The standings at the conclusion of the group stage of the Champions League makes very pleasant reading for fans of English football, with five of the top eight automatic qualifier places being held by teams from the Premier League.
Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea and Manchester City are joined by Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Sporting Lisbon in the top group that go automatically into the knockout stage. That leaves the likes of current Champions League Champions Paris St Germain and European heavyweights Real Madrid needing to try and qualify through the play offs. If another English team, Newcastle United, makes its way through the play offs it would make history as the first time six Premier League teams made it through to the knockout stages of the Champions League.
Are we witnessing a fundamental changing of the guard in European football? Has the purchasing power of the Premier League finally had the impact that many have been predicting for several years?
When asked about the number of English teams in the top eight, Spurs boss Thomas Frank simply said, “That is dominant”. No one can really argue with that fact, but has it come about through circumstance, or is the Premier League the best in the world, as is so often stated.
In terms of financial firepower, there is little debate left. While the top four clubs with the highest revenue last year were non-English, the next six were English. Real Madrid and Barcelona are still first and second on that list, but in terms of the overall league financials, the Premier League dominates, with 50% of the top 30 clubs. During last summer’s transfer window Premier League clubs spent over £3 billion, a record amount that was more than was spent by the Bundesliga, La Liga, Ligue 1 and Serie A clubs combined. With the recent closing of the quieter January transfer window, Premier League clubs spent £397 million against a combined £448 million by the four European leagues.
Even taking into account the oft-repeated opinion that English clubs overpay for star players as agents get greedy in their negotiations, those same clubs do have significantly greater resources than equivalent clubs in other European nations. This certainly helps to attract the best and brightest talent. The lack of a really competitive league in countries like Germany and France (and to an extent Spain), where Bayern and PSG are always odds-on favourites to be champions, could be a factor in them not hitting their traditional heights, although others will argue that having ‘easier’ domestic league games enables those teams to focus on the big European matches.
Many pundits also mention the cyclical nature of football, how different emerging styles and philosophies can favour a certain country’s teams for a period. There has also been considerable analysis done of the fixtures in the Champions League this year, with the outcome demonstrating that English clubs have, overall, been handed more favourable draws than other teams, resulting in the predominance of those clubs being in the top eight.
For me, it is a little too early to talk of a forthcoming era of dominance. While the current situation is impressive, we have seen it before, with four clubs progressing to the quarter finals in both 2008 and 2019, with both resulting in an all-English final – but the following season it reverted back to the ‘normal’ hierarchy of European football. That, coupled with the renowned physicality of the Premier League, which often means its clubs start to fall off at the end of a long, grueling season, could mean that the table paints a slightly false picture.
On the other hand, with five sides finishing in the top eight, they avoid the prospect of facing each other in the last-16, meaning there is a chance of a record number of English teams making the quarter-finals. If that transpires, even the most passionate supporters of La Liga teams would have trouble denying the current English dominance.
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David Little is a Partner at Bishop & Sewell in our expert Sports Law and Corporate & Commercial
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The above is accurate as at 4th February 2026.
The information above may be subject to change. The content of this note should not be considered legal advice, and each matter should be considered on a case-by-case basis.
