"If a price of a player is high or not high, I think this is the market and we cannot intervene in this market," Fifa president Sepp Blatter said yesterday. "It is definitely a European market."
In less than three months, £490 million ($977 million) of the £630 million paid out by English sides landed in bank accounts abroad, up 60 per cent year-on-year.
The record spending spree, though, was in part the result of Tottenham generating €100 million ($168 million) by selling Gareth Bale to Real Madrid in a world-record deal.
Even though Spaniards have been in recession for much of the past four years, they turned out in their thousands to laud the arrival of a player reportedly being paid around €350,000 a week.
The head of world soccer can see how incongruous that looks.
"You say the country is a poor country or indebted, but in football you always find money," Blatter said. "If a player is the value of that [€100 million] I doubt, I doubt, but I cannot stop this. Gareth Bale, he can prove now that he is better than Ronaldo."
With the European transfer window shut, Fifa said that there's been a total of 10,454 player transfers globally so far this year, worth a total of US$3.367 billion, a 29 per cent year-on-year increase. From those deals agents have earned US$169 million, 20 per cent more than the previous year.
Spain and England have been the busiest business partners, with Spanish clubs selling 38 players worth US$227 million to their English counterparts. That helped Spain's top flight clubs make an overall transfer profit in the summer of €110 million. Italian sides had a €12 million surplus.
Net spending by English Premier League clubs was £400 million, while the figure was €150 million in France, and €60 million in Germany
The spending power of England's top flight clubs has been strengthened by new television deals that are generating more than US$8.5 billion over the next three years.
"Testament to the impact [the TV revenue] is having is in the scale of Premier League gross spending, as well as the gulf in net spending between the Premier League and other European leagues," said Alex Thorpe from Deloitte's sports division.
Around £140 million was shelled out by Premier League clubs on the frantic final day on the transfer window, with Arsenal scrambling to break its transfer record to bring Mesut Ozil from Real Madrid for a club record €50 million.
Deadline-day can create a frenzy, with champion Manchester United managing to squeeze just one notable deal over the line - Marouane Fellaini joined from Everton for £27.5 million - despite months pursuing talent across Europe.
Despite calls to close the transfer window before the season starts, finding an agreeable date across Europe is tough.
"I agree it is too long but the whole world is involved and don't play at the same time as we do," UEFA president Michel Platini said. "The clubs also want to have transfers finished before the start of their competition.
"The strategic committee includes the clubs and leagues and we will ask Fifa to have a look into what we propose and for all European leagues to start at the same time."
- AP
