European football clubs crush January transfer window spending record, splashing out €200m more than previous high
The biggest leagues in European football spent more money than ever before in this year's January transfer window, crushing the previous record by more than €200m (£172.6m).
According to research from academics at the CIES Football Observatory, clubs in the top divisions in England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain collectively spent €742m (£640.3m) in the four-week window.
That marks a €248m increase on last year's outlay of €494m and €219m more than the previous record set in the 2011 January window when €523m was spent.
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Unsurprisingly, the Premier League was the biggest channel for money flows in January as over €443m was spent and raised by its 20 clubs.
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Source: CIES Football Observatory
The superior spending power of clubs in Europe's "big five" leagues compared to the rest of the continent has been reflected in their dominance of the Champions League group stages – just three of the last 32 quarter-finalists in the competition have come from outside the group.
And the hegemony will only continue to reinforce itself if the CIES Observatory's latest analysis is anything to go by.
The group found that 48.8 per cent – €450m – of the money spent and received by the five leagues' was internal to the group.