In most American sports there’s salary caps to keep a level playing field. It’s beautiful bc Detroit Lions fans have ALWAYS had a garbage team, but now that they have a good coaching staff and some good talent, they can compete and are one of the better teams in the league. But in Europe, low level teams will generally NEVER compete with top teams. Is it uncommon in Europe due to the fact that every big league kinda wants a team from their league to compete in the UEFA Champions League? Therefore no league puts a salary cap on bc they’d be limiting themselves of the biggest trophy and prize money? So, the only way around that would have ALL top leagues to agree on a salary cap across the board, which would logistically be a nightmare right? And that’s why they wouldn’t do it? Like, in what universe does Hertha Berlin belong in the same league as Bayern last year? Sorry, I’m fascinated by the sport and I’m GENUINELY a fan now, just curious is all. Ty
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Football is the by far the most popular sport in the world, so it makes sense that more money is involved. Huge transfers are part of the excitement of the game nowadays, but without proper management, they mean nothing. Chelsea and Manchester United spent millions (billions?) to rebuild their teams and they’re still average. PSG have spent more than a billion on transfers and wages in order to win a UCL, but they fail miserably every year.
But in Europe, low level teams will generally NEVER compete with top teams.
That is so not correct. Just look at the current La Liga table, Girona are first right now. Speaking of La Liga, Athletic Club is always one of the top 6-8 teams in Spain, but they aren’t allowed to play non Basque players as a principle, so they almost never buy players in general.
Inter were in the UCL final last year and most of their key players were either extremely cheap or free transfers: Onana, Darmian, Dimarco, Acerbi, Calhanoglu, Brozovic, Mkhitaryan, Dzeko etc. All these players costed less than 10M each (some were free) for Inter. Some of them were on really low wages too. Speaking of UCL, almost every year we get a surprise or pretty unexpected team reaching the semis, a team that usually spends far less money than their competitors. 2023 Milan, 2022 Villareal, 2020 Lyon etc.
Other obvious examples are Leicester winning the 2016 EPL or Lille winning 2021 Ligue 1. Huge salaries and transfer fees aren’t as important as most people think.