00:00There's just an hour to go until the transfer window for Europe's top football leagues closes.
00:04During this time, clubs are allowed to buy and sell players.
00:08It's already been a record-breaking summer.
00:10Here's our correspondent Siobhan McCall with all the details.
00:12Siobhan.
00:13Thanks, Julia.
00:13Yes, English clubs had spent more than $3.7 billion by 5pm British summertime.
00:20It's up on the previous record of nearly $3.4 billion that was set in the summer of 2023-2024.
00:27And as you said, there's just still an hour to go.
00:31Well, once Alexander Isak's $170 million move to Liverpool is officially announced,
00:37it will mean the British transfer record has been broken twice this summer, both times by Liverpool.
00:43The Swedish striker refused to train or play to force through his move to the defending champions.
00:50Premier League clubs are the big spenders in Europe this summer.
00:52The highest-placed club that's not in the Premier League is Atletico Madrid in night.
00:58But they've spent just around a third of what will be Liverpool's spend on more than $600 million.
01:04The Premier League is one of the world's most popular sports leagues for players and for supporters, too.
01:11It has 1.8 billion fans globally.
01:14And according to Brand Finance, it's the world's most valuable sports league when it comes to brand value.
01:19And although we only have just over an hour to go, the transfer spending could keep rising.
01:25For last-minute deals, clubs have a two-hour grace period to get the numbers through.
01:30They have to submit this form called a deal sheet before the window shuts to get that additional time.
01:36But it doesn't always work out.
01:39There used to be stories of fax machines breaking down and scuppering deals.
01:43And although things have moved digital now, there are still cases where that paperwork comes in a few seconds too late and the deal is off.
01:51I'm joined now by sports broadcaster Paul Scott.
01:55Paul, thank you for joining me.
01:57It's a record-breaking window.
01:59Why are Premier League clubs spending so much this summer?
02:03Hi there.
02:04I think the simple answer to that one is because they can.
02:07What we've seen over the last couple of decades or so in the Premier League is the profile of clubs' owners change quite drastically.
02:15Sort of 20, 30 years ago, it might have been a local businessman or a local business person who would buy their local club.
02:22You think of perhaps Jack Walker at Blackburn Rovers when they won the Premier League 30 years ago.
02:27Or the TV chef Delia Smith, who's heavily involved with Norwich City.
02:31But these days, the profile of those owners has changed quite drastically.
02:35We're seeing nation-states buy football clubs, most famously perhaps, of course, the Saudis, the investment fund owning Newcastle United.
02:45You've got American billionaires, hedge fund owners, that sort of thing.
02:49Hollywood superstars, of course, at Rexha.
02:51So I think what's happened is that the pockets of clubs' owners are getting deeper and deeper and that's why they're able to spend more and more.
02:59Paul, I guess the big question, does spending equal success?
03:03No, it doesn't. Not necessarily.
03:07There are several cases over the years of clubs who have spent big trying to chase the elusive trophy or qualifying for Europe or that elusive piece of silverware.
03:19There's a famous case right now here in English football of Sheffield Wednesday, a famous old club.
03:24Their owner has spent a lot of money over the years trying to get a place back in the Premier League.
03:29They're currently in the Championship, which is the second tier of English football.
03:33He has spent a lot of money trying to chase that place in the Premier League.
03:37It hasn't happened.
03:38They failed to achieve that goal.
03:40He's decided that he isn't going to put any more money into the club to the extent that the players and staff haven't been paid at times over the summer.
03:49They're unable to sign anyone.
03:51It's a really bleak situation for Sheffield Wednesday at the moment as he looks to try and sell the club.
03:56A similar story with Reading as well, another former Premier League club.
04:00Sometimes it does lead to success.
04:02We mentioned Newcastle a few moments ago, brought by the Saudis a couple of years ago, the Saudi Investment Fund.
04:08They hadn't won a domestic trophy since 1955, but they did.
04:13They won the League Cup last year under the guidance of Eddie Howe.
04:16I think what you need, if you do have a lot of money, isn't to just splash the cash buying a load of players.
04:22You need the structure.
04:23You need a good scouting network, a good coaching network, a good director of football.
04:28And we need that structure to work in harmony to guarantee success or stand a chance of getting success.
04:34It's not just about buying the best players.
04:37The Premier League is watched by billions of people around the world.
04:40What can it do to keep growing its appeal to international fans?
04:46Well, the reality is that the international fan base is pretty much tied down right now.
04:51The global TV rights, the overseas rights for the English Premier League, actually sell for more money than the domestic TV rights.
05:00You know, huge audiences in the United States, for example.
05:04And we've seen what's happened with Wrexham, Ryan Reynolds and the documentary there and the fact that there's a huge amount of interest in the United States.
05:12And I think that's an area that clubs are going to be tapping into to try and tap, un-tap potential.
05:18We've seen in Spain suggestions that some of their domestic matches might be played in the United States.
05:26We've seen Italian domestic matches, cup matches played in Saudi Arabia.
05:30I think it will be a hard sell to try and play Premier League matches overseas because the nature of English football is, you know, despite the vast sums of money, it's still very much, clubs are still seen as part of the community.
05:43It's the heart of the community.
05:44So if you try and take a, you know, a Liverpool match out of Liverpool and played in Miami or New York, I think you're going to be met with a lot of protests.
05:52But that's the direction of travel.
05:53We've seen the Club World Cup, this new FIFA tournament played in the United States last summer.
05:59And I think that's the avenue that a lot of leagues, domestic leagues in Europe, are going to try and tap into.
06:05Well, we'll see.
06:05Will there be any late drama in the transfer window?
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