spent very little sold players so they did not lose money in the transfer window. Does this demonstrate the power of the top couple clubs? Does Malaga's new owner just increase the uncompetitive balance? Will Malaga challenge Real Madrid and Barcelona in the next couple years like Man City has done in the Premier League?
Sources: http://www.betinf.com/spain_transfer.htm ; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Spanish_football_transfers_summer_2011 ; https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYIykJbaIfv6QzVDDIn5d_8YMqu-jB-psvtdhBdiuOj-9I1JcWLJuFL8uK1-1DhQLStHaF6s2bJ6CQSkvFXwn1ZzQHG7Ghe9QWyCkahv8CKqmZixF9iKlfk10-F4lFhY8zXG1Z5eKhb6Y/s760/radamel-falcao-atletico-madrid-fotofootball-002.jpg
Although Malaga has experienced rapid financial changes thus far under their new owner, Abdullah Ben Nasser Al-Thani. Yet they still have an uphill battle before they can consistently compete with teams like FC Barcelona and AC Milan. Without a steady salary cap, the rich teams will always retain the best talent. So although Malaga bought 8 new players, keeping them on the same roster will likely be more difficult. Lionel Messi's income from his salary and publicity deals in 2011 amounted to €31 million, making it near impossible for smaller market teams to compete for top tier athletes. Unless solutions such as sharing TV revenues and salary cap issues are put in place, The highly endorsed teams in the largest markets will continue to use smaller teams as ‘farm systems’. I am not implying that the new-faced Malaga will act as the farm team, but certain teams certainly will. Malaga, behind their new owner should have the opportunity to develop their market as their salary spending pay off and the club begins to win more games. It will however, be a slow process of catching-up with the most successful teams. Due to the fact that a clubs ability to pay higher salaries will also give them an advantage in fielding more depth for their team. It will be very interesting to see if/how regulations of revenue sharing and salary caps influence the competitive balance between the clubs.
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It's pretty impressive that Levante was last in summer spending, yet they currently are in third place in the standings behind only Barca and Madrid. It's obviously still early in the season, but Levante is looking like it's not a fluke despite their old age and low budget.
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