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LONDON. — The English Premier League is “almost bankrolling” European football, with Spanish La Liga, Italian Serie A, German Bundesliga and French Ligue 1 in danger of becoming “feeder leagues”, says French journalist Julien Laurens.

English Premier League clubs spent £815m during the January transfer window.

That is over four times the combined £198m in Spain, Italy, Germany and France.

“Right now the only league where you can afford anyone is the Premier League,” said Laurens.

Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Euro Leagues podcast, the French football expert added: “Bournemouth have the capability of spending £60m or £70m in one transfer window in January. The other leagues can’t become feeder leagues to the Premier League, but right now that’s how it looks.

“People that run French clubs, they’re relying on English clubs to spend £20m or £30m to sign one of their players. If you have a young player that’s not too bad in Ligue 1 someone from England can say ‘he might be good, here’s £40m’.  “The English Premier League is almost bankrolling European football.

“If English clubs were only spending money buying players in the Premier League a lot of [French] clubs would be thinking ‘oh, no, we need that money’.

“FIFA and Uefa have to look into it. I don’t know if you could limit the spending to £100m or £150m [per club], I don’t know if that’s possible.” The British transfer record was smashed on deadline day with Chelsea signing Benfica’s Argentina midfielder Enzo Fernandez for 121m euros (£107m), with the Blues spending about £288m in January alone.

“It’s incredible the country that protested the most against the Super League is [effectively] the Super League,” added James Horncastle, an expert on German football. — BBC Sport.