You can be competitive in sport and financially self-sufficient. I don't think there are any other sectors where people wake up in the morning and ask themselves, 'Can we build good infrastructure and make money?' Football has incentives that lead to a financial imbalance, such as Champions League qualification for those who aspire to be at the top of the table and avoid relegation.
In recent years, there have been several cases of players developing on loan at a club regularly. For example, look at Chelsea. During the 2010s, they had a partnership with Vitesse, where it felt like every decent youngster headed to the Netherlands to develop.