Qualifying for the Champions League is seen as a matter of pride and absolute need for all the top teams around Europe. Likes of Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus have built a reputation for themselves by competing for Europe’s biggest prize year-in-year-out.
One key reason for these teams to be in Champions League is to generate revenue and attract some of the best players in the world. However, the same law is not entirely applicable to Premier League teams.
YES, it is an absolute necessity for the top English teams to qualify for Champions League like we saw Louis Van Gaal losing his job after Manchester United failed to get in to league’s top-4. However, things are a bit different in England than the other European leagues.
Despite United finishing outside the top-4, one cannot say that they will lose ground on their global appeal or they will fall behind in signing some of the big-name players, no they won’t. One major reason for that is the insane amount of MONEY involved with the English teams.
Starting from 2016/17 season, the new £5billion TV rights money will come in to play which will allow even the lower ranked teams to spend as much as £100million in a single transfer window, if they wish to.
These sums will see Premier League’s monopoly over the European transfer markets. In couple of seasons’ time, Champions League will just be another tournament for these Premier League sides as they will be able to attract the best players regardless of their involvement in Europe’s premier club competition or not.
For instance, do you expect Chelsea and Manchester United failing to sign the players they want to this summer? I don’t think so! Despite their lack of Champions League involvement they are being linked with the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Gonzalo Higuain, James Rodriguez and Paul Pogba.
That is nothing but a clear indication that these clubs are not limited to Champions League as their only route to success. With the recent shift in Premier League, a similar trend will follow amongst the mid-table teams as well.
At present, we hear many players turn down an offer from the likes of West Ham, Everton or Southampton stating lack of Champions League as a factor. However in coming seasons, these clubs will be in a position to pay outrageous amount of wages to those same players and complete their signings easily.
The game of football is changing drastically and we should prepare ourselves for the shift in balance as Premier League will soon be home to all the global superstars. Barring few A-listers, every top rated player would want to play in England and prove themselves in the most competitive and certainly the most lucrative league in European football.
