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When soccer’s top international tournament, theChampions League, begins its group stage on September 16, it will offer a chance for Europe’s top clubs to show off the results of their summer spending.
国际顶级足球赛事欧洲冠军联赛（Champions League）于9月16日展开小组赛。欧洲的顶级俱乐部将利用这次机会，展示他们夏季斥资引援的成果。
And quite a summer of spending it was: Teams in England’s Premier League spent EUR1.05 billion (about $1.4 billion) buying players, up from EUR752 million last year. In Spain’s La Liga, the teams paid EUR479 million. And in Italy and Germany, they spent EUR328 million and EUR315 million respectively.
这真是个一掷千金的夏天：英超球队总共花费了10.5亿欧元（约合14亿美元）购买球员，而去年这一数字为7.52亿欧元。西甲球队购买球员的总开支为4.79亿欧元。意大利和德国职业球队则分别花费了3.28亿欧元和3.15亿欧元。
Of course, European soccer operates like any international talent business, with top performers gravitating to the most generous employers.
当然，欧洲足球的人才机制与其他行业的国际人才聘用模式没什么不同，表现最好的员工都倾向于为最慷慨的雇主工作。
“Transfer spending is analogous to the international balance of trade, where wealthy leagues usually import more talent than lower revenue domestic leagues,” says John Vrooman, a Vanderbilt University sports economist.
美国范德比尔特大学（Vanderbilt University）体育经济学家约翰o弗鲁曼表示：“转会花销类似于国际贸易差额。比起收入较低的国内足球联赛，富有的联赛通常会引入更多人才。”
So it is no surprise that Premier League clubs spent the most, considering that its revenues hit EUR2.9 billion in the 2012-2013 season, compared to EUR2.0 billion and EUR1.9 billion for the German and Spanish leagues, according to Deloitte’s Annual Review of Football Finance.
根据德勤会计师事务所（Deloitte）发布的足球财政年度报告（Annual Review of Football Finance），在2012-2013赛季，英超联赛收入29亿欧元，而德国和西班牙联赛分别收入20亿欧元和19亿欧元，考虑到这点，英超联赛的俱乐部花钱最为慷慨也就不足为奇了。不过今年夏天的斥资引援也体现了欧洲足球联赛在组织上的很大差异。将英超联赛和西甲联赛进行对比，这种差异体现得尤其明显。
But this summer’s spending also puts on display the vast differences in how European soccer leagues are organized. This is especially true when one compares England’s Premier League with Spain’s La Liga.
自英超联赛于1992年成立以来，电视转播收入的分配就十分公平。目前，所有国际转播收入由各队平分，国内电视转播的一半收入也采用这种分配方式。另一半国内电视转播收入则根据球队表现和在电视转播中出现的频率进行分配。
Since its founding in 1992, the Premier League has distributed television revenue fairly evenly. Currently, all international distribution revenues are spread evenly among the teams, as is half of the domestic TV income. The rest of the domestic income is paid out depending on performance and television appearances.
这种分配相对平均的做法，使得英超联赛各队的电视转播收入相差无几。在今年5月结束的赛季中，赚钱最多的利物浦队（Liverpool）在电视转播上收入1.22亿欧元，仅是垫底的卡迪夫城队（Cardiff City）的1.57倍（收入7,770万欧元）。这种公平的分配体系让规模较小的英超球队也有财力购买球员，这使得联赛在人才引进方面的整体花费水涨船高。
This relatively egalitarian distribution means that the difference in TV revenues among Premier League teams is low. During the season that ended in May, the top earner, Liverpool, received EUR122 million in TV revenues, 1.57 times what last place Cardiff City got (EUR77.7 million).
国际体育经济学家协会（International Association of Sports Economists）主席兼西班牙奥维耶多大学（University of Oviedo）经济学教授普拉西多o罗德里格斯表示：“因为各队都有着不错的收入，因此英超联赛垫底的球队也能角逐转会市场。”
The Premier League’s equal payout system allows smaller English teams to buy players, which increases the league’s overall spending on talent.
当然，最大英超球队的收入和花销都远远多于那些小球队。在2014年的转会市场上，被弗鲁曼称为“体育爱好者”或“糖果老爹”（即那些更在意球队输赢，而不是盈利状况的富人）所持有或控制的四家俱乐部在购买球员上的花费，就占到了整个英超联赛该项花费的一大半。这些俱乐部分别是利物浦（1.458亿欧元）、切尔西（Chelsea，1.113亿欧元）、阿森纳（Arsenal，9,270万欧元）、以及在德勤足球队财富排行榜（Football Money League）上位列第四的曼彻斯特联队（Manchester United）。
After a bad season that saw it miss out on the upcoming Champions League, Manchester United spent EUR182.5 million on transfers to improve its team.
经历了一个失败的赛季并错失欧冠资格后，曼联在转会市场花费了1.825亿欧元来提高实力。
“If a team feels it can make progress to qualify for Champions league, it makes an extra effort in transfer fees and salary,” says Rob Simmons, a professor of economics at the Lancaster University Management School who estimates Manchester United will lose at least EUR25 million by missing the competition this year.
兰卡斯特大学管理学院（Lancaster University Management School）经济学教授罗伯o西蒙斯表示：“如果一支球队觉得自己有望获得角逐欧冠联赛的资格，它就会在转会费和薪水上投入更多资金。”他估计，由于错失今年的欧冠联赛，曼联的经济损失将至少达到2,500万欧元。
Still, the egalitarian TV rights distribution has made the Premier League stronger overall.
尽管如此，电视转播收入的平等分配，让英超联赛的整体水平有所提高。
“The financial advantage of the top English clubs is not as great as the financial advantage of the league as a whole,” says Stefan Szymanski, a sports management professor at the University of Michigan.
密歇根大学（University of Michigan）体育管理学教授斯蒂芬o斯曼斯基表示：“顶级英格兰俱乐部的财务优势不如整个英超联赛的财务优势大。”
Compare that to Spain’s La Liga, a concentrated market dominated by Real Madrid and Barcelona, the two clubs with the highest revenues in the world, according to Deloitte.
现在可以将它与西甲联赛做一个对比。西甲联赛是一个集中化市场，由皇家马德里（Real Madrid）和巴塞罗那（Barcelona）两支队伍主导。德勤的数据显示，这两家是全球收入最高的俱乐部。
Spanish teams negotiate TV rights separately, so the biggest chunk of the television revenues go to these top two teams, which each brought in over EUR180 million last year. According to Deloitte, the TV revenue ratio between the biggest and smallest earners in Spain is 7:1.
西甲球队分头洽谈电视转播权，所以这两支顶尖球队获得了最大一块电视转播收入，它们在去年的收入均超过1.8亿欧元。根据德勤的数据，电视转播收入第一名和最后一名的收入比达到了7:1。
That’s far higher than in Italy (4.4:1) or Germany (2.5:1), not to mention England. In a market dominated by so few businesses, most teams can’t spend significant sums for players. During the summer player buying market, Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid (a distant third in revenues) accounted for 81% of the EUR479 million Spanish teams spent.
这要比意大利（4.4:1）和德国（2.5:1）高得多，更不用说英格兰了。在一个由如此少的俱乐部统治的市场，大多数球队都拿不出很多钱来追逐球员。在夏天的球员交易市场，巴塞罗那、皇家马德里和马德里竞技（Atlético de Madrid，收入远远地排在第三）购买球员的花费，占据西甲球队购买球员耗费总额（4.79亿欧元）的81%。
There is reason to believe that the Premier League will hold on to its economic dominance its role as the biggest talent shopper. Because of a new EUR6.5 billion broadcast deal, Premier League teams took home EUR1.95 billion in TV fees in the season that ended in May, up 60% from EUR1.2 billion last year.
因此我们有理由相信，英超联赛会继续保持球星最大买家的经济统治地位。在新签署的65亿欧元转播合同下，英超联赛在今年5月结束的赛季中收入了19.5亿欧元的转播费，比上赛季的12亿欧元提高了60%。
With this boom in broadcast rights, Deloitte estimates that Premier League teams brought in about EUR4 billion in revenues in the 2013-2014 season, or more than the Spanish and Italian leagues combined.
鉴于电视转播费用的增势迅猛，德勤预计英超联赛在2013-2014赛季的收入将达到40亿欧元，超出西班牙和意大利联赛的收入之和。
