PREM clubs have cashed in with a huge new £488m deal with video games giant EA Sports.
A fall-out with world bosses means the company’s marquee football game will no longer have the “Fifa” tag from next year.
But the six-year deal, signed off by club bosses, represents almost a QUADRUPLING of the previous three-season agreement.
That deal had been worth around £23m per year, adding up to just over £1m per club.
But the new contract to run from the start of next term will be worth £81.3m each year.
The new agreement will extend the relationship between EA Sports and the Prem, which started in 1998, to 31 years.
Prem January spending almost doubled the previous record last month.
A total of £815million was splurged by English top flight clubs during the mid-season transfer window.
Chelsea accounted for a staggering £326m of this sum – with big money buys including Enzo Fernandez and Mykhailo Mudryk.
The Blues’ spend was more than that of clubs in Spain, Germany, Italy and France put together.
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Meanwhile, Prem clubs have ridiculed rebooted “reverse Brexit” plans for a European Super League WITHOUT English teams.
Conspirators Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus are refusing to give up on their breakaway project despite it crashing and burning inside 48 HOURS two years ago.
Now the three rebels are using Madrid-based sports marketing firm A22 to rehash another version of the plan that would see up to 80 clubs leave Uefa to form a new competition.
But that would NOT include any Premier League clubs, with A22 using the success of English football as a justification for the new tournament.
Prem club bosses last night accused the Super Leaguers of wanting to boot English teams OUT of Europe. One insider revealed: “This is a reverse Brexit.
“We are talking about a closed league that is trying to justify itself by pitting Europe against England.
“At the same time, they claim they want to emulate the Prem’s success. To say people are bemused is an understatement.”
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