Anyone who believed the spending in the English Premier League was crazy hasn't seen anything yet.
Manchester City, for years the poor cousin to Manchester United, has suddenly become a major player financially in global soccer on the club side.
Sheik Mansur bin Zayed al-Nahyan of Abu Dhabi bought Manchester City, the latest in the sellout of Premier League clubs to foreign interests.
No one seems to care much about this sale. All City fans care about is that their club has suddenly become a world financial power that can buy almost any player it desires.
Sulaiman al-Fahim, the frontman for the Abu Dhabi group, makes no bones about its intentions.
"Our goal is very simple -- to make Manchester City the biggest club in the Premier League," al-Fahim said. "We will buy whatever is needed. You cannot put a figure on what we will spend, like 100 million pounds. More than that might be needed."
Abu Dhabi has a year cash surplus of more than $50 billion. Its sovereign economic fund, the Abu Dhabi United Group, is estimated to be worth a trillion dollars.
Their impact has already been felt. They outbid Roman Abramovich's Chelsea for Robinho, a key member of the Brazilian national team.
Abramovich changed the landscape of the Premier League by his wild spending when he first purchased Chelsea. Now al-Fahim has hinted he'd pay as much as 165 million euros for Cristiano Ronaldo.
Insane.
One of the latest rumours has City looking to purchase Gianluigi Buffon, an Italian generally regarded as the best goalkeeper in the world. The offer would be in the 70 million pounds range.
While City fans stand and cheer their team's move, the invasion of foreign ownership with limitless wads of cash is not healthy for either the Premier League or for the development of English players.
There will be other English teams sold to foreign buyers.
For the last few years, four teams have had the run of the English Premier League: Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United. Now Manchester City has thrown its bank account in with the other four. The rest of the league will have to make do with scraps, knowing almost from the beginning of the schedule that a title and a spot in European competition is just a dream.
How long will those fans continue to support their teams knowing there is little hope of making the jump to the next level? How long before the teams struggle financially even more because the top five get most of the endorsements, marketing and tournament appearances? How long before the other teams' financial problems worsen to the point of bankruptcies forcing them to sell to foreign owners?
How long before DCI from Dubai redoubles its efforts to buy into the Premier League? It came close to buying a chunk of Liverpool but now that its neighbour and competitor in the Middle East has upstaged them, watch out.
From a soccer development standpoint, big-spending, foreign-ownership groups all operate the same way.
They purchase the top players in the world, most of whom are foreign born. Those players will play most of the minutes, not only in the English Premier League but in the Champions League or UEFA competitions, leaving young English talent on the bench.
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