Barcelona, Man City, Man Utd and the world’s highest wage bills
Karan Tejwani
- 2 May 2022 15:55 BST
- 3 min read
Despite Europe’s top clubs reducing their overall expenditure over the last two years due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, wages amongst the European Super League clubs continued to rise.
In a thread released by Swiss Ramble on Twitter about the 12 European Super League-founding clubs’ financial situation over the last two years, it was revealed that wage expenditure at the top was still quite high.
From numbers the 2021 financial year, it was shown that wage expenditure last year had increased last year to £3.3 billion, up by almost £200m from the previous year and at its highest point in the last decade.
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How much are clubs paying their players?
With the exception of Juventus, eight of the nine highest-paying clubs of the 12 are based in either England or Spain, with Inter, Tottenham and Milan making up the bottom three.
Out of the dozen clubs that signed up to the Super League last year, Barcelona still pay the highest wages to their players - £383 million-per-season.
Barcelona have worked to fix that, and even had to let go of their highest-earner and greatest-ever goalscorer, Lionel Messi, to make up for their financial mess.
Despite the pressures on revenue, wages at the ESL clubs continued to rise, up £247m (8%) in 2021 to £3.4 bln. The highest wage bills are in Spain and England: #FCBarcelona £383m, #MCFC £355m, #CFC £333m, #RealMadrid £329m, #MUFC £323m and #LFC £314m. pic.twitter.com/FOsYAbKUTN
— Swiss Ramble (@SwissRamble) May 2, 2022
Following Barcelona are Manchester City, who pay their staff £355 million, including Kevin De Bruyne, who is the Premier League’s second-highest earner.
Out of the 12 Super League clubs, Manchester City have also seen the highest rise in wage payments over the last five years, rising by £157 million in that time period.
Making up the rest of the top five are Chelsea (£333 million), Real Madrid (£329 million) and Manchester United (£323 million).
In the same five-year period, Manchester United’s wage payments reduced in 2020, before rapidly rising again in 2021 by about £39 million.
Out of the 12 clubs, Milan are the only ones to pay their staff less than £200m, and with the success they’ve had over the last two years, it’s a testament to their shrewd investments and quality.
