Why are English Clubs dominating in Europe?
The English Premier League clubs have shown impressive dominance in European competitions this year – Aston Villa winning the UEFA Europa League, Crystal Palace winning the UEFA Conference League and Arsenal ending runners-up of the UEFA Champions League in the 2025/26 season. The writing on the wall couldn’t be clearer – English teams are set to rule Europe.
Additionally, Tottenham Hotspur winning the Europa League in 2024/25, Manchester City winning the Champions League and West Ham winning the Conference League in the 2022/23 season are further proof of the same argument. Chelsea (2020/21) and Liverpool (2018/19) also won the Champions League in the past seven years.
This is a stark contrast from the times when clubs from Spain and the Italian leagues were dominating European competitions. Even though Real Madrid (15 titles) is still the standout team in the Champions League with the most titles followed by AC Milan (7 titles), their dominance is starting to wane as English teams are reaching more finals and winning European competitions more regularly. The question that comes to mind is what could have led to this transformation and is it a healthy trend for European football and what could be done to keep it more competitive?
Here, we look at the decisive factors that have led to this stratospheric transformation followed by our conclusion –
1. Financial Power
It’s a known fact that the Premier League’s financial power is unmatched across Europe. Due to the League’s popularity around the world, the English Premier League generates the highest broadcasting and commercial revenues and is based on the league table.
As per Deloitte UK, six Premier League sides are in the top 10 of the Deloitte Football Money League as the top revenue earners in 2026 and almost 50% of the top 30 come from the English top flight.
The Premier League teams were also the highest spenders in Europe, with the 2025 summer window exceeding an outrageous €3.7 billion in summer signings which was way more than the combined spend of the Bundesliga, La Liga, Ligue 1 and Serie A clubs.
The massive broadcasting revenues are shared with the Premier League clubs which is a sizeable income for these clubs and further enables even mid-table Premier League clubs to outspend many traditional European giants in the other European leagues. As a result, English teams are capable of acquiring the best talent while also maintaining squad depth to manage the workload of several domestic competitions along with European competitions.
For further context, even mid-table teams like Crystal Palace are able to spend over £80 million in the 2025/26 transfer window while the team they beat in the Conference League final this year, Rayo Vallecano could only spend about £7 million (as per transfermarkt.com). That is a huge margin which allows English clubs to acquire more talented players, build better quality squads leading to winning European silverware more frequently now.
2. Squad depth and rotation
English clubs do have a relatively higher workload of games in comparison to the other leagues as apart from the Premier League and European competition, they also participate in two domestic competitions – the League Cup and the FA Cup. As a result, the fixture congestion requires top clubs to play almost every three days.
If a top Premier League team intends to win silverware, they have to possess a bigger squad but also need to ensure quality on the bench to see them through the rigorous fixture schedule. Due to financial strength, they are able to do so as we saw how Arsenal invested in a quality squad in the summer ahead of the 2025/26 season which helped them compete well – winning the Premier League title, reaching the Champions League and League cup finals as they were able to manage injuries and results with squad rotation. Same with Man City who won two domestic competitions with a relatively bigger squad. Alas, many top teams in other leagues aren’t able to do the same as they cannot flex similar financial muscle.
With lack of talented players and a deeper squad to rotate during the busy period when clubs alternate between the domestic and European competitions, injury pile-ups might happen which also act as an additional mitigating factor in denying those clubs optimum conditions to compete.
Hence, again squad strength, quality playing eleven are another major factor that has contributed to the success of Premier League clubs in Europe.
3. Competitiveness in the League
As we already witnessed through the entirety of the 2025/26 Premier League season, the physicality and the competitiveness were of the highest level. With the league title won at 84 and 85 points in the last two seasons, the competitiveness has been at its peak. The traditional ‘Top Six’ that included Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur are no longer a certainty as teams like Aston Villa and Newcastle United have produced consistent performances and qualified for Europe more often as opposed to the likes of Chelsea, Man United and Spurs who have fared poorly in the past few seasons. Other mid-table teams like Bournemouth, Brighton and Hove Albion and Nottingham Forest have also qualified for European competitions, highlighting the league’s unpredictable and highly competitive nature. The Top six teams in the league this season have included Aston Villa and Bournemouth who are both outliers.
If we compare this to let’s say LaLiga and Italian Serie A, Bundesliga or even the French Ligue 1, the top five-six teams have remained the same barring a few exceptions (Getafe in Spain and Lens in Ligue 1 this season) with teams in the lower-half not having been able to show improvements or take massive strides like teams in the Premier League in the past few seasons.
Moreover, the playing style being more physical and intense in the Premier League, English clubs are better prepared to handle opposition from other leagues. While the likes of PSG, Barcelona and Real Madrid are still incredibly difficult to play against, Premier League clubs are better equipped to handle a more open playing style in Europe as compared to the tight, cagey encounters in the domestic league.
Hence, the playing style and the intense competition in the league doesn’t let them take any games for granted as the teams try to keep pace with the competition week-in, week-out. The competition in the league enables them to stay more focused and prepared.
4. Acquisition of top managerial and playing talent
Due to the financial superiority and the popularity of the Premier League, most top young managerial talents prefer a move to England as opposed to other leagues. Exceptionally high wages, working with top talents from all over the world, a hefty severance pay (in case of a sacking) can easily lure top managers to big English clubs and even mid-table ones. We have seen legendary coaches like Pep Guardiola and Jürgen Klopp staying in the Premier League for long periods. Talented coaches like Mikel Arteta and Andoni Iraola may be from Spain but they are also plying their trade at English clubs and finding success.
The same holds true for players coming to the league. The popularity of top English clubs and the Premier League’s global reach has endeared it to aspiring top talents. With the expectation of relatively higher wages being offered to these players along with competitive football and playing under top managers, it’s difficult to compete with top Premier League clubs barring a few exceptions like Real Madrid and Barcelona who are also one of the most followed clubs globally and could offer a similar financial package.
5. Favourable qualification formats
Due to the recent cycle of English teams dominating European competitions, according to the UEFA coefficient, more and more English clubs are getting to participate in European competitions. For context, in the 2025/26 season, six English teams qualified for the Champions League – Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea, Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur as top five spots were given for qualification instead of Top four and Spurs qualified by winning the Europa League.
The UEFA Coefficient is decided by a country’s clubs’ performances in European competition and for the past two seasons, due to their consistent performances in Europe, English clubs are getting five Champions League qualifying spots instead of four. It’s also the result of the expanded competition format since the 2024/25 season.
For the 2026/27 season, nine English teams will be playing in Europe with the Top five competing in the Champions League (Arsenal, Man City, Man United, Aston Villa and Liverpool), two in Europa League (Bournemouth, Sunderland and Crystal Palace) and one in the Conference League (Brighton and Hove Albion).
Hence, with nine teams participating in three European competitions next season, the chances of English clubs winning improves, leading to English clubs winning European silverware with alarming frequency.
Conclusion
Based on the aforementioned factors, we can see why English clubs are dominating in Europe and they will continue to do so until other leagues take drastic albeit transformative steps. The most important factor in all of this is the higher profits and revenues accumulated by the Premier League that enables the clubs in the league to maintain bigger squads, spend more money on transfers and acquire the best talents in the business. It also enables them to have much-improved infrastructure leading to modern training methods and improved performance and recovery strategies.
As a result, it has tilted the balance in the favour of one league and rendered these European competitions predictable which was never the intent when these competitions were initiated. The idea was to see the top European clubs from different leagues compete at a similarly high level without one having unfair advantage. An underdog story can happen once in a while and may seem encouraging for once but David can’t beat the Goliath every time.
So, what could be the solution? For one, these leagues will have to impose stringent rules for Financial Fair Play like UEFA imposes the Financial Sustainability Regulations (FSR) to level the playing field rather than allowing a massive revenue gap between the top and the mid-table teams in the domestic leagues. It can improve competitiveness of the league unlike the Top two or Top three teams dominating the league.
Another solution could be taking a leaf out of the Premier League’s book and adopting a centralized broadcasting rights strategy rather than selling the rights individually like they do in LaLiga. In the long run, this would benefit all clubs as revenue would be maximized and the leagues could reach a global wider audience as opposed to limited fans in their country.
Also, many clubs in other leagues are still traditionally fans-owned and running on Presidential Club models. To compete with multi-billionaire owned clubs, these clubs will have to transition from the old models to new corporate or multi-club ownership models similar to what is happening in the Premier League. These evolving ownership structures attract substantial foreign investments into the clubs and could help the legacy clubs in modernizing their stadiums and training facilities while also enhancing their global presence.
While it’s great news for the Premier League as their clubs are winning European competitions more frequently now with many of their players being exposed to competing against top talents from other leagues, no one wants the European competitions to become predictable. Hence, we hope the other top European leagues take the necessary action sooner rather than later to preserve competitiveness, as a majority of football fans generally prefer an exciting and closely contested competition over a predictable and boring one!
