Sinking value of sterling is threatening English football

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The chill economic wind is threatening English football’s love affair with foreign talent as the sinking value of sterling makes new players from Europe increasingly expensive to bring to these shores. And in a reversal of fortune, the plunging pound, which has lost 18 per cent of its value against the euro in the past month, makes Barclays Premier League players more attractive transfer targets to managers in Spain, Italy and France.

“The party is over,” one leading French-based agent said as he predicted a sea change in the way transfer business and wage negotiations are done all over Europe.

The agent told The Times last night: “It used to be simple. As a rule of thumb, if a player earned €100 in France, you could be sure he could get £200 in England, maybe more. Well, now that £200 is worth €200, so all of a sudden it’s not as attractive.

“And then there are the transfer fees. An English club might be willing to spend £3 million on a central defender and, for that money, you could get a good solid pro, because it was €4.5 million. But now, £3 million is €3 million. And you can’t get the same quality for that amount.”

Effectively, a Europe-based player who cost the equivalent of £10 million a little more than a month ago would cost nearly £2 million more today. Conversely, a player earning £50,000 a week in England would effectively cost a continental club 20 per cent less than a month ago.

Real Madrid could give Cristiano Ronaldo a 20 per cent pay rise compared with what they were prepared to offer him last summer and in euro terms it would not cost them anything more. It also means that they could offer Manchester United 20 per cent more than they were willing to pay for the Portugal forward last summer.

Another leading agent, Athole Still, whose clients include Sven-Göran Eriksson, the former England head coach, confirmed that the sterling free fall against the dollar — it has gone down 25 per cent in the past five months — was also affecting financial thinking within football.

“It’s having a considerable effect, not just on European players, but also on players from South America, because many times their prices are quoted in euros or dollars,” Still said.

“I was involved with a player who was for sale for €20 million. Several English clubs were interested, but felt the price was too steep. Since then, the selling club has reduced the asking price to €14 million. But, of course, to English clubs, that’s no reduction at all.”

Wealthy Premier League clubs can still afford to chase the foreign players they really want, but they will think twice about swelling their ranks with middle-ranking talent.

Another consideration will be the renewal of contracts with existing players. While some have built-in mechanisms to protect them from exchange-rate risks, the vast majority are paid in pounds, but still think in terms of their native currency (usually the euro). Many will feel that they deserve a hefty pay rise just to maintain their present wage levels.

The vast majority of Premier League clubs’ revenues are paid in pounds — one exception is Champions League income, which is paid in Swiss francs, and here the four English participants (Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool) have benefited because the pound’s nosedive means that they are getting 25 per cent more — but a substantial chunk of their outgoings is in euros.

That is why, for the first time in years, some European clubs are starting to look in the direction of the Premier League for their winter shopping.

The financial clout of the Premier League is still unmatched, however, and, as Still points out, “everyone wants to be here in the UK”. But everything has suddenly become a whole lot more expensive for English clubs.

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Cashing in on weak pound

English clubs are up against their toughest European opponent: the single currency. The decline of the pound against the euro has made Premier League talent more affordable for foreign clubs and overseas players more expensive for British sides.

In May 2000, when the pound was at its peak against the euro, paying £19 million for a Premier League player such as Lassana Diarra would have cost a foreign club €33.2 million. At yesterday’s exchange rate, Diarra’s transfer from Portsmouth to Real Madrid has cost the Spanish club only about €20 million.

And a player earning £100,000 a week as recently as the summer of 2007 was on the equivalent of $149,400 a week. Now he is collecting about $104,000.

Any British club that pays €10 million for an overseas player this month is stumping up £9.6 million. Eighteen months ago that same player would have cost the equivalent of £6.69 million.