September 1, 2022
The brief from today:
Al Ahly streak broken
The Egyptian Premier League has just concluded, and Zamalek were crowned champions after 34 rounds. Meanwhile, Al Ahly, who have a heated rivalry with Zamalek, had another tough pill to swallow aside from seeing their longtime competitors win the league. Cairo-based Al Ahly are not just one of the most successful sides in Egypt alongside Zamalek, they are dominant on the continental scene as well. It is this success that saw the team consistently win the Egyptian Premier League, or finish in second place since the 1991/92 season, but that streak ended this season. For the first time in 30 years, the top two finishers in the league did not include Al Ahly, with fellow Cairo based team Pyramids Football Club pipping them to second place after Zamalek in first. The club’s hierarchy feared such a finish back in June, which is when they decided to sack then coach, Pitso Mosemane, to try and salvage the season. Portuguese coach, Ricardo Soares, was brought in on a two-year deal to try and stop Zamalek from winning back-to-back titles, but the newly appointed coach couldn’t manage the task. With the third place finish, and lack of improvement, however, the Al Ahly management has taken further action and relieved Soares of his duties after only two months as coach. Al Ahly will now have to search for another managerial replacement before the 2022/23 season season commences in October.
Ricardo Soares out after only two months at Al Ahly
Premier League breaks its own record yet again
With the summer transfer window in Europe closing later tonight, it is once again the Premier League that have set the bar on spending. Going into the final day, the total expenditure from the 20 top flight English sides stood at £1.7 billion, which already broke the previous record of £1.43 billion set in the summer of 2017. Last season’s combined spending from both the summer and winter transfer windows stood at £1.44 billion, so who knows where things will stand this campaign once this window concludes, and the next one in five months is added. Much has been made of how the Premier League’s spending on its own eclipses the combined amounts of Serie A, Ligue 1, Bundesliga, and La Liga clubs, but it isn’t just the so called big six teams carrying the weight. While Chelsea have spent the most on purchases—£248 million—even newly promoted sides like Nottingham Forest have signed a whopping 19 players this window. Other teams in the bottom half of the league have also found little difficulty shelling out £40-50 million on players this summer. The TV rights the Premier League has been able to negotiate both domestically, but especially internationally, has seen the financial gulf widen with the rest of Europe with no current signs of this abating. As a result of the division of these lucrative TV contracts, the 20th place team in the Premier League earns roughly £100 million. When you add other streams of revenue, it’s no surprise that the league dictates, and dominates, each transfer window. What this means for sporting competition going forward, both in England, as well as European competitions, remains to be seen.
New Chelsea owner, Todd Boehly, has spent almost £250 million in purchases this summer