League Leaders Move To Third In Pay League
Barcelona and Real Madrid remain the best paid teams in global sport but new Premier League leaders Manchester City have jumped into the top three and are closing the gap, with the top four clubs are all from football, according to the Global Sports Salaries Survey 2012.
The survey, put together by sportingintelligence.com, reveals that the average annual first-team pay at Barcelona was £5.26m in the period under review, or £101,160 per week per player, making them the world’s best paid team by average salary.
Real Madrid are number two in the ‘league’, with their stars earning £4.7m per year on average, while the average first-team salary at Manchester City is £4.49m.
The financial rewards for Barcelona’s stars, Lionel Messi included, have risen by 10% since last year’s survey, while average pay at Real Madrid has climbed 6%.
Manchester City’s pay has soared by 26% as Sheikh Mansour continues to back his dream of establishing City within football’s European elite.
Champions League finalists Chelsea are fourth in this year’s list, followed by the NBA’s LA Lakers and the New York Yankees of MLB baseball.
The top 10 is completed by Milan, Bayern Munich, the MLB’s Philadelphia Phillies and Internazionale.
The report compares average first-team pay on a like-for-like basis in 14 of the world’s most popular – and richest – sports leagues: the NBA, the IPL, MLB, the Premier League, the Bundesliga, the NHL, the NFL, La Liga and Serie A.
The report also includes Japan’s NPB baseball league as the highest paying sports league in Asia (before the IPL), as well Australia’s AFL (Aussie rules) and Canada’s CFL (Canadian gridiron).
Those dozen leagues are the 10 most popular professional domestic sports leagues in the world by average attendance per game, plus the world’s most popular indoor sports leagues by average attendance, the NBA and NHL.
The Premier League remains the richest football league in the world and five of its clubs – City, Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool – are among the top 20 best paid teams.
NBA teams occupy six of the top 20 places, MLB baseball teams occupy four, La Liga and Serie A occupy two each, and the Bundesliga one.
Nick Harris, author of the report, said: ‘Seven of the top 10 teams now are elite European football clubs and only three are from American sports, which illustrates the rise and rise of those major clubs as businesses – and businesses willing splash the cash on players’ pay.’
‘Benefactor wealth has also played a part, of course, not least at City and Chelsea. The growth in elite European football pay remains unhindered by wages caps or other restraints commonly in place across the major US sports that promote stability and a greater competitive balance. One thing remains true is most of the leagues – money does help to buy success.’
‘It is possible but by no means certain that there will be some slowing of wage inflation at some European clubs as and when Uefa’s Financial Fair Play rules begin to bite. But that will depend on how seriously Uefa prove to be in policing those rules, and in any case the biggest football businesses like Barca, Real Madrid and United look likely to continue generating large incomes which will allow continued increases in salaries.’
