Wages and Transfer Spending Up
Submitted by WG on Sat, 06/06/2009 - 01:00
Total wages in the Premier League have exceeded £1bn for the first time as England's elite football clubs take advantage of extra television rights revenue in a scramble for talent. The Premiership wage bill rose 23 per cent to £1.2bn in the 2007-08 season according to Deloitte's annual review of football finance. Chelsea comfortably topped the wages league, with Roman Abramovich's club spending £172m on salaries, compared with £121m spent by Manchester United, £101m by Arsenal and £90m by Liverpool. Premier League clubs' increase in total wages of £342m in the two years in 2007/08 is broadly equivalent to the £351m increase in broadcast revenue over this period repeating the experience of previous significant increases in broadcasting deals. Across Premiership clubs there is a relatively strong correlation between wages and league position. However, in the Championship there is no clear link which highlights the division's unpredictability and suggests that high wages are not a sure fire guarantee of success at this level. Championship wages went up year on year by 17 per cent, League 1 by 27 per cent and League 2 by 8 per cent.
The latest Deloitte review of football finance shows that gross transfer spending across the top 92 professional clubs grew to £779m in 2007/08, up 35 per cent from 2006/07/. Over 85 per cent (£664m) was spent by Premiership clubs. The majority of Premiership clubs' transfer spending continues to be with overseas clubs, £351m or 52 per cent. However, the proportion of intra Premier League transfers has increased. Chelsea became the first club to report over £80m gross transfer spending in one season. Three others - Liverpool (£70m), Manchester City (£62m) and Portsmouth (£50m) - had gross transfer spend in excess of £50m. The net transfer movement between the Premiership and the Football League in 2007/08 was a net outflow from the Premier League of £59m, an increase of 69 per cent from £35m in 2006/07. Total transfer spending by Football League clubs has increased by 34 per cent to £115m with ten clubs recording transfer fees in excess of £5m.
