MANCHESTER, Sept 10 ― Premier League champions Manchester City are the first team to have spent more than €1 billion (RM4.6 billion) to assemble their squad, a study has shown.

Data from the Swiss-based CIES Football Observatory showed that City have spent €1.014 billion on their current squad. French champions Paris St-Germain were second having spent €913 million and Spain's Real Madrid were third with €902 million.

Manchester United (€751 million) have the second-most expensive squad in the Premier League followed by Champions League winners Liverpool (€639 million).

The Premier League average was €345 million, it said.

At the other end of the scale, Germany"s Paderborn had the cheapest squad in the study (€4 million), which looked at teams from the English, German, Italian, French and Spanish top flights.