Premier League clubs have left their European counterparts behind financially

It’s more than 10 years since Bernard Caiazzo, then the co-president of French club Saint-Etienne, called on Uefa to take steps to curb the rampant financial power of the Premier League.

Caiazzo’s warning came after the English top division had just announced its latest record-breaking media rights deal, which he said could see it become “the NBA of football”, hoovering up all of the world’s top talent with budgets of £500m-£600m, and “greater than the Champions League”.

The Premier League may not yet have achieved NBA levels of cultural hegemony but Caiazzo’s fears that its teams would disappear over the hill financially have proven well founded.

Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Tot

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