Why Premier League clubs could threaten Barcelona’s status as the world’s greatest team

Andy Mitten discusses exactly why Premier League clubs are primed to challenge Barcelona’s status as the best team on the planet.

Having been crowned world champions on Sunday in Yokohama, Barcelona are confirmed as the planet’s finest team for the third time in six years.

The Catalans have been football’s pre-eminent football force for a decade, with four Champions League titles in that time, yet their hegemony is under threat not from Real Madrid, but from the money pouring into England’s Premier League.

The Premier League’s £5.14 billion domestic television deal – equivalent to £40 for every fan watching every game over three years – is four times the size of La Liga’s.

With a further deal for international television rights imminent, the total monies for the Premier league are expected to be worth £9 billion. Just by finishing in the top four, an English club would earn £220 million per season from television money alone. That’s without the income from European football, commercial and match day revenues.

I’ve spoken to senior people at Camp Nou and they believe their greatest challenge is the burgeoning wealth of the Premier League.

Club president Josep Bartomeu is adamant that Barça won’t have to sell stars like Lionel Messi and Neymar, but economics may dictate otherwise when the top English clubs can blow them out of the water financially.

Messi, and especially those advisors around him, like him to be the best paid player in the world. Contract negotiations are frequent and Barça have always obliged with his demands because they know there is none better, but what if he’s offered 50% - or even 100% - more to play in England? That’s conceivable given the money flooding in.

Manchester United want Neymar and feel completely comfortable offering him far more than Barça. Although not quite the role reversal of 30 years ago, when Barça offered United’s most promising player Mark Hughes nine times his Old Trafford salary, the financial pendulum is swinging heavily in favour of the Premier League.

The domestic rights dwarf those of Spain. With its 30% smaller population, 50% lower GDP and high unemployment, Spanish football has no chance of securing the vast increases seem in this country.

The team finishing bottom of the Premier League next season will earn twice as much from domestic television rights than either of the two Spanish giants Barca and Real Madrid. With Spain slowly coming out of a deep recession, the market wouldn’t stand for the price rises in television subscriptions that England has seen.

Barça’s revenues are increasing as they cash in on their brilliance, but at nothing like the same rate as in England. The Premier League more widely watched globally, with the United States one prime area where it sees massive potential for expansion.

Barça have several financial headaches. Their controversial – at least in Catalonia - shirt sponsorship deal with Qatar Airlines is set to expire at the end of this season. Negotiations for its renewal were unsuccessful in October when the Catalans pushed for an increase in the £25 million a season deal signed in 2013.

Manchester United’s Chevrolet deal is worth £50 million a year, Barça currently don’t have a shirt sponsor set up for next season.

Hugely attractive to sponsors, Barca have started aping the methods of United in dividing the world into geographic zones and selling sponsorship in each region. United started selling separate sponsors for their training kit in 2013. Barça plan that next season.

While they’re miles ahead of United on the pitch, they still acknowledge that they’re behind the English club commercially. The figures back that up.

Barça’s wage bill stands at 73% of their total revenue – breaking the club’s own imposed limits. Sustained success has meant Barça have made huge pay outs in bonuses, so many that the club made a loss from their Champions League participation last season, despite winning it.

Unlike many rivals, Barça don’t have debts to pay off and the directors don’t receive a salary, but it’s still unsustainable given they also have to redevelop Camp Nou. Starting in 2017, they’ll expand the capacity over five years, enlarging from 98,600 to 105,000.

Costing £450 million, the plans will make the stadium fully covered and add in thousands of executive seats which are currently lacking. It will become the best stadium in the world, while a new basketball arena and stadium for the club’s B team will also be built.

Naming rights will be given with Camp Nou, but they expect that to be £15 million per season – small potatoes compared with the figures the top Premier League teams are bringing in.

Along with Borussia Dortmund and Manchester United, Barça are one of the top three supported clubs in the world, but revenues from match days are less significant than they were as television booms.

Barça and Madrid are still hugely successful because they win more than any English club. They play better in better stadiums and have a roster of A list players which United can only dream of, but it will change. United won’t be blown out of the water by Madrid for a player as they were when they tried to sign Karim Benzema in 2009.

In 2013, I spoke to Ed Woodward and asked him what would happen should United and Madrid go head to head for a player.

“We won’t lose on price,” said Woodward. “I don’t like the fact that in the list of 25 players in the Ballon d’Or, we’ll have Robin (van Persie) and Wayne (Rooney). I don’t like the fact that there are consistently more players from Spain on that list. We as a club should be aspiring to have the best players playing for us.”

United think that there will be a £200 million transfer fee for a player within five years. No player has yet to cost more than half that.

United have spent £335 million since Woodward took charge, Man City £318 million in the same time, yet none of football’s top five earners currently play in England. Messi (£565,000 a week) is at Barça, Ronaldo (£550,000) Madrid, Neymar is at Barça, Zlatan Ibrahimovic at PSG and James Rodriguez at Madrid. Wayne Rooney is sixth.

Barça and Madrid may stay more attractive to footballers for historical and cultural reasons, but when it comes to money, pretty soon the Premier League is going to be where the best paid players work.