The average Arsenal first team star earns over £77,000 a week, according to new research undertaken by Sporting Intelligence.
The 2015 Global Sports Salaries report, compiled in association with ESPN The Magazine, claims that the Gunners top the £4 million mark per player on annual remuneration; a figure that puts them 10th in world sports franchise wage spend.
Eight European football teams and two MLB sides, LA Dodgers and New York Yankees, make up the top ten with Ligue 1’s Paris Saint Germain deemed the biggest spenders, ahead of La Liga’s Real Madrid and the Premier League’s Manchester City. Manchester United (6th) and Chelsea (8th) also spend more than the Gunners.
Interestingly, Arsenal’s owner Stan Kroenke – reportedly worth $6.3bn – has a second outfit in the top 20. The Denver Nuggets reportedly spend £2,939,555 on wages per player annually.
Unsurprisingly, the Premier League is the best paying football league in the world, with average annual pay at a whopping £2.23m per player – that’s before endorsements, sponsorships or any other cash earned by extra-curricular means.
To put that figure context, it works out at nearly 83 times the UK’s average full time annual wage of £27,000.
The full 120-page study – downloadable here – includes an analysis of 333 teams in 17 major pro leagues, covering seven sports, 13 countries and 9,731 athletes who are making a combined £11.53 billion ($17.94 billion).
If you’re feeling a little sick about the above, here’s a link to a picture of Charlie Adam, feel free to print it off before pointing to it and asking your boss for a pay rise. Good luck!
blimey
that’s a fuckton of money. almost enough to make cashley swerve off the road
Also is it all staff costs including Wenger, coaches, stewards etc etc divided by the number of players? I don’t believe that the study knows all the amounts paid to each player but could believe they know the total wage costs from the accounts and are dividing by the number of players.
In which case the average salary is lower once the others are taken out.
They can’t know all the salaries or how the money is split salary/bonus etc. So (assuming they are working on the 2013/2014 season figures) Manure got a low cost as they didn’t have to pay their players a CL qualifying bonus, whereas we paid an FA Cup win bonus. But it’s interesting to see that the teams we need to beat next season all payout more than we do.
Mo money mo problems
I’d happily play for Arsenal for 76k a week but I’m sure they could quite easily haggle me down to a cool thousand. Plus it’d solve their prolific striker issue so everybody would be happy. Everybody except all fans when they see I don’t have the fitness to track back.
I’m off to fantasize about breaking Thierry’s record, y’all have a lovely evening.
Assume it doesn’t include the NFL blogs? Some eye watering numbers in there for some of the QBs. Although I suppose a team of 53 might drive the average down.
For anybody else remotely interested, look up Ryan Tannehill.
Surprised we’ve made the top ten…
Aren’t they taxed more in England than any other league in Europe too though?
No. France.
As an American, the one thing that has always shocked me about following international football is the lack of reliable salary information. For our major sports, we know every player’s salary literally down to the dollar. As far as I can tell for football, it appears to be speculation and educated guesswork.
Sports stars should get paid very well, but fuck me do we have a skewed society!! So much disparity and it’s only getting worse.
I read that last line in the article and felt a strong sensation of vertigo. It makes no sense to me, at all, that any of these players should ever feel that they need more money! Playing for any of these teams for 1 or 2 years would set me up for life!
Disparity is right. I’ve just done a days work teaching disabled kids and what they earn in a week takes me years oh and by the way my wife who’s a nurse in A&E gets around the same as me. Charlie Adam is truly ugly but it doesn’t cheer me up. Three points tonight would go a long way.
Tell your boss that you want a percentage of your shirt sales….
Yes life’s unfair and both you and your wife should get looked after much better etc etc.
Download link not working
Try now
So lets put it in perspective, we are still behind Chelsea, City and United Not sure where some people think we are number two in England. You can think about bidding for say a Fabregas last season despite having more than sufficient assets in that department but it would likely deprive us of adding in other areas we needed (crucially Cback back then) The added salary of someone like Fabregas will have an effect on what/who you can bring in in the areas we truly need reinforcements. People have to understand these things before shooting off their mouths. We are… Read more »
That’s a tidy bit of money.
Although are these figures pre or post tax deductions? I’ve heard tax rates are like murder in the UK.
Agreed, good point, that will distort further. I read something that said Italian top tax rates are very high, ours aren’t great and Germany and Spain are a lot lower.
However http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_rates_of_Europe shows a lot around 45% in the bigger footballing nations, so not much difference.
I think there are slight differences because of the way the taxes are worked out in the different countries (for example, in France, it looks like a flat 49% rate for an income over 500,000 Euros, whereas in the UK the portions of an income incur different amounts of tax, e.g. 45% for any income above £150k) but I think you’re right in the main. They’re not exactly badly off wherever they play. I think individuals earning prize money is one thing, but when Falcao gets paid £300k for not performing in the slightest, it seems completely unjustified, but hey-ho,… Read more »
Great piece arseblog
OTOH considering what Juventus is operating on, they have done very well and we need to step up a gear or two still.
I just had to click to see a picture of Charlie Adam
He is related to Phil Jones it looks.
The way I look at it is, at least I don’t have to work weekends! 🙂
Just as well, I’ve cancelled my Sky Sports subscription (as the league ends) but wouldn’t renew it for next season. I’ll watch the delayed coverage on Arsenal TV and there is always Arseblog for live blog and instant match report. I refuse to be part of the system that keeps feeding players like Shawcross, turns 20 yrs old greedy (Raheem Pound Sterling), from my average salary especially when I’ve two kids to feed at home 🙁 This where a sensible manager like Wenger makes sense rather than a Cunt like Mourinio or the stupid media, who all look to ride… Read more »
Always thought the American team sports would dominate such lists.
Guess there’s been a shift
So in 1 year they make what the average Joe makes in a lifetime.