GLOBAL SPORTS SALARIESSURVEY 2018
AVERAGE FIRST-TEAM PAY, TEAM-BY-TEAM,
IN THE WORLD’S MOST POPULAR SPORTS LEAGUES
349 TEAMS

18 LEAGUES

13 COUNTRIES
8 SPORTS

10,089 PLAYERS$22.2 BILLION IN WAGES
1 AIM

sportingintelligencesportingintelligence“Messi is widely regarded as the best
footballer of all time and now has asalary to match … a pre-tax annual
package topping £50m per year. ”

sportingintelligence

MESSI’S BARÇA BACKON TOP OF THE WORLD
Barcelona have regained theirstatus as the best paid team in allof global sport. The average basic
first-team pay at the Spanish giants- where the genius Lionel Messi has
starred for 14 years and counting- is now £10,454,259 a year in thecurrent season, 2018-19.
This is the first time in the nineyear history of the Global Sports
Salaries Survey (GSSS) that any
team in any sport has had firstteam average pay above £10m.
And that’s just basic pay, notincluding signing-on fees or loyalty
bonuses or performance add-ons
or any of the other remarkable
extras that can be part ofcontracts nowadays.
Barça’s current pay levels also
mark the first time in the GSSS’s
existence that any team is paying
a basic first-team average ofmore than £200,000 per week; inthis case it’s £201,043 per week.
This is the first time Barça havebeen back at the top of theworld in pay terms - and there
is a detailed explanation of ourdefinitions and methodology later- since the GSSS of 2012, when
their table-topping figure was half
the current number.
Barcelona are well clear at
the top of this year’s list, but
their fierce domestic rivals Real
Madrid have managed to climb
to second place with this year’s
survey finding average basic payat the Bernabéu of £8,089,582 peryear (or ‘only’ £155,569 per week).

2 			

In third place this year are lastyear’s No1 team, basketball’s
Oklahoma City Thunder of
the NBA, on £7.85m per year
on average, followed by twoother NBA teams, the GoldenState Warriors (£7.82m) and the
Washington Wizards (£7.6m). That
NBA trio break new ground of theirown by becoming the first NBA
teams - or indeed American teams
from any sport - where averagebasic pay is more than $10m (USdollars) per player per year.
All of the top dozen teams inthis year’s list are either fromthe NBA (eight of the top 12)
or from elite European football(four of 12). Joining Barcelona
and Real Madrid are Juventus
at No10 and Manchester United
at No11. Juventus’s leap toNo10 from No32 on last year’s
list is a result not only of signing
Messi’s old nemesis and fellow
superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, butalso of signing Douglas Costa(permanently) and Leonardo
Bonucci on big contracts while
lucrative extensions have been
given to others including Miralem
Pjanić, in his case in August 2018.
Of the top 20 teams in thisyear’s list, 12 are from the NBA
and eight from elite European
football: Bayern Munich, Atletico
Madrid, Paris Saint Germain andManchester City are all ranked
between 15th and 20th.
Of the top 30 teams, 20 are
from the NBA, eight from elite
European football and two from

Major League Baseball (MLB),
with the San Francisco Giants thehighest ranked MLB team at No27,
followed by the Chicago Cubs
(No30).

BARCELONA BREAKINGBARRIERS
In last year’s list, Barcelona were
the world’s best paid footballteam but it has still taken an
extraordinary combination of newcontracts and signings to lift theiraverage basic pay this time above£10m from £6.6m a year ago.
Foremost among those contracts
was the biggest pay deal inBarcelona’s history awarded to
Messi, widely regarded now as
the best footballer of all time.
His gross basic (pre-tax) annual
Barça pay tops £50m per year,
including guaranteed image
rights fees. There are other‘one-off’ or variable elements
including signing-on fee, loyalty
payments, appearance money
and performance bonuses which
don’t come under our ‘basic pay’
definition (for any player in any
sport) and aren’t included in our
calculations.
When Barcelona formallyannounced Messi’s contract
extension, on 25 November lastyear, they confirmed the newdeal would run to the end of
the 2020-21 season and thatthe contract included a buyout
clause of €700m (£619m). ‘Now,
at 30 years of age, Messi is in his
14th season with the first team3

sportingintelligence
and, with his new deal, will be
dressed in blaugrana for at least
17 seasons in total,’ the club
trumpeted on their website.
It was just one among a stringof renewal deals for important
players since GSSS 2017 wascompiled. In January 2018, Gerard
Pique signed a contract extension
to 2022, with a buyout clause of€500m (£442m), and so did Sergi
Roberto. In June 2018, SamuelUmtiti signed a contract extension
to 2023, with a buyout of €500m,
and in September 2018, Sergio
Busquets did the same. Big new
signings have also added to the
Barça wage bill, not least Philippe
Coutinho, who signed from
Liverpool in January 2018, andArthur, Malcom and Arturo Vidal
among others in summer 2018.
The bottom line, according to oursurvey research, is an averagebasic Barça annual salary inexcess of £10m a year for each of
the 23 members of the first-teamsquad. Those are the 23 players
formally declared by Barcelona
on their website as first-teamplayers at our cut-off point. (Notethat different teams even within
the same sport and league havedifferent numbers of first-teamplayers by their own definition;
typically that’s 25 in football but
the range is 20 to 30 and Spanish
squads are often slightly lower).
Nobody knows at this stage not even Barcelona themselves- what their total football clubwage bill will be at the end of
2018-19, for all staff, includingcoaches, players at all levels andall other non-playing ‘footballing
employees’. That total will
depend on many things, including
on-pitch success.

4 			

sportingintelligence
But we would expect that
Barcelona’s first-team squadbasic wage bill will be aroundhalf or slightly more than half ofthe total football club wage bill
for all salaries for all employees,
when the latter includes all extras,
bonuses, benefits and costs of
employment such as national
insurance and local equivalents.
The ratio of total first-team basic
pay to total football club wage
bill varies from club to club.
Barcelona and Real Madrid both
climbed the GSSS rankings toreach this year’s places, Barçaby three places to the top spot
and Real by seven places to No2.
Other notable climbers high up
include Juventus’s leap by 23
places to No9, Atletico Madrid’s
jump of 35 places to No17 andthe NBA’s Chicago Bulls leap of
29 places to No31. The biggest
climbers anywhere on the list
are Vissel Kobe, now home toAndrés Iniesta and up 81 placesfrom No267 to No186, while the
San Francisco 49ers have risen
68 places from No164 to No96.
Notable fallers are the Cleveland
Cavaliers, down 14 places to
No16.

NBA STRETCH LEAD
AS RICHEST LEAGUEThe NBA remains comfortably the
top paying league as a whole inworld sport, with average basic
salaries of £5.9m or $7.8m thisseason. The details on how many
teams and players are considered
for each league are in theleague-by-league analysis pages,
as are the average salaries andmedian numbers.
The Premier League is the highest
paying football league in theworld, at £2.99m per player thisseason. The average weekly pay
in the Premier League rose above£50,000 per week for the first timein 2017-18 and is now £57,514 perweek.
In most leagues, money matterswhen it comes to performance;
the more you pay, the better you
do, all other things being equal.
That is particularly true in elitefootball leagues but also true in
the NBA and in MLB. The reason
is fairly straightforward - better
players cost more, and if you’re
spending more it’s generally
because you have better players.

“The NBA remains
comfortably the top paying
league as a whole in worldsport, with average basic
salaries of £5.9m ($7.8m)
this season.”The 18 leagues and 349 teams
we consider in the main list startwith the ‘big four’ from American
sports, which are the NFL (gridiron,
American football), the NBA(basketball), MLB (baseball) andNHL (ice hockey), continue withthe ‘big five’ football leaguesof Europe, which are the English
Premier League (EPL), theBundesliga of Germany, La Ligaof Spain, Serie A of Italy and Ligue
1 of France, and include the AFL(Aussie Rules) from Australia, CFL
football (gridiron) from Canada,
NPB baseball from Japan and IPL
cricket from India.
Our final five leagues are theScottish Premiership from
Scotland, MLS from North
America, China’s CSL andJapan’s J-League - all as
examples of smaller-scale leagues
from the world’s most popularsport, football - and the WNBA.
For the NBA, the NHL and the NFL,the numbers in this report pertain
to the 2018-19 seasons. For thePremier League, Bundesliga, La
Liga, Serie A, Ligue 1 and Scottish
Premiership, the salaries are for5sportingintelligencesportingintelligence
A series of features later in thesepages take a look at:
1: The World Cup itself, examining
how well we can predict it
based on the salary levels of theparticipants, using pay as a proxy
for talent. Assuming that pay andperformance are related, we lookat who underachieved most andwho punched above their weightin Russia. That’s on pages 14-15.
2: Average pay levels in the top
football divisions of assorted
nations around the world. This
report contains an in-depth
look, club by club, at the ‘Big 5’
leagues of Europe plus the top
football divisions in China, North
America, Japan and Scotland.
The wider survey attempts to findan average pay figure for every
top-flight league in Europe andothers scattered globally. That’s
on pages 17-21.

the squads after the close of 2018
summer transfer window. For MLB,
MLS, IPL, NPB, CSL, J.League and
WNBA the numbers are for 2018,
and for the AFL and CFL theycome from the end of the 2017seasons.

THE WORLD FOOTBALLISSUE
The GSSS 2017 was a thematic
special on the subject of genderinequality in global team sport.
We took an in-depth look at thestate of play, financially, thatkeeps men’s and women’s sport
miles apart, and gauged pay
levels across a dozen of the best
remunerated women’s leagues
in six sports across eight countries.
6 			

A key takeaway was not only are
there fewer opportunities by far
for women to make a living fromprofessional sport - a living wage,that is - but those that have themearn so much less than than theirmale counterparts: about one
hundredth as much. The subject
is more important than ever, solast year’s GSSS special remains
relevant. You can find that here:
https://globalsportssalaries.com/
GSSS%202017.pdf
For the GSSS 2018, in a year inwhich the World Cup took placein Russia and France were crowned
champions after beating darkhorses Croatia in the final, ourthematic thread for this edition
is world football in general.

3: How much bang are top
football clubs getting for their
buck? In a special contribution
from the brilliant folk at 21st Club,
their Head of Football Intelligence,
Omar Chaudhuri, examines whichclubs are out-performing theirspending - and why - and which
are doing the opposite. He also
examines whether some clubs, notleast in the Premier League, are,in effect, just too wealthy for theirown good. That’s on pages 22-25.
As a special extra, we’redelighted to include in this issue afascinating insight from 21st Club’s
sister company 15th Club, whowork not in football but in golf.
The team at 15th Club worked
with Europe’s team at the 42nd
Ryder Cup in September, staged
on the Albatros Course at Le Golf
National in Guyancourt, France.
Europe ran out comfortablewinners, by 17½ points to 10½,
and Dan Zelezinski of 15th Club
explains (on pages 36-39) how
some of the analytics principles
that assisted in that triumph might
be applied to help professional
golfers win more - and therefore
earn more.

CURRENCY NOTESThe GSSS takes currency
conversion rates for each edition
at mid-year for all currencies.
This year the major rates used are£1 = US$1.3158 and £1 = €1.13,
with £1 = ¥144 (Japanese yen)and £1 = AUS$1.79 (Australian
dollars) while £1 = CAN$1.74(Canadian dollars) and £1 =₹91.24 (Indian rupees).
If a salary has been paid in US
dollars, that figure is reported indollars, and also converted topounds. If a salary is paid in euros
or any other currency, we have
converted to pounds, and then to
US dollars, and report it in pounds
and dollars.
We mention this simply because,in previous years, figures havebeen taken from the report andconverted into other currencies atthe publication day’s rate, thenbeen picked up and converted
again. Amounts can change
quickly and significantly from their
original state. Such is the effect of
currency fluctuations. With thatheadache-inducing but essential
digression out of the way, we canmove on.

GSSS 2018 - ORIGINS IN
POPULARITY
We reiterate this each year toprovide context and explain how
this report has evolved: SportingIntelligence’s global sports salaries
survey was conceived in 2009 withseveral aims, one of them toproduce a substantial piece oforiginal research to help promote
the full launch of www.sportingintelligence.com in early 2010.
The idea was to compare, ona like-for-like basis as closely as
possible, how much ‘average’
sportsmen earned at hundreds ofdifferent clubs and teams aroundthe world in hugely contrasting
professional sports. This would
also allow us to examine therelationship between money andsuccess in each sport.
To reflect global and not justwestern patterns, we needed tolook beyond one or two ‘hotspots’in European football and major
North American sport. So thestarting point for the first survey
was considering the most popular
domestic professional sports
leagues - measured by average
ticket-buying attendance pergame - and included not only
the NFL, the Premier League andother ‘major’ leagues but also
Indian Premier League cricket andJapanese baseball.
Subsequent reports have
expanded to add Australian
Rules football and Canadian
CFL gridiron, then Chinese Super
League football, Japanese
J-League football and Ligue 1
from France. The WNBA became
the first women’s league to join
the main list in the survey lastyear when we finally obtained
the accurate team-by-team pay
data required. As and whenreliable numbers can be sourced
for new or growing leagues,
we’ll be happy to include them,and welcome any assistance inobtaining such data.

For now, the 18 leagues in the
GSSS comprise most of the biggest
professional domestic sports
leagues in the world (measured
by average attendance pergame), plus a handful of otherleagues significant for their own
reasons. The attendances for the
18 leagues in GSSS 2018 are as
follows, each for the most recently
completed seasons.
LeagueAVG Attnd Total Attnd

NFL
Bundesliga
EPL
AFL
NPB
MLB
La Liga
IPL
Serie A
CFL
CSL
Ligue 1MLS
J-League
NBA
NHL
SPL
WNBA

67,40544,64638,297
34,81829,30028,83026,86825,714*
24,767
24,64423,76622,524
21,873
18,883
17,987
17,446
15,896
6,721(reg season) (reg season)

17,255,759
13,661,796
14,552,748
6,893,909
25,139,463
69,625,244
10,209,924
1,440,000*
9,411,539
1,996,180.2
5,703,840
8,559,056
8,552,503
5,778,178
22,124,559
22,174,263
3,147,357
1,371,084*Best guesstimate from local information; theIPL has been consistently poor in measuring
and publishing accurate crowd levels.

Of the current 15 best-attended
leagues in the world (by averagegate) the GSSS 2018 includes 13 ofthem, the exceptions being the Big
Bash (Australia, cricket) and Liga
MX (Mexico, football), where fulland accurate team-by-team wage
data remains elusive. The Big Bash(average crowd 26,528) would beeighth in the table above, or one
place above the IPL, while Liga
MX (average 24,352) would be a
top-10 contender attracting bigger
averages than the Chinese Super
League (just) and smaller than
Canadian gridiron (just).
7

sportingintelligence

GSSS - OUR METRIC
EXPLAINEDThe key metric in the GSSS has
always been ‘average first-teampay’. It sounds simple but to staytrue to our like-for-like target
requires a range of decisions
about what to include. What does
‘first team’ constitute at a football(soccer) club? In the NBA? In
Japanese baseball?
Typically, a first-team squadin football will be 25 players
although it may be as few as 20
and it may be more than 30. It
depends on the team. Similar
numbers of players per ‘first-teamsquad’ are used for the two
baseball leagues included - MLB
and NPB.
In the ice hockey league, theNHL, we include the 23 players
per team on the opening day
rosters of the 2018-19 season andin NBA basketball, we include
the 14 or 15 players on eachroster on the opening day of the
2018-19 season. In Canadianand Australian football (CFL and
Aussie Rules AFL) the wages ofsome 40-plus players are counted
per team and in the NFL it is thoseof 53 players per team.
By ‘average’, we mean
‘arithmetic mean’. All the salaries
are added up (and by salaries,
we include basic guaranteed pay
for playing sport for that team,
not for bonuses or endorsementsor sponsorship or anything else
extra-curricular) and divided by
the number of players. That’s
it. A simple list that provokes
complicated arguments but does,at the very least, provide a ‘ballpark’ reckoner of what different
sports teams pay.
8 			

sportingintelligence
We believe average pay isimportant - as opposed tototal wage outlay - because
two teams spending the same
totals on salaries will have starkly
different averages if they arepaying a significantly different
number of players.
It happens, and it matters. You
can employ a higher numberof lower quality players for thesame price as a smaller numberof higher quality players, and we
think it’s worth exploring which ismost effective for performance.
Arguably one of the mostcounter-intuitive findings in ourreports has been the relatively
low levels of average salaries in
America’s NFL - by far and away
the richest sport in the world interms of annual domestic TV
contract earnings, often the
bedrock of a league’s income.
NFL players are earning just under$2.9m a year each on average in
2018, or almost $5m less per man
than NBA basketball players thisseason. The NFL ‘median’ salary,
where you consider the middle
person in a list of all players
ranked from best-paid to worstpaid, only crept above a million
dollars per year in recent times
and is now $1.2m.
The best paid NFL team in thisyear’s survey, the Jacksonville
Jaguar, do not appear on theoverall list until No85, with theaverage player there earning£2.54m a year ($3.34m).

GSSS - OUR METRICCRITIQUED
It has been argued by some sports
fans, usually in North America,that pay-per-man is irrelevant
because it is total outlay thatmatters. In response: not a single
NFL team gets into the top 12 listof total payroll size. The Jaguars
are No13. The top six teams in thisregard - the combined total basic
salaries of the first-team players- are Barcelona, Real Madrid,
PSG, Manchester United, the San
Francisco Giants and Manchester
City.

“NFL players are earning
just under $2.9m a year
each on average in 2018,or almost $5m less per
man than NBA basketball
players.”

Whenever we publish a newedition of the report, complaints
range from ‘average pay isirrelevant’ to ‘You should publish
the total / median / mode /range (delete as applicable) for
each club / league / sport (ditto)
by match / month / minute (andnot year, delete as applicable)
while taking into account theattendance / TV deal / TV
audience / commercial revenue’.
And on and on.
We have a lot of the numbers
cited above but there are limits towhat a relatively brief (100-page)
report can carry. Anyone wanting
to explore our data sets in depth
can contact us about possibilities.
The salient point remains that wedeveloped a metric that, as asimply as possible, tries to illustrate,in the most like-for-like manner
possible, what a typical sportsman
earns in markedly different sports,
and at teams within those sports.
If you want to know what sports
teams pay overall in wages …
then in many sports you will never
be able to find out. Especially in
the USA, many teams have norequirement to publish it. Ever.
And don’t. And where there isa legal requirement to publish
accounts, as is the case for most
British football clubs (albeit long9

sportingintelligencesportingintelligence
France, Scotland) we source a
specific number for each andevery individual player wherever
possible, either from players
themselves, their agents or otherrepresentatives, or club sources.

after a season is finished), there
is no requirement to break down
what part of a wage bill went
to players, let alone to the coregroup of players who appear in
the first team.
If you want to know the numbers
for club wage bills at Europe’s
major teams for 2018-19 - via
official channels but not broken
down into players and others then you can, around Spring 2020.
Our rationale is to try to capture
what’s happening at player levelspecifically, and now.

METHODOLOGICALNOTESSome important notes need
to be made on methodology.
The first six editions of this report,
published annually from 2010 to2015 inclusive, were released in10 			

Spring, usually April, and included
salaries either for the ‘active’ ormost recently completed season
for each league at the time of
publication.
For the European football leagues
up to the 2015 report, completed
seasons were used. But a wider
knowledge base and moreestablished access to better data
gave us the confidence to use‘live’ data for all the European
football leagues from the GSSS
2016 onwards.
As the title of the report says,
our numbers are compiled bysurvey. More accurately they
are the result of an analysis
and organisation of data eitherA) established as fact in thoseleagues where minutiae are in the
public domain; or B) gathered bysurvey methods from a multitudeof knowledgeable sources, moreof which in a moment.

As ever, all the numbers can only
ever be a snapshot of a situation
at a point in time, whether the
opening day of a season or the
day after a transfer window has
closed.
All figures (across all leagues) aresourced directly or indirectly fromone or more of unions, player
associations, players themselves,
agents, leagues, clubs and / orclub sources, and other reliable
administrative bodies.
To be more specific, league
by league, from the wealthiest
league down: the NBA numbers
are in the public domain, so too
the IPL figures (via auctions, andclub sources filling gaps) and the
MLB numbers.
For the Premier League, andall the other European footballleagues (in Spain, Germany, Italy,

It is a painstaking exercise andthe findings can, by a survey’s
definition, only be as accurate
as the information provided.
There are ‘backstops’ however,including public domain
sources, not all widely known,that give a good indicationof general financial situations.
And there are sources notin the public domain. One
example: Sportingintelligence
has undertaken consultancy andadvisory work over a numberof years for quantum claims(for loss of earnings in football,mostly because of injury) that
has involved access to numerous
player contracts, which canbe corroborative. All data on
individuals for the GSSS reports
is gathered on a confidential
basis - hence why we don’t
publish individual player salary
information.
The NHL numbers come directfrom the players’ union, the NFL
figures are in the public domain,
as are, in Japan, the figures forboth Japanese leagues (NPB and
J-League).
The CSL is intriguing. We obtained
official internal numbers a few
years ago when we first included
the Chinese Super League, andhave tracked the significant
changes since on a player byplayer basis. But the league-widesituation is, at best, opaque.
The analysis section for the CSL
explains the revelatory nature ofEvergrande’s annual reports, andthe possibility that pay in Chinamight be even bigger than wethink.
On the subject of opaquefinances, tranches of material
that have entered the publicdomain via the Football Leaks
organisation since 2015 havegiven some insight into thefrankly astonishing contractsof some of the world’s leading
footballers, many of them playing
in the leagues we cover. These
have been useful at times forcorroboration, clearing up
whether information provided has
in fact been accurate or not. But
more usefully, this material has
made us consider further whatshould and shouldn’t be includedin ‘basic pay.’ The upshot is any
sum a player will certainly earn
- without caveats - in each yearof their contract, for domestic
club activity, is counted. And
anything that is dependent on
certain events (performancebonuses, loyalty bonuses, signingon fees split annually over timeand so on) or arises from external
endorsements or activity awayfrom their club, isn’t.
The MLS numbers are from theplayers’ union, made public to
the last cent twice a year, andthe union should be applauded
for that. The one caveat with
MLS salary figures is they do notinclude ‘any compensation fromany contracts with individual
teams or their affiliates.’ So a
player may have his MLS salary(paid centrally and declaredby the union) and a separate
contract with his team we know
nothing about.
The AFL numbers come fromvarious sources in Australia andtake more time to pull together,hence the ‘accounting lag’; andthe same is true of Canada’s CFL(except sources in Canada). The
WNBA figures were the official
numbers in 2017, sourced fromthose who see the player-byplayer contracts, and we thankthem again for that, and havebeen updated for 2018 by us.

GSSS FOR THE FUTURE- AN APPEAL
Just as we would welcome data
for the leagues mentioned earlier(Mexico’s Liga MX and Australia’s
Big Bash), we remain interested
in adding any other leagues ofsignificance to a wide audience,either because of internationalreach or something that league
can tell us about competitivebalance and money. Suggestions
are welcome. Rugby (bothcodes) and the Olympic teamsports of water polo and volleyballwould be interesting, if you area senior administrator in one ofthose sports and want to get intouch.
We thank everyone who assistedwith helping us to find the mostreliable data possible. The
uniqueness of this study lies inlooking beyond total payrolls
or club wage bills to what theplayers make per head.
Details and links to information
about previous years’ GSSS
reports can be found via www.
globalsportssalaries.com.
Thank you for reading.
Nick Harris
EditorSporting Intelligence
November 201811

sportingintelligencesportingintelligence

CONTENTS
14-15

THE WORLD CUP OF WAGES

17-21

PAY ACROSS 68 LEAGUES IN THE GLOBAL GAME

22-25

ARE PREMIER LEAGUE CLUBS TOO RICH FOR THEIR OWN GOOD?

26-33

THE WORLD’S BEST PAID SPORTS TEAMS, FULL LIST

36-39

MAKING GOLF PAY - HOW ANALYTICS ADDS A FINANCIAL EDGE

40-111LEAGUE-BY-LEAGUE ANALYSIS OF 18 LEADING SPORTS DIVISIONS

112-113 ABOUT SPORTING INTELLIGENCE

visit sportingintelligence.com
12 			

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sportingintelligencesportingintelligence

CAN A WORLD CUP OF WAGESFORECAST SUCCESS? AND WHATCAN PAY TELL US ABOUT
RELATIVE WINNERS AND LOSERS?
In 2014, insurance giants Lloyd’sof London wanted to try to
predict the outcome of theWorld Cup using a model basedon the ‘insurable value’ of theplayers involved. Working with theCentre for Economics & BusinessResearch (CEBR), a model wasconstructed where the key
input was player salary data atclub level for the players in the
32 participating teams, in turnsupplied by Sportingintelligence.
The model took that data andadjusted it to ‘insurable value’
using other metrics including age.
It predicted Germany would win
the 2014 World Cup, and they duly
did. For more on that exercise,see here: https://www.lloyds.
com/news-and-risk-insight/news/
market-news/industry-news-2014/
lloyds-world-cup-predictioncomes-true-as-germany-takesthe-prize
In 2018, we combined again
to repeat the exercise, andpredicted that France would win
the summer’s World Cup in Russia,
and they duly did. Here is the pretournament forecast: https://www.
lloyds.com/news-and-risk-insight/
press-releases/2018/06/dreamteam
Not only did the 2018 Lloyd’s-CEBR
model, underpinned by data
support from Sportingintelligence,
predict the correct winners, but itcame out top in an evaluation of
14 			

selected predictions for the World
Cup. This was collated by Prof
Roger Pielke ( @RogerPielkeJr ),director of the Sports GovernanceCentre at the University ofColorado, Boulder, USA, on behalfof the Soccernomics agency.
The Lloyd’s model beat othersfrom organisations as eminent
as Goldman Sachs, Nate Silver’s
FiveThirtyEight, investment banking
giant UBS and sports metadata
firm Gracenote among others, aswell as outperformed predictions
based on the FIFA rankings, ELO
rankings and transfer spending data.
A summary of what the Lloyd’s
model predicted is in the graphic
accompanying these words andshows 17 of the 32 teams did
precisely what was expected ofthem and a further 13 performed
within one stage (of five stages) ofwhat was predicted. The model
expected England to be finalists
but they only reached the semifinal, for example. Only two teams
performed better or worse by
more than one round: Germany,
who exited at the group stage
instead of the predicted semifinals, three stages later, andCroatia, who reached the final,
instead of exiting three stages
earlier in the last 16. It should be
stressed the latter wasn’t as far out
as it seems because the Lloyd’s
model had Croatia finishing ninth(last 16) and they finished second(runners-up).

Accurate sporting prediction isimmensely difficult. If it weren’t
then gambling would be easy andbookmakers would quickly be outof business. So while the Lloyd’s
model has been better than most,it remains imperfect, as any model
will be.
However, it does perhaps serve
another function, if we broadly
accept money as a proxy fortalent in this arena. When teams
do significantly better (like
Croatia) or worse (Germany)
than the modelled expectation,
the difference will probably be
explained (largely) by good / badcoaching and other preparatory
factors separate from the talent,
per se. Which is where teams
might learn what they can dobetter to improve, or change tohalt under-achievement.
For the purposes of this reportand for an alternative view, we
provided the raw salary data
underpinning the Lloyd’s modelfor 2018 to 21st Club, who you willhear more from later in this report.
OMAR CHAUDHURI, Head ofFootball intelligence at 21st Club,
writes: It’s virtually impossible
to watch all 32 teams before
the tournament and get a true
picture on the cohesiveness ofthe sides. Helpfully, a player’ssalary is a useful proxy for his ability
and reputation, and the World

Cup results are a useful indicatorof whether these players came
together as a team. While three
to seven matches is a ludicrously
short time frame to draw sweeping
conclusions about a team, there
were some common themes
among the biggest overachieversat the tournament.
First, playing style can provide
a competitive edge. Sweden
and Iran both finished 13 places
higher in the World Cup (ranked
1-32) than their ranking basedon the raw average salary of thesquad, which was better thananyone else. Both teams relied onsupremely organised defences tofrustrate more talented opponents,
before hitting them on the break.
Football teams are generally
inclined to play in the most
fashionable style, which in the past
decade has been to dominate
possession and/or play with a highpress. By going against the grain,
opponents had to find new ways
to beat Sweden and Iran, and in a
way these two nations mimicked
the success Atlético Madrid andLeicester City have had in recent
years with playing styles that haverun counter to the big club teams.
Second, the impact fans can haveis huge. Peru had the third-lowest
average salary at the tournament
but were the fourth-best of theteams eliminated at the group
stage, making them the thirdbiggest overachievers, just aheadof Russia. While Russia enjoyedactual home advantage, Peru
had it in effect: only eight countries(including the absent United Statesand hosts Russia) bought more
tickets than the Peruvians, andthey were undoubtedly the fansof the tournament. A 2-0 win overAustralia was the least Peru

deserved, and it could have beenvery different had Christian Cueva
converted his penalty against
Denmark.
Third, and finally, a note on Japan,
who were 22nd when it cameto salaries but 13th in results andminutes away from being evenbetter. They made headlines forleaving their dressing room following
elimination in an immaculate state,complete with a thank you note, inwhat was a welcome antidote to
the pampered image of modern
footballers. Football teams are
increasingly seeing culture as acompetitive edge, and this
glimpse into Japan’s is a signal ofpotential.

Ultimately player salaries were,with the odd exception, a goodpredictor of tournament success.
It’s those exceptions though thatclubs and national associations
should pay attention to, as they
provide an indicator of how teams
can outthink rather than outspend
their rivals.

15

sportingintelligence“Average basic pay in the Premier
League is 36 per cent higher thannext-best La Liga and pretty muchdouble the pay in Italy andGermany’s top divisions.”

sportingintelligence

AVERAGE PAY IN FOOTBALL:
A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE
IN THE GLOBAL GAMEThe Premier League has cemented
its reputation as the wealthiest
football league in the world in thepast two decades, paying higher
wages - on the whole - than any
other. The GSSS 2018 has foundaverage basic pay in England’s
top division to be almost £3m
per first-team player for the 201819 season, or £2,990,726 to beprecise.
That is 36 per cent higher than the
PL’s nearest rival, La Liga of Spain(£2.2m) and pretty much double
the amount paid on average toplayers in Italy’s Serie A (£1.5m),
the third-highest paying league
in the world. By the time you
get to the fourth-highest paying
league, Germany’s Bundesliga,
which attracts more paying fansto matches on average thatany football league in the world
bar none, the average player isearning just 47 per cent of what
their counterparts in England are
earning (or £1.4m). And in the fifthhighest paying league in the world
world, France’s Ligue 1, players are
earning just under a third of thewages, on average, than players
do in England (or £989,776).
This report delves into greater
detail about the extremes ofthe pay levels within these fivedivisions, collectively known as
the ‘Big 5’ in Europe, also thebiggest five in the world. And GSSS
2018 also has details from four

16 			

other leagues around the world- China’s Super League, MLS in
North America, the J-League ofJapan and Scotland’s Premiership.
But what about the rest ofEurope and further afield? To
try to get a sense quite why the‘Big 5’ have the pull they do, we
have attempted to calculate
an average first-team pay
figure in the top divisions in 68
different nations spread across
six continents. The findings follow,
and should be considered inconjunction with the following
notes.
First, and most obviously, allleagues feature extremes of pay
between the biggest and smallest
clubs. The big clubs will havehigher pay than their league’s
average (often much higher) andthe smallest clubs will pay less(often much less).
Manchester United and Cardiff areat those extremes in the Premier
League in 2018-19; Barcelona
and Valladolid are in La Liga; PSG
and Nimes are in Ligue 1, and soon. In China’s CSL it’s Guangzhou
Evergrande and Beijing Renhe
who are poles apart and in the
J-League it’s Vissel Kobe and
V-Varen Nagasaki.
The second thing to note is this is alist of ‘only’ 68 top divisions, it isn’t
THE 68 top divisions. It’s 68 divisions

from around the world where wehave a reasonable degree ofconfidence that these figures are‘right’, because there is enoughsource material or evidence.
Which leads to the third note:
methodology. For the nine footballleagues featured in the GSSS,
the sourcing and methodology
is explained in the introductory
essay to this report. For all theother leagues in Europe, we haveobtained average pay per clubfor the most recently completed
season where all accounts areavailable; plus detailed leagueby-league figures on whatpercentage of each league’s total
wage bill is spent on players (and it
varies by a surprising margin); anddetails on typical first team squad
sizes, and then ‘done the math’.
For the other top divisions, namely
those in Brazil, Saudi Arabia,
Mexico, Argentina, South Korea,
Australia, India, Chile, South Africa
and Nigeria, we have looked atrevenue and expenses on a clubby club basis, which has been
assisted in some cases by publicdeclarations from either leagues
or unions, as is the case in Korea,
India and Chile.
Any such study will be imperfect,
not least because all the numbers
are constantly evolving. But as a
general guide to where the moneylies, this list highlights similarities andcontrasts across elite divisions.

17

sportingintelligencesportingintelligence

A SNAPSHOT OF WAGES IN 68
FOOTBALL LEAGUES AROUND
THE WORLDCOUNTRYCONTINENT			TOPDIVISION

AVG BASIC ANNUAL AVG BASIC ANNUAL AVG BASIC ANNUAL		FIRST TEAM PAY (£)
FIRST TEAM PAY (€)
FIRST TEAM PAY ($)

COUNTRYCONTINENTTOP DIVISION AVG BASIC ANNUAL AVG BASIC ANNUAL AVG BASIC ANNUAL						
FIRST TEAM PAY (£)
FIRST TEAM PAY (€)
FIRST TEAM PAY ($)

ENGLANDEUROPEPREMIER LEAGUE£2,990,726€3,379,520

US$3,935,197

NETHERLANDSSPAINEUROPELA LIGA£2,201,057€2,487,194

US$2,896,151

ITALY		EUROPESERIE A

£1,519,885€1,717,470

GERMANYEUROPE

BUNDESLIGA£1,396,575

FRANCEEUROPELIGUE 1

CHINA

ASIA

RUSSIAEUROPEEREDIVISIE£245,849€277,809

US$323,488

JAPAN

ASIA

J-LEAGUE£239,431€270,557

US$315,043

US$1,999,865

AUSTRIAEUROPE

BUNDESLIGA£177,162€200,193

US$233,110€1,578,130

US$1,837,613

SCOTLANDEUROPEPREMIERSHIP£176,236€199,147

US$231,891£989,776€1,118,447

US$1,302,347

UKRAINEEUROPEPREMIER LEAGUE£169,237€191,238

US$222,682

SUPER LEAGUE£799,212€903,110

US$1,051,603

GREECEEUROPESUPERLEAGUE£129,664€146,520

US$170,612

EUROPEPREMIER LEAGUE£666,569€753,223

US$877,071

DENMARKEUROPESUPERLIGA£120,094€135,706

US$158,020

TURKEYEUROPESÜPER LIG

£656,675€742,043

US$864,053

KAZAKHSTANEUROPEPREMIER LEAGUE£112,869€127,542

US$148,513

BRAZILS AMERICA

BRASILEIRÃO

£509,758€576,027

US$670,740

ISRAELEUROPEPREMIER LEAGUE£109,338€123,552

US$143,867

CANADAN AMERICA

MLS (3 OF 23 CLUBS)£395,108€446,472

US$519,883

SOUTH KOREAASIAK LEAGUE£100,998€114,128

US$132,893

S.ARABIA

ASIA

PRO LEAGUE£386,026€436,209

US$507,933

AUSTRALIA

ASIA

A-LEAGUE£99,928€112,919

US$131,485

BELGIUM

EUROPEFIRST DIVISION A£306,233€346,043

US$402,941

SWEDENEUROPEALLSVENSKAN£87,152€98,482

US$114,675

MEXICON AMERICA

LIGA MX£305,948€345,721

US$402,566

INDIA

ASIA

SUPER LEAGUE£81,864€92,506

US$107,717

ARGENTINAS AMERICA

PRIMERA DIVISION£288,079€325,529

US$379,054

POLANDEUROPEEKSTRAKLASA£80,602€91,080

US$106,056

PORTUGALEUROPEPRIMEIRA LIGA

£271,728€307,053

US$357,540

CROATIAEUROPEFIRST FOOTBALL LEAGUE£79,982€90,380

US$105,240£268,272€303,147

US$352,992

ROMANIAEUROPE

LIGA 1£79,793€90,166

US$104,992£246,253€278,266

US$324,020

CHILE

S AMERICA

PRIMERA DIVISION£74,540€84,230

US$98,080

USA		
SWITZERLAND

N AMERICA MLS (20 OF 23 CLUBS)EUROPE

18 			

SUPER LEAGUE

19

sportingintelligencesportingintelligence

A SNAPSHOT OF WAGES IN 68
FOOTBALL LEAGUES AROUND
THE WORLDCOUNTRYCONTINENTTOP DIVISION AVG BASIC ANNUAL AVG BASIC ANNUAL AVG BASIC ANNUAL						
FIRST TEAM PAY (£)
FIRST TEAM PAY (€)
FIRST TEAM PAY ($)

COUNTRYCONTINENTTOP DIVISION AVG BASIC ANNUAL AVG BASIC ANNUAL AVG BASIC ANNUAL						
FIRST TEAM PAY (£)
FIRST TEAM PAY (€)
FIRST TEAM PAY ($)

HUNGARYEUROPEOTP BANK LIGA

£70,816€80,022

US$93,180

ALBANIAEUROPEFIRST DIVISION£10,028€11,332

US$13,195

NORWAYEUROPEELITESERIEN£65,991€74,570

US$86,831

BOSNIA & HERZ.

EUROPEPREMIER LEAGUE£9,435€10,662

US$12,415

CZECH REPUBLIC EUROPE

FIRST LEAGUE£54,669€61,776

US$71,933

MACEDONIA

EUROPEFIRST FOOTBALL LEAGUE£9,165€10,356

US$12,059

CYPRUSFIRST DIVISION£52,701€59,552

US$69,344

MALTA

EUROPEFIRST DIVISION£9,058€10,236

US$11,919

SOUTH AFRICA AFRICAPREMIER DIVISION£47,909€54,137

US$63,039

LITHUANIAEUROPEA LYGA£8,626€9,747

US$11,350

AZERBAIJANEUROPEPREMIER LEAGUE£46,582€52,638

US$61,293

LATVIAEUROPEVIRSLĪGA

£6,308€7,128

US$8,300

BULGARIA

EUROPE FIRST PROFESSIONAL LEAGUE£40,759€46,058

US$53,631

MONTENEGRO EUROPE

FIRST LEAGUE£5,984€6,762

US$7,874

SERBIAEUROPESUPERLIGA£32,079€36,249

US$42,210

N IRELANDEUROPENI FOOTBALL LEAGUE£5,742€6,488

US$7,555

SLOVAKIAEUROPESUPER LIGA

£28,467€32,168

US$37,457

FAROESEUROPEPREMIER LEAGUE£5,661€6,397

US$7,449

BELARUSEUROPEFIRST LEAGUE£27,955€31,589

US$36,783

ESTONIAEUROPEMEISTRILIIGA£5,499€6,214

US$7,236

SLOVENIAEUROPEPRVALIGA£25,474€28,786

US$33,519

GIBRALTAREUROPEPREMIER DIVISION£5,391€6,092

US$7,093

FINLANDEUROPEVEIKKAUSLIIGA£17,522€19,800

US$23,055

NIGERIA

AFRICA

PFL£5,000€5,650

US$6,579

LIECHTENSTEIN EUROPE

NO LEAGUE£14,557€16,449

US$19,154

ANDORRAEUROPEPRIMERA DIVISIÓ

£4,960€5,605

US$6,526

EUROPEIRELANDEUROPELEAGUE OF IRELAND£13,209€14,926

US$17,380

WALES

EUROPEWELSH PREMIER LEAGUE£4,798€5,422

US$6,313

ICELANDEUROPEÚRVALSDEILD KARLA£12,077€13,647

US$15,891

MOLDOVAEUROPENATIONAL DIVISION£4,124€4,660

US$5,426

GEORGIAEUROPEEROVNULI LIGA

£11,861€13,403

US$15,607

ARMENIAEUROPEPREMIER LEAGUE£2,318€2,619

US$3,050

LUXEMBOURG

EUROPENATIONAL DIVISION£10,244€11,576

US$13,479

SAN MARINO

EUROPECHAMPIONSHIP£2,237€2,528

US$2,943

20 			

21

sportingintelligencesportingintelligence

ARE PREMIER LEAGUECLUBS TOO RICH FOR
THEIR OWN GOOD?
In February, news that the value ofthe Premier League’s domestic live
television rights had fallen would
have rattled some boardrooms.
For the 2016-19 cycle, Sky and BT
paid a combined £5.1billion but
for 2019-2022, Sky, BT and Amazon
combined will be paying less than
£5bn - and for more games.

Omar Chaudhuri is Head ofFootball Intelligence at 21st Club,an advisory business for footballclubs, assisting key decision-makers in strategic problem-solving
and recruitment. Formed in 2013,
they work with forward-thinking
clubs who are looking to outsmart
rather than outspend their rivals,
using an evidence-based approach and leveraging the powerof analytics to help teams gain acompetitive edge.
Taking into account the GSSS 2018wage data for the 98 teams in the‘Big 5’ divisions of Europe, as well
as money spent by those clubs
to assemble their current squads,
Chaudhuri considers whether, ineffect, Premier League clubs are
too rich for their own good. Do
they overpay to buy players andthen pay them? How much better
value are clubs in rival leagues
getting and why? What lessons
can be learned? And how canthings change?
22 			

While the bubble hasn’t burst, it
seems the days of exponential
growth are over, and clubs willneed to find new ways to afford
better players. Rather than seeing
it as a setback, Crystal Palace
chairman Steve Parish sees it as anopportunity.
“I think it’ll be good for football,”he said. “Because I think we waste
a lot of money in the Premier
League – all of us – because of thisnever-ending increased TV income
issue. We’re certainly seen as atarget, almost, for clubs to sell to.
Their players are managed – theirwhole career path is managed –to sell them to us for extortionate
amounts of money. And we’ve
got lazy, I think, in terms of buying
very exposed talent.”
There’s little arguing with Parish(and many have tried). The
anecdotal evidence certainly
backs him up. Premier League
clubs have often complained to us
at 21st Club that they feel “rippedoff” in the transfer market.
Clubs on the continent meanwhilesense an opportunity when doing

business with English teams. One
Scandinavian team we met lastyear were looking to sell one of
their brightest young stars to raisesome income. Our objective
valuation of the player – basedon similar players in the market –assessed him to be worth €6m to€8m (£5.3m to £7.1m). “But if wesold him to an English club,” said
the club’s sporting director, “wecould maybe get double that.”
If anything, he had
underestimated this premium.
Compared to clubs in other ‘Big 5’
leagues, our analysis indicates thatin order to achieve the same levelof performance as some of thesecontinental clubs, Premier League
clubs have spent nearly 2.5 times
more on transfer fees.
Without getting too bogged
down in the detail, here is how wework that out. There are around2,600 players in the first-teamsquads in the ‘Big 5’ divisions, andcollectively they cost their clubs
around £14 billion to purchase, atroughly £5.3m per man.
But in France’s Ligue 1, theaverage player cost is only £3m,
whereas in the Bundesliga it’s
about £3.5m, in Serie A about£4.5m, in La Liga about £4.7m and in the Premier League about£10.7m.
While generalising to make apoint, it’s plain that if the Premier
League clubs are paying almost

1
2
5
6

9

4

7

8
10
11

12

13
14

2.3 times as much for players as La
Liga clubs where the player quality
is as good if not better, the Premier
League clubs really are paying
over the odds.
The difference is even more
stark when you consider La Ligaclubs have paid 50 per cent lessthan their rivals in other leagues,
when accounting for teamperformance.
Of course, it’s about more thanjust agreeing a transfer fee with aselling club – there’s also the small
matter of the player’s wages innegotiations where agents are fully
aware the Premier League clubs
have the deepest pockets. The
Global Sports Salary Survey 2018shows that the average Premier
League club pays an average firstteam squad player a sliver under£3m per annum. This is 36 per centmore than La Liga clubs pay per
man on average, and about twice

as much as Bundesliga and Serie A
clubs, and three times what Ligue
1 clubs pay.
However, this isn’t a like-for-likecomparison because we’re noteven comparing different pay
levels between teams of thesame quality. A glance at resultsin European competitions tells
us that Premier League teams
are probably better than Ligue 1
teams (but worse than those in La
Liga, and so on), so the question
becomes how much more should
they be paying for this talent?
The World Super League (an index
developed by 21st Club) allows
us the answer this question. Thisranking of teams globally, basedon results in both domestic andcontinental competitions, allows
us to compare any two teams’
performance levels, even if theywould never play each other in acompetitive match. At the time3
1. Man City
2. PSG
3. Barcelona
4. Bayern Munich
5. Liverpool
6. Napoli
7. Man Utd
8. Atalanta
9. Getafe
10. Milan
11. West Ham
12. Montpellier
13. Southampton
14. Huddersfieldof writing in November 2018, forexample, West Ham United are
rated at a similar level to Girona
in La Liga. If the two were to playat a neutral venue, it’s likely that
it would be a tight match, eventhough West Ham’s average firstteam pay is approaching £3.2m,
and Girona’s just £0.7m. The English
team is effectively paying overfour times as much for the samelevel of performance.
This is an extreme example;
extending this analysis out toall clubs in the big five leagues
reveals that the average Premier
League team pays 79 per centmore in wages than a club ofcomparative performance levels
on the continent.
But there is also a divide in
efficiency between the Premier
League’s top six clubs and therest. The sextet of Manchester
United, Manchester City, Chelsea,
23

sportingintelligence

Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham
are paying a premium of ‘only’ 20
per cent in wages versus teams ofa similar quality to themselves inother leagues. And this drops as
low as seven percent excluding
Manchester United, who everyone
would agree are currently
underachieving against resources.
Which means the teams outside
the Premier League’s ‘top six’ arepaying around 110 per cent morein wages than teams of similar
quality in Europe.
Our accompanying graphic plots
the performance of each of the 98
clubs in the ‘Big 5’ divisions (using
our World Super League rating
as the proxy for performance)
against the average first-teampay. You can see at a glance thatmost (but not all) of the La Ligaclubs (the red dots) are performing
better than expected for theirwage outlay and the same is trueof the Bundesliga clubs (greendots). But most of the Premier
League clubs (yellow dots) are
under-performing against wage
expenditure, as are many of theSerie A clubs (light blue dots),
albeit to a lesser extent, while theLigue 1 clubs are a mixed bag.
Palace’s Steve Parish attributes the‘premiums’ to laziness on the partof Premier League clubs, and hemay well be right. When English
clubs do look overseas, they tend
to shop in similar markets to eachother. A quarter of Premier League
signings are from non-English
clubs in the other ‘Big 5’ European
leagues. Serie A clubs buy just 12
per cent of their players from nonItalian ‘Big 5’ teams while clubs inthe Bundesliga and Ligue 1 buylower figures still from rival leagues.
Therefore not only is there
increased demand from England24 			

sportingintelligence

for the same group of external ‘Big
5’ talent, Premier League clubs arealso focusing on recruiting fromclubs that have less of a needto sell than clubs in, for example,
central or eastern Europe. Even apoorer French club is more likely tohold their nerve in a negotiation
than a cash-strapped team in
the Czech Republic, especially if
the French club knows that otherPremier League teams will comeknocking at the door.
Premier League clubs will argue
that leagues outside the ‘Big 5’
don’t have players of the requisite
quality, but our analysis suggests
otherwise. A rough estimatebased on our player rating systemsuggests that there are more than
600 players from outside the ‘Big
5’ divisions who could at least
be capable of earning a starting
place at a bottom-half Premier
League club.
Nevertheless, Brexit might present
an opportunity for English clubs, orat the very least be a push factor
for change. Talk of loosening thecriteria on non-EEA players (while
the FA are pushing for fewer
permissible non-British players)means English clubs might be able
to scout more proactively in SouthAmerica or Asia, where clubs from
Spain and German currently getgood value for money.
It may also put more pressure
on English clubs to develop
and provide opportunities foracademy talent, who comeat a lower cost than recruited
players, if potentially with lower
or more uncertain quality. Last
season, club-developed players
accounted for just 7 per cent ofminutes in the Premier League,compared to 22 per cent in La
Liga, 16 per cent in Ligue 1, 15 percent in the Bundesliga and 9 percent in Serie A.
The fear of relegation and its
financial consequences will always
put pressure on Premier League
clubs to spend, but extra options
from the academy and newmarkets would help reduce thepremium English clubs pay.

“Brexit might present an opportunity
for English clubs, or at the very least
be a push factor for change. ”

A final reason for the ‘Premier
League premium’ (both in transfer
fees and wages) may also be
due to when Premier League
clubs do their business. Before
the 2018-19 season, the average
Premier League summer signingwas bought 32 days before
the window closed, compared
to 42 days in the other big fiveleagues. German clubs perhaps
unsurprisingly averaged 50 days.
Our analysis suggests prices riseas transfer deadline day closes in,
and with the window for Premier
League clubs now closing even
earlier, the urgency to get players
in has been heightened further.
The one thing Premier League
clubs can’t directly control is theperception of them by overseas
clubs and players. News of an
English club’s interest will, for thetime being, be a reason to hikeup the price. It’s a strategy thathas served the selling clubs well,and the players moving, and theiragents. Few Premier League clubs
are acting in a way that convinces
those sellers and agents that nodeal is better than a bad deal.

Contact details and morebackground information on what
21st Club do please visit:https://www.21stclub.com
or follow on Twitter at
www.twitter.com/21stclub
25

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27

sportingintelligencesportingintelligence

GLOBAL SPORTS SALARIESSURVEY 2018: TOP 12

13-57
TEAM

LEAGUE		
13 (13)14 (7)
15 (27)16 (2)
17 (52)18 (5)
19 (20)20 (24)21 (16)22 (12)23 (19)24 (21)25 (10)26 (8)
27 (33)28 (29)29 (15)30 (28)31 (60)32 (42)33 (47)34 (30)35 (39)36 (45)37 (41)38 (55)39 (48)40 (54)41 (25)42 (34)43 (37)44 (35)45 (51)46 (31)47 (44)48 (56)49 (46)50 (38)51 (36)52 (68)53 (53)54 (43)55 (126)
56 (63)57 (-)AVG ANNUAL PAY £(AVG WEEKLY PAY)

AVG ANNUAL PAY $(AVG WEEKLY PAY)

Boston Celtics
Portland Trail Blazers
Bayern Munich
Cleveland Cavaliers
Atletico Madrid
PSG
Memphis Grizzlies
Man City
San Antonio Spurs
Detroit Pistons
Utah Jazz
Denver Nuggets
New Orleans Pelicans
LA Clippers
San Francisco Giants
Orlando Magic
Milwaukee Bucks
Chicago Cubs
Chicago Bulls
Dallas Mavericks
Philadelphia 76ers
Indiana Pacers
Chelsea
Boston Red Sox
Phoenix Suns
Liverpool
ArsenalLA Angels
Los Angeles Lakers
New York Knicks
Brooklyn Nets
Washington Nationals
Seattle Mariners
New York Yankees
New York Mets
Houston Astros
Toronto Blue Jays
Sacramento Kings
LA Dodgers
Kolkata Knight Riders
St Louis Cardinals
Atlanta Hawks
Kings XI Punjab
Mumbai Indians
Rajasthan Royals

NBANBA
Bundesliga
NBA
La Liga
Ligue 1
NBA
EPL
NBA
NBA
NBA
NBA
NBA
NBA
MLB
NBA
NBA
MLB
NBA
NBA
NBA
NBA
EPL
MLB
NBA
EPL
EPL
MLB
NBA
NBA
NBA
MLB
MLB
MLB
MLB
MLB
MLB
NBA
MLB
IPL
MLB
NBA
IPL
IPL
IPL

£6,417,395 (£123,411)£6,407,941 (£123,230)£6,352,435 (£122,162)£6,280,614 (£120,781)£6,155,066 (£118,367)£6,105,840 (£117,420)£6,097,037 (£117,251)£5,993,000 (£115,250)£5,987,742 (£115,149)£5,974,595 (£114,896)£5,934,107 (£114,117)£5,896,357 (£113,391)£5,740,892 (£110,402)£5,678,214 (£109,196)£5,609,483 (£107,875)£5,605,026 (£107,789)£5,470,642 (£105,205)£5,314,446 (£102,201)£5,279,249 (£101,524)£5,229,053 (£100,559)£5,200,055 (£100,001)£5,145,052 (£98,943)£5,020,004 (£96,539)£4,898,383 (£94,200)£4,892,554 (£94,088)£4,862,963 (£93,519)£4,853,130 (£93,329)£4,820,323 (£92,699)£4,802,904 (£92,364)£4,663,496 (£89,683)£4,622,406 (£88,892)£4,564,905 (£87,787)£4,486,821 (£86,285)£4,378,303 (£84,198)£4,376,624 (£84,166)£4,358,319 (£83,814)£4,301,134 (£82,714)£4,289,405 (£82,489)£4,127,502 (£79,375)£4,035,237 (£77,601)£3,987,747 (£76,687)£3,969,785 (£76,342)£3,933,466 (£75,644)£3,913,111 (£75,252)£3,910,567 (£75,203)$8,443,941 ($162,383)$8,431,501 ($162,144)$8,358,534 ($160,741)$8,263,966 ($158,922)$8,098,836 ($155,747)$8,034,064 ($154,501)$8,022,417 ($154,277)$7,885,589 ($151,646)$7,878,608 ($151,512)$7,861,310 ($151,179)$7,808,035 ($150,155)$7,758,365 ($149,199)$7,553,805 ($145,265)$7,471,334 ($143,680)$7,380,898 ($141,940)$7,375,034 ($141,828)$7,198,214 ($138,427)$6,992,692 ($134,475)$6,946,381 ($133,584)$6,880,333 ($132,314)$6,842,178 ($131,580)$6,769,805 ($130,189)$6,605,321 ($127,025)$6,445,240 ($123,947)$6,437,570 ($123,799)$6,398,687 ($123,052)$6,385,748 ($122,803)$6,342,531 ($121,972)$6,319,611 ($121,531)$6,136,178 ($118,003)$6,082,113 ($116,964)$6,006,454 ($115,509)$5,903,712 ($113,533)$5,760,926 ($110,787)$5,758,715 ($110,745)$5,734,630 ($110,281)$5,659,386 ($108,834)$5,643,954 ($108,538)$5,430,924 ($104,441)$5,309,565 ($102,107)$5,247,036 ($100,905)$5,223,401 ($100,450)$5,175,655 ($99,532)$5,148,871 ($99,017)$5,145,524 ($98,952)(LAST YEAR)			

		
		
		

RANK & TEAMLEAGUE(LAST YEAR)		

AVG ANNUAL PAY £(AVG WEEKLY PAY)

AVG ANNUAL PAY $(AVG WEEKLY PAY)		

1 (4) Barcelona

La Liga£10,454,259 (£201,043)$13,755,714 ($264,533)

		

2 (9) Real Madrid

La Liga£8,089,582 (£155,569)$10,644,272 ($204,698)		

3 (1) Oklahoma City ThunderNBA£7,848,811 (£150,939)$10,327,383 ($198,604)		

4 (3) Golden State Warriors

NBA£7,819,700 (£150,379)$10,289,079 ($197,867)		

5 (18) Washington Wizards

NBA£7,633,608 (£146,800)$10,044,221 ($193,158)

		

6 (11) Toronto Raptors

NBA£7,577,470 (£145,721)$9,970,355 ($191,738)		

7 (14) Houston Rockets

NBA£7,487,744 (£143,995)$9,852,295 ($189,467)		

8 (26) Miami Heat

NBA

£7,038,292 (£135,352)$9,260,911 ($178,094)		

9 (32) Juventus

Serie A

£6,726,615 (£129,358)$8,850,879 ($170,209)		

10 (23) Man Utd

EPL£6,534,654 (£125,666)$8,598,297 ($165,352)

		

11 (6) Charlotte Hornets

NBA£6,530,440 (£125,585)$8,592,684 ($165,244)		

12 (17) Minnesota Timberwolves NBA£6,468,615 (£124,396)$8,511,336 ($163,680)

28 			RANK

* NB: all IPL annual salaries calculated on a pro rata basis from weekly pay

29sportingintelligencesportingintelligence

58-106107-155TEAM
LEAGUE(LAST YEAR)			

AVG ANNUAL PAY £(AVG WEEKLY PAY)

AVG ANNUAL PAY $(AVG WEEKLY PAY)RANK(LAST YEAR)			

TEAM

LEAGUE

AVG ANNUAL PAY £(AVG WEEKLY PAY)

AVG ANNUAL PAY $(AVG WEEKLY PAY)

58 (40)59 (67)60 (69)61 (50)62 (79)63 (94)64 (-)
65 (65)66 (64)67 (61)68 (75)69 (72)70 (74)71 (70)72 (91)73 (22)74 (49)75 (96)76 (82)77 (57)78 (99)79 (104)80 (114)81 (89)82 (87)83 (110)84 (85)85 (117)86 (145)87 (153)
88 (83)89 (102)90 (120)91 (84)92 (138)
93 (121)94 (66)95 (140)96 (164)
97 (122)98 (93)99 (127)100 (86)
101 (123)102 (112)103 (95)
104 (132)
105 (109)106 (101)£3,882,837 (£74,670)£3,841,871 (£73,882)£3,760,454 (£72,316)£3,755,366 (£72,219)£3,706,739 (£71,283)£3,651,368 (£70,219)£3,607,797 (£69,381)£3,550,172 (£68,273)£3,515,778 (£67,611)£3,461,855 (£66,574)£3,282,187 (£63,119)£3,252,690 (£62,552)£3,206,769 (£61,669)£3,189,333 (£61,333)£3,149,614 (£60,570)£3,132,495 (£60,240)£3,059,505 (£58,837)£2,861,015 (£55,020)£2,842,212 (£54,658)£2,831,199 (£54,446)£2,820,938 (£54,249)£2,776,461 (£53,393)£2,757,000 (£53,019)£2,710,710 (£52,129)£2,686,930 (£51,672)£2,669,333 (£51,333)£2,668,757 (£51,322)£2,536,491 (£48,779)£2,519,814 (£48,458)£2,465,328 (£47,410)£2,462,790 (£47,361)£2,454,552 (£47,203)£2,453,341 (£47,180)£2,442,173 (£46,965)£2,438,003 (£46,885)£2,434,568 (£46,819)£2,422,158 (£46,580)£2,415,813 (£46,458)£2,408,655 (£46,320)£2,406,870 (£46,286)£2,394,083 (£46,040)£2,381,475 (£45,798)£2,340,552 (£45,011)£2,337,670 (£44,955)£2,335,273 (£44,909)£2,333,365 (£44,872)£2,316,595 (£44,550)£2,314,767 (£44,515)£2,293,465 (£44,105)$5,108,996 ($98,250)$5,055,134 ($97,214)$4,948,005 ($95,154)$4,941,311 ($95,025)$4,877,327 ($93,795)$4,804,431 ($92,393)$4,747,139 ($91,291)$4,671,317 ($89,833)$4,626,060 ($88,963)$4,555,072 ($87,598)$4,318,667 ($83,051)$4,279,889 ($82,306)$4,219,466 ($81,144)$4,196,525 ($80,702)$4,144,229 ($79,697)$4,121,704 ($79,264)$4,025,664 ($77,417)$3,764,524 ($72,395)$3,739,782 ($71,919)$3,725,262 ($71,640)$3,711,790 ($71,381)$3,653,267 ($70,255)$3,627,661 ($69,763)$3,566,752 ($68,591)$3,535,435 ($67,989)$3,512,309 ($67,544)$3,511,522 ($67,529)$3,337,489 ($64,182)$3,315,544 ($63,760)$3,243,852 ($62,382)$3,240,513 ($62,318)$3,229,674 ($62,109)$3,228,080 ($62,078)$3,213,385 ($61,796)$3,207,898 ($61,690)$3,203,379 ($61,603)$3,187,049 ($61,289)$3,178,702 ($61,129)$3,169,282 ($60,948)$3,166,934 ($60,903)$3,150,109 ($60,579)$3,133,519 ($60,260)$3,079,674 ($59,224)$3,075,881 ($59,152)$3,072,728 ($59,091)$3,070,217 ($59,043)$3,048,151 ($58,618)$3,045,746 ($58,572)$3,017,717 ($58,033)

107 (129)108 (137)
109 (71)110 (103)111 (105)112 (135)
113 (133)
114 (162)
115 (131)
116 (167)
117 (88)
118 (73)119 (80)120 (141)
121 (108)122 (97)
123 (58)
124 (143)
125 (111)
126 (148)
127 (113)
128 (156)
129 (125)130 (161)
131 (76)132 (150)
133 (118)
134 (157)
135 (124)
136 (100)
137 (115)
138 (78)
139 (62)140 (139)
141 (165)
142 (147)
143 (160)
144 (116)
145 (144)
146 (155)
147 (77)
148 (149)
149 (81)150 (106)151 (128)152 (142)
153 (130)154 (146)
155 (197)

Los Angeles Rams
Detroit Lions
Washington Capitals
Philadelphia Flyers
Florida Panthers
New England Patriots
Colorado Avalanche
Cleveland Browns
Philadelphia Eagles
Bayer Leverkusen
New York Rangers
Pittsburgh Pirates
Detroit Red Wings
Cincinnati Bengals
Oakland Raiders
Tampa Bay Lightning
Atlanta Braves
Los Angeles Chargers
Washington Redskins
New Orleans Saints
New York Giants
Marseille
Vegas Golden Knights
Schalke
New York Islanders
Miami Dolphins
Kansas City Chiefs
New York Jets
Houston Texans
Anaheim Ducks
Arizona Cardinals
Dallas Stars
Miami Marlins
Columbus Blue Jackets
Bournemouth
Baltimore Ravens
Tampa Bay Rays
Seattle Seahawks
Dallas Cowboys
Wolfsburg
Boston Bruins
Carolina Hurricanes
Chicago Blackhawks
Ottawa Senators
Edmonton Oilers
Buffalo Bills
New Jersey Devils
Indianapolis ColtsSan Diego Padres

NFL
NFL
NHL
NHL
NHL
NFL
NHL
NFL
NFL
Bundesliga
NHL
MLB
NHL
NFL
NFL
NHL
MLB
NFL
NFL
NFL
NFL
Ligue 1NHL
Bundesliga
NHL
NFL
NFL
NFL
NFL
NHL
NFL
NHL
MLB
NHL
EPL
NFL
MLB
NFL
NFL
Bundesliga
NHL
NHL
NHL
NHL
NHL
NFL
NHL
NFL
MLB

£2,289,311 (£44,025)£2,288,997 (£44,019)£2,274,465 (£43,740)£2,274,176 (£43,734)£2,261,231 (£43,485)£2,256,217 (£43,389)£2,229,196 (£42,869)£2,226,452 (£42,816)£2,220,546 (£42,703)£2,218,840 (£42,670)£2,217,052 (£42,636)£2,216,732 (£42,629)£2,211,352 (£42,526)£2,208,272 (£42,467)£2,207,359 (£42,449)£2,197,970 (£42,269)£2,183,193 (£41,984)£2,182,950 (£41,980)£2,181,448 (£41,951)£2,147,411 (£41,296)£2,136,569 (£41,088)£2,133,900 (£41,037)£2,132,213 (£41,004)£2,128,522 (£40,933)£2,126,843 (£40,901)£2,117,913 (£40,729)£2,114,637 (£40,666)£2,109,298 (£40,563)£2,094,579 (£40,280)£2,061,335 (£39,641)£2,060,499 (£39,625)£2,048,200 (£39,388)£2,038,771 (£39,207)£1,999,296 (£38,448)£1,989,520 (£38,260)£1,982,292 (£38,121)£1,959,280 (£37,678)£1,954,424 (£37,585)£1,952,149 (£37,541)£1,933,996 (£37,192)£1,912,226 (£36,774)£1,888,930 (£36,326)£1,886,122 (£36,272)£1,866,874 (£35,901)£1,855,309 (£35,679)£1,844,547 (£35,472)£1,842,091 (£35,425)£1,831,907 (£35,229)£1,807,244 (£34,755)$3,012,251 ($57,928)$3,011,838 ($57,920)$2,992,717 ($57,552)$2,992,337 ($57,545)$2,975,304 ($57,217)$2,968,706 ($57,091)$2,933,152 ($56,407)$2,929,542 ($56,337)$2,921,771 ($56,188)$2,919,550 ($56,145)$2,917,174 ($56,099)$2,916,753 ($56,091)$2,909,674 ($55,955)$2,905,621 ($55,877)$2,904,420 ($55,854)$2,892,065 ($55,617)$2,872,622 ($55,243)$2,872,302 ($55,237)$2,870,326 ($55,199)$2,825,541 ($54,337)$2,811,275 ($54,063)$2,807,786 ($53,996)$2,805,543 ($53,953)$2,800,709 ($53,860)$2,798,478 ($53,817)$2,786,728 ($53,591)$2,782,417 ($53,508)$2,775,392 ($53,373)$2,756,025 ($53,000)$2,712,283 ($52,159)$2,711,183 ($52,138)$2,695,000 ($51,827)$2,682,594 ($51,588)$2,630,652 ($50,589)$2,617,810 ($50,343)$2,608,279 ($50,159)$2,578,000 ($49,577)$2,571,611 ($49,454)$2,568,616 ($49,396)$2,544,751 ($48,938)$2,516,087 ($48,386)$2,485,435 ($47,797)$2,481,739 ($47,726)$2,456,413 ($47,239)$2,441,196 ($46,946)$2,427,035 ($46,674)$2,423,804 ($46,612)$2,410,404 ($46,354)$2,377,953 ($45,730)

RANK

Baltimore Orioles
Sunrisers Hyderabad
Delhi Daredevils

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Internazionale
Colorado Rockies
Chennai Super Kings
Milan
Tottenham
Cleveland Indians
Minnesota Twins
EvertonBorussia Dortmund
West Ham
Arizona Diamondbacks
Detroit Tigers
Texas Rangers
Valencia
Roma
Kansas City Royals
Napoli
SevillaCrystal Palace
Leicester
Los Angeles Kings
Southampton
Minnesota Wild
Jacksonville Jaguars
Minnesota Vikings
Milwaukee Brewers
Pittsburgh Penguins
Nashville Predators
Winnipeg Jets
Philadelphia Phillies
Tampa Bay Bucs
Pittsburgh Steelers
Chicago White Sox
Cincinnati Reds
San Francisco 49ers
Tennessee Titans
Calgary Flames
Denver Broncos
St Louis Blues
Green Bay Packers
Carolina Panthers
San Jose Sharks
Chicago Bears
Atlanta Falcons
Buffalo Sabres30 			

MLB
IPL
IPL
IPL
Serie A
MLB
IP
Serie A
EPL
MLB
MLB
EPL
Bundesliga
EPL
MLB
MLB
MLB
La Liga
Serie AMLB
Serie A
La Liga
EPL
EPL
NHL
EPL
NHL
NFL
NFL
MLB
NHL
NHL
NHL
MLB
NFL
NFL
MLB
MLB
NFL
NFL
NHL
NFL
NHL
NFL
NFL
NHL
NFL
NFL
NHL

NB: IPL annual salaries are pro rata amounts based on weekly pay

31sportingintelligencesportingintelligence156-204205-254RANKTEAMLEAGUE		

AVG ANNUAL PAY £(AVG WEEKLY PAY)

AVG ANNUAL PAY $(AVG WEEKLY PAY)

(LAST YEAR)			

RANK

TEAM

LEAGUE

AVG ANNUAL PAY £(AVG WEEKLY PAY)

AVG ANNUAL PAY $(AVG WEEKLY PAY)

156 (154)
157 (169)
158 (170)
159 (-)
160 (-)
161 (174)
162 (176)
163 (179)
164 (92)
165 (151)
166 (159)
167 (166)168 (172)169 (152)
170 (90)171 (173)172 (168)173 (134)
174 (178)
175 (175)
176 (177)
177 (181)
178 (193)
179 (191)
180 (183)
181 (187)
182 (185)
183 (180)
184 (224)
185 (98)
186 (267)
187 (184)
188 (192)
189 (195)
190 (214)191 (186)
192 (-)
193 (163)
194 (200)
195 (204)196 (209)
197 (213)
198 (182)
199 (203)
200 (206)
201 (189)
202 (228)
203 (220)
204 (230)

Arizona Coyotes
WatfordAthletic Bilbao
WolvesFulhamBrightonVillarreal
Guangzhou EvergrandeMontreal Canadiens
Shanghai SIPG
Newcastle
Hebei China Fortune
Burnley
Oakland Athletics
Vancouver Canucks
Lyon
Lazio
Monaco
RB Leipzig
Real Sociedad
Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks£1,796,739 (£34,553)£1,775,172 (£34,138)£1,762,760 (£33,899)£1,757,600 (£33,800)£1,727,440 (£33,220)£1,695,040 (£32,597)£1,670,760 (£32,130)£1,664,792 (£32,015)£1,663,904 (£31,998)£1,658,968 (£31,903)£1,650,133 (£31,733)£1,628,774 (£31,323)£1,603,197 (£30,831)£1,587,197 (£30,523)£1,582,948 (£30,441)£1,572,519 (£30,241)£1,570,161 (£30,195)£1,564,781 (£30,092)£1,561,393 (£30,027)£1,487,109 (£28,598)£1,342,361 (£25,815)£1,307,429 (£25,143)£1,289,828 (£24,804)£1,289,597 (£24,800)£1,277,940 (£24,576)£1,238,000 (£23,808)£1,204,424 (£23,162)£1,191,517 (£22,914)£1,188,417 (£22,854)£1,168,335 (£22,468)£1,133,597 (£21,800)£1,081,366 (£20,795)£1,063,702 (£20,456)£1,057,333 (£20,333)£990,020 (£19,039)£973,500 (£18,721)£957,471 (£18,413)£945,630 (£18,185)£943,491 (£18,144)£918,667 (£17,667)£910,000 (£17,500)£907,987 (£17,461)£893,310 (£17,179)£865,614 (£16,646)£853,730 (£16,418)£831,740 (£15,995)£831,168 (£15,984)£814,247 (£15,659)£808,119 (£15,541)$2,364,130 ($45,464)$2,335,772 ($44,919)$2,319,440 ($44,605)$2,312,650 ($44,474)$2,272,966 ($43,711)$2,230,334 ($42,891)$2,198,386 ($42,277)$2,190,533 ($42,126)$2,189,348 ($42,103)$2,182,870 ($41,978)$2,171,245 ($41,755)$2,143,141 ($41,214)$2,109,487 ($40,567)$2,088,417 ($40,162)$2,082,826 ($40,054)$2,069,120 ($39,791)$2,066,018 ($39,731)$2,058,938 ($39,595)$2,054,481 ($39,509)$1,956,738 ($37,630)$1,766,279 ($33,967)$1,720,315 ($33,083)$1,697,155 ($32,638)$1,696,851 ($32,632)$1,681,513 ($32,337)$1,628,960 ($31,326)$1,584,781 ($30,477)$1,567,798 ($30,150)$1,563,719 ($30,072)$1,537,283 ($29,563)$1,491,587 ($28,684)$1,422,861 ($27,363)$1,399,619 ($26,916)$1,391,239 ($26,755)$1,302,668 ($25,051)$1,280,931 ($24,633)$1,259,840 ($24,228)$1,244,259 ($23,928)$1,241,446 ($23,874)$1,208,782 ($23,246)$1,197,378 ($23,027)$1,194,729 ($22,976)$1,175,417 ($22,604)$1,138,975 ($21,903)$1,123,338 ($21,603)$1,094,403 ($21,046)$1,093,651 ($21,032)$1,071,386 ($20,604)$1,063,322 ($20,449)

205 (199)
206 (222)
207 (202)
208 (201)
209 (205)
210 (215)
211 (171)212 (194)
213 (207)
214 (210)
215 (198)
216 (233)
217 (239)
218 (216)
219 (-)
220 (221)221 (208)
222 (217)
223 (211)
224 (241)
225 (-)
226 (227)
227 (236)
228 (-)
229 (231)
230 (235)
231 (-)
232 (-)
233 (240)
234 (219)
235 (-)
236 (229)
237 (226)
238 (-)
239 (-)
240 (253)
241 (243)
242 (212)
243 (256)244 (242)
245 (244)
246 (259)
247 (234)
248 (252)
249 (249)
250 (-)
251 (254)
252 (251)
253 (-)
254 (237)

Genoa
AlavesAtalanta
Sassuolo
Hanshin Tigers
GironaShanghai Shenua
Nice
Eibar
Toronto FC
GetafeLevanteChangchun Yatai
Orix Buffaloes
Rayo Vallecano
Mainz
Bordeaux
Saitama Seibu LionsTokyo Yakult Swallows
Hannover 96
Parma
UdineseSerie A
La Liga
Serie A
Serie ANPB
La Liga
CSL
Ligue 1
La Liga
MLS
La Liga
La Liga
CSL
NPB
La Liga
Bundesliga
Ligue 1NPB
NPB
Bundesliga
Serie A
Serie ANPB
Ligue 1
Bundesliga
NPB
La Liga
La Liga
NPB
Serie A
CSL
Serie A
Ligue 1
Serie A
Bundesliga
MLS
CSL
NPB
SPL
Bundesliga
NPB
CSL
NPB
Ligue 1
MLS
Serie A
Ligue 1
Ligue 1
Ligue 1
Ligue 1

£797,593 (£15,338)£796,575 (£15,319)£759,625 (£14,608)£754,284 (£14,505)£747,523 (£14,375)£740,629 (£14,243)£731,355 (£14,065)£730,119 (£14,041)£722,251 (£13,889)£696,034 (£13,385)£695,493 (£13,375)£675,414 (£12,989)£655,871 (£12,613)£647,106 (£12,444)£626,544 (£12,049)£623,161 (£11,984)£615,214 (£11,831)£613,831 (£11,804)£613,194 (£11,792)£592,172 (£11,388)£580,336 (£11,160)£579,828 (£11,151)£575,116 (£11,060)£568,058 (£10,924)£565,776 (£10,880)£557,639 (£10,724)£551,223 (£10,600)£547,993 (£10,538)£539,120 (£10,368)£534,052 (£10,270)£531,911 (£10,229)£531,000 (£10,212)£523,529 (£10,068)£516,250 (£9,928)£506,567 (£9,742)£492,790 (£9,477)£481,867 (£9,267)£478,843 (£9,209)£466,556 (£8,972)£447,750 (£8,611)£443,519 (£8,529)£431,097 (£8,290)£430,532 (£8,279)£422,124 (£8,118)£421,570 (£8,107)£419,866 (£8,074)£417,542 (£8,030)£404,651 (£7,782)£404,226 (£7,774)£402,239 (£7,735)$1,049,472 ($20,182)$1,048,133 ($20,156)$999,515 ($19,221)$992,488 ($19,086)$983,591 ($18,915)$974,520 ($18,741)$962,317 ($18,506)$960,690 ($18,475)$950,337 ($18,276)$915,835 ($17,612)$915,130 ($17,599)$888,710 ($17,091)$862,995 ($16,596)$851,463 ($16,374)$824,407 ($15,854)$819,956 ($15,768)$809,498 ($15,567)$807,679 ($15,532)$806,841 ($15,516)$779,180 ($14,984)$763,606 ($14,685)$762,937 ($14,672)$756,737 ($14,553)$747,451 ($14,374)$744,448 ($14,316)$733,741 ($14,110)$725,299 ($13,948)$721,050 ($13,866)$709,375 ($13,642)$702,705 ($13,514)$699,889 ($13,459)$698,690 ($13,436)$688,859 ($13,247)$679,282 ($13,063)$666,540 ($12,818)$648,408 ($12,469)$634,040 ($12,193)$630,061 ($12,117)$613,894 ($11,806)$589,150 ($11,330)$583,582 ($11,223)$567,237 ($10,908)$566,495 ($10,894)$555,431 ($10,681)$554,697 ($10,667)$552,460 ($10,624)$549,402 ($10,565)$532,440 ($10,239)$531,881 ($10,228)$529,266 ($10,178)(LAST YEAR)NHLEPL
La Liga
EPL
EPL
EPL
La Liga
CSL
NHL
CSL
EPL
CSL
EPL
MLB
NHL
Ligue 1
Serie A
Ligue 1
Bundesliga
La LigaNPB
Borussia Monchengladbach Bundesliga
Celta Vigo
La Liga
Real Betis
La Liga
TorinoSerie A
Huddersfield
EPL
Espanyol
La Liga
Hoffenheim
Bundesliga
Stuttgart
Bundesliga
Toronto Maple Leafs
NHL
Vissel Kobe
J.League
Yomiuri GiantsNPB
Fiorentina
Serie A
Jiangsu Suning
CSL
Lille
Ligue 1Sampdoria
Serie A
Cardiff
EPL
Tianjin Quanjian
CSL
Bologna
Serie A
Beijing Guoan
CSL
Eintracht Frankfurt
Bundesliga
Werder Bremen
Bundesliga
Shangdong Luneng
CSL
CelticSPL
Cagliari
Serie A
Hertha Berlin
Bundesliga
Leganes
La Liga
Saint-Etienne
Ligue 1RennesLigue 132 			

Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles

NantesAugsburg
Hiroshima Toyo Carp
HuescaValladolid

Yokohama DeNA Bay Stars

SPAL
Dalian Yifang
ChievoToulouse
Frosinone
Fortuna Dusseldorf
LA Galaxy
Tianjin Teda

Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters

Rangers
SC Freiburg
Chunichi Dragons
Guangzhou R&F
Chiba Lotte Marines
Guingamp
Chicago Fire
EmpoliAngers
Dijon
Strasbourg
Montpellier

33

sportingintelligencesportingintelligence

255-302303-349RANKTEAMLEAGUE(LAST YEAR)			

AVG ANNUAL PAY £(AVG WEEKLY PAY)

AVG ANNUAL PAY $(AVG WEEKLY PAY)TEAM
LEAGUE(LAST YEAR)			

AVG ANNUAL PAY £(AVG WEEKLY PAY)

AVG ANNUAL PAY $(AVG WEEKLY PAY)

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302 (295)£388,501 (£7,471)£383,993 (£7,384)£381,834 (£7,343)£370,412 (£7,123)£351,419 (£6,758)£331,519 (£6,375)£328,774 (£6,323)£309,934 (£5,960)£309,824 (£5,958)£307,500 (£5,913)£302,801 (£5,823)£290,194 (£5,581)£288,675 (£5,551)£275,650 (£5,301)£274,800 (£5,285)£273,241 (£5,255)£269,550 (£5,184)£263,002 (£5,058)£256,435 (£4,931)£255,296 (£4,910)£242,753 (£4,668)£233,624 (£4,493)£231,644 (£4,455)£229,440 (£4,412)£224,805 (£4,323)£217,060 (£4,174)£210,478 (£4,048)£210,314 (£4,044)£209,420 (£4,027)£208,935 (£4,018)£208,655 (£4,013)£207,554 (£3,991)£207,539 (£3,991)£203,263 (£3,909)£203,263 (£3,909)£202,211 (£3,889)£199,375 (£3,834)£198,958 (£3,826)£198,951 (£3,826)£198,883 (£3,825)£198,771 (£3,823)£197,722 (£3,802)£196,132 (£3,772)£196,061 (£3,770)£194,714 (£3,745)£194,714 (£3,745)£194,704 (£3,744)£194,704 (£3,744)$511,186 ($9,830)$505,258 ($9,717)$502,417 ($9,662)$487,384 ($9,373)$462,398 ($8,892)$436,209 ($8,389)$432,601 ($8,319)$407,808 ($7,842)$407,666 ($7,840)$404,609 ($7,781)$398,422 ($7,662)$381,837 ($7,343)$379,839 ($7,305)$362,698 ($6,975)$361,582 ($6,953)$359,530 ($6,914)$354,671 ($6,821)$346,055 ($6,655)$337,417 ($6,489)$335,916 ($6,460)$319,415 ($6,143)$307,399 ($5,912)$304,797 ($5,861)$301,897 ($5,806)$295,797 ($5,688)$285,608 ($5,492)$276,945 ($5,326)$276,728 ($5,322)$275,552 ($5,299)$274,917 ($5,287)$274,546 ($5,280)$273,099 ($5,252)$273,079 ($5,252)$267,453 ($5,143)$267,453 ($5,143)$266,067 ($5,117)$262,336 ($5,045)$261,789 ($5,034)$261,780 ($5,034)$261,690 ($5,032)$261,541 ($5,030)$260,161 ($5,003)$258,071 ($4,963)$257,978 ($4,961)$256,205 ($4,927)$256,205 ($4,927)$256,191 ($4,927)$256,191 ($4,927)

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349 (-)£194,671 (£3,744)£193,747 (£3,726)£193,743 (£3,726)£190,381 (£3,661)£182,556 (£3,511)£176,019 (£3,385)£174,752 (£3,361)£173,657 (£3,340)£165,370 (£3,180)£157,407 (£3,027)£149,380 (£2,873)£138,667 (£2,667)£133,611 (£2,569)£123,889 (£2,382)£111,600 (£2,146)£103,376 (£1,988)£101,595 (£1,954)£100,694 (£1,936)£75,874 (£1,459)£74,461 (£1,432)£71,181 (£1,369)£71,101 (£1,367)£69,815 (£1,343)£69,040 (£1,328)£66,991 (£1,288)£66,837 (£1,285)£65,888 (£1,267)£65,805 (£1,265)£64,312 (£1,237)£64,258 (£1,236)£64,104 (£1,233)£63,387 (£1,219)£62,833 (£1,208)£62,816 (£1,208)£62,379 (£1,200)£60,986 (£1,173)£60,438 (£1,162)£56,359 (£1,084)£55,800 (£1,073)£54,187 (£1,042)£53,669 (£1,032)£52,641 (£1,012)£48,630 (£935)£47,879 (£921)£47,342 (£910)£46,169 (£888)£34,882 (£671)$256,148 ($4,926)$254,932 ($4,903)$254,927 ($4,902)$250,503 ($4,817)$240,207 ($4,619)$231,605 ($4,454)$229,939 ($4,422)$228,498 ($4,394)$217,594 ($4,185)$207,117 ($3,983)$196,552 ($3,780)$182,458 ($3,509)$175,805 ($3,381)$163,013 ($3,135)$146,843 ($2,824)$136,022 ($2,616)$133,678 ($2,571)$132,494 ($2,548)$99,835 ($1,920)$97,976 ($1,884)$93,660 ($1,801)$93,555 ($1,799)$91,863 ($1,767)$90,843 ($1,747)$88,146 ($1,695)$87,944 ($1,691)$86,695 ($1,667)$86,586 ($1,665)$84,621 ($1,627)$84,549 ($1,626)$84,347 ($1,622)$83,404 ($1,604)$82,676 ($1,590)$82,653 ($1,589)$82,078 ($1,578)$80,244 ($1,543)$79,524 ($1,529)$74,157 ($1,426)$73,421 ($1,412)$71,298 ($1,371)$70,617 ($1,358)$69,264 ($1,332)$63,987 ($1,231)$62,999 ($1,212)$62,292 ($1,198)$60,749 ($1,168)$45,897 ($883)

New York City FC
Caen
Reims
LAFC
Guizhou Hengfeng
Seattle Sounders
Henan Jianye
Montreal Impact
FC Nurnberg
Nagoya Grampus EightSporting Kansas City
Chongqing Lifan
Urawa Red Diamonds
Atlanta United
Beijing Renhe
Kawasaki Frontale
Portland Timbers
DC United
Kashima Antlers
Colorado Rapids
AmiensPhiladelphia Union
Cerezo Osaka
Nimes
Orlando City
Gamba Osaka
San Jose Earthquakes
New England Revolution
Minnesota United
FC Tokyo
FC Dallas
Richmond
Greater Western Sydney
Adelaide Crows
EssendonColumbus Crew
Real Salt Lake
Sydney Swans
Geelong
Collingwood
Vancouver Whitecaps
New York Red Bulls
Brisbane Lions
Hawthorn
Gold CoastPort Adelaide
North Melbourne
St Kilda

34 			

MLS
Ligue 1
Ligue 1
MLS
CSL
MLS
CSL
MLS
Bundesliga
J.League
MLS
CSL
J.League
MLS
CSL
J.League
MLS
MLS
J.League
MLS
Ligue 1MLS
J.League
Ligue 1MLS
J.League
MLS
MLS
MLS
J.League
MLS
AFL
AFL
AFL
AFL
MLS
MLS
AFL
AFL
AFL
MLS
MLS
AFL
AFL
AFL
AFL
AFL
AFL

RANK

Fremantle
West Coast Eagles
Western Bulldogs
Carlton
Melbourne
Shimizu S-Pulse
Sanfrecce Hiroshima
Yokohama F Marinos
Jubilo Iwata
Kashiwa Reysol
Houston Dynamo
Aberdeen
Consadole Sapporo
Shonan Bellmare
HeartsHibernian
Sagan Tosu
Vegalta Sendai
Toronto Argonauts
Calgary Stampeders
Saskatchewan Roughriders

Edmonton Eskimos
Winnipeg Blue Bombers
Ottawa Redblacks
V-Varen Nagasaki
Hamilton Tiger-Cats
BC Lions
Montreal Alouettes
Phoenix Mercury
Los Angeles Sparks
Dallas Wings
Minnesota Lynx
DundeeKilmarnock
Seattle Storm
New York Liberty
Atlanta Dream
Connecticut Sun
Washington Mystics
Chicago Sky
Indiana Fever
Las Vegas Aces
St Johnstone
Hamilton
Motherwell
St Mirren
Livingston

AFL
AFL
AFL
AFL
AFL
J.League
J.League
J.League
J.League
J.League
MLS
SPL
J.League
J.LeagueSPL
SPL
J.League
J.League
CFL
CFL
CFL
CFL
CFL
CFL
J.League
CFL
CFL
CFL
WNBA
WNBA
WNBA
WNBA
SPL
SPL
WNBA
WNBA
WNBA
WNBA
WNBA
WNBA
WNBA
WNBA
SPL
SPL
SPL
SPL
SPL

35

sportingintelligencesportingintelligence

THE VALUE OF ANALYTICS IN
GOLF? FIVE EXTRA YARDS OFF
THE TEE IS WORTH ALMOST$600,000 PER SEASON

a 25-year-old from Spain, finished
T12 in European Tour Q-Schoolin 2017 and was ranked 170th
on the European Tour priority
order, limiting his appearance
opportunities to the lesser eventson the 2018 schedule. Angles
played for a total of $5.2m across
20 events, an average of $260,000
per event.

improving by 0.5 strokes per roundmore than doubles your earningpotential. This tangible measureof performance serves as a strong
motivator.

When working with our clients
we frequently communicate
the value of performance
improvements both in termsof their positioning among top
players and earning potential.
We can help refine the specificintervention of a swing coach or
seek to leverage our AI-powered
intelligence engine with the
optimisation of a schedule.

translate on-course improvements
measured by strokes gained overthe field into concrete goals.
Increase your driving distance by
5 yards and save 0.25 strokes perround. Hit your approach shots
two feet closer and save 0.40
strokes per round. Make an extra
eight foot putt every two rounds
and save 0.25 strokes per round.

“Outthinking the opposition
to gain an edge” eloquently
encapsulates our value
proposition and is firmly ingrainedin our company DNA. We

Improvements in performance
also yield improved playing
opportunities. One long-time 15th
Club client, Matthew Fitzpatrick, a24-year-old from Sheffield, started
working with us back in 2015 when
his earning potential was $13.5m(his potential winnings fromall tournaments). A significant
improvement in the second
half of 2015 (when he earned

Golf has long been associated with commercial riches, as media and marquee sponsors andscramble to monetise rights and associate their brands with the game, its values, its traditions and thevery best in global talent.
Arnold “The King” Palmer became the first golfer to earn $100k during a season and by 1968 had
surpassed the mystical $1m mark in career earnings. Fast forward half a century to the end of the 2018season on the PGA Tour, and Martin Laird, a 35-year-old Scottish pro, had amassed $1,017,580 in one
year for his finish on the money list … in 114th place. The top 10 earned between $9m and $5m eachfrom PGA Tour on-course earnings alone.
DAN ZELEZINSKI is Managing Director of 15th Club, the leading golf analytics consultancy supporting
the world’s best golfers and an integral part of the recent European Team Ryder Cup victory a triumph that 15th Club’s CEO Blake Wooster has written about recently in detail, here:
https://leadersinsport.com/performance/15th-club-blake-wooster/ In this special contribution to
GSSS 2018, Zelezinski provides a deeper insight into golf’s financial rewards, and how carefulplanning and analytic insight can help individual players unlock them.

Motivations for top-level golfers
vary. Major championships are
the pursuit of those at the very
top. Amassing ranking points toaccess the best tournaments andthus steady high-level income islikely a driving force relevant toall.
The compensation profile inmuch of professional sport isheavily skewed towards the best
players taking the majority of themoney. Research by our footballarm 21st Club suggests thatthe top 10 per cent of Premier
League footballers account fornearly 30 per cent of its pay forexample. That is corroborated bySportingintelligence’s research forthis report, at 28 per cent.
36 			

This phenomenon is not surprising
but the sheer disparity in earningpotential amongst golf’s elite
certainly is. Top players playing
exclusive schedules can play foras much as $1.6m per event andthose playing PGA Tour schedules
and 30-plus events will compete
for in excess of $40m during aseason.
To put flesh on the bones of thesestatistics: in 2018 season Si Woo
Kim, the 23-year-old South Korean,
has played for a possible $43.7m
while Jason Day teed it up for a
per event average of $1.64m.
The Majors carry the largest prize
funds, with the US Open winner
netting $2.16m of a $12m purse,

and all four Majors paying out atleast $1.9m to the winner in 2018.
Tournament wins come with astandard 16-17 per cent of thetotal purse which averaged $7.3m
for PGA Tour events and $3.1m for
European Tour events in 2018.
In recent years, the European Tourhas made great strides in upping
the stakes, introducing the Rolex
Series – eight events all with purses
of $7m-plus. This has increased thetotal prize money available on theEuropean Tour by around $14m
overall, a 16 per cent increase.
In contrast, those fighting to maketheir mark on the global tours
find themselves in a very different
position. Pep Angles,

In a game of tiny margins,
our innovation continues toassist many of the world’s best
performers to translate insights
into significant gains. Improving
by 0.5 strokes per round allows
you to climb from 100th in theWorld to 40th in the world forexample, and on average

Illuminating blind-spots andhighlighting areas of specificimprovement is clearly compelling
intelligence for the golfers andtheir teams; and mapping
credible insights to increased
earnings potential is a further
lever for even the most intrinsicallymotivated players.

$1.94m), elevated his status in theworld rankings, and his earnings
potential subsequently jumped
to $27m in 2016, and $31m for themost recent season – more thandoubling his first season potential
on Tour.
He says: “15th Club is an integral
part of my strategy. The insights
they deliver have shaped
many decisions related to bothon-course performance andschedule optimisation.”
A more recent addition to the15th Club stable, Matt Wallace,a 28-year-old from Hillingdon,outside London, saw his earnings
potential grow from $300,000
when competing on low-level37

sportingintelligencesportingintelligence“Relationships have to beforged, respect earned. You
can have the most brilliant
analytical models but ourcontribution is one part of
the jigsaw.”

tours in 2016 to $12.7m as a

improvement in the last year

first PPV event - with the winnerEuropean Tour rookie in 2017 to

is attributable to his improved

walking away $9m better off.

$20.6m in 2018. Because of his

approach performance, and

But while we know the financial

three wins this season, he’s moved

that in turn inspired a summer run

incentives are clear at the top

inside the top 50 in the world

when he won twice, played in theof the game, the story is just as

rankings which brings with it evenfinal three Majors of the year, andcompelling further down.

greater earnings potential fromwas on the verge of selection for

exemptions into the Majors andthe Ryder Cup team.

World Golf Championship (WGC)

Full status on the European Tour isonly guaranteed for tournament

We estimate that improved

winners and the top 110 on theapproach play earned him

previous season’s rankings. Players

A player who stays in the top

nearly $700,000 more in the lastin this tier of status have averaged

50 for a season - allowing themsix months than he would havean earning potential of $13.4m inaccess to these Majors andwon without that improvement,

the last two seasons - taking home

WGC events - has an increased

and by increasing his chances ofjust under $700,000 of that on

earning potential of $14.8m higher

reaching the top 50 in the world

average (or five per cent of thethan a player outside the top 50

he could increase his earningpotential).

who plays none of these highly

potential in 2019 by more thanlucrative events.

$10m.

However, the tiers below full status
are populated by the graduates

For Wallace, approach play was“I have just finished the mostfrom Qualifying School and thethe missing piece in his gamesuccessful year in my career,”second tier Challenge Tour each

after he had already gained

he says. “Having a trusted partner

year. These players have yet tosignificantly on the field within the team at 15th club to distil

prove themselves on the main

his driver and putter in our firsttargeted and actionable insights

stage, but the rewards for doing

six months working together.

have proven extremely valuable

so are significant. Challenge Tour

Identifying that weakness andthis season.”graduates compete for about

illustrating the gap between his

30 per cent less prize money andperformance and those of top

By the time this report is published,

Qualifying School graduates

players produced a renewed

Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson

for less than half as much prize

focus on that area of his game.

will already have gone head-money across a season as a fully

Half of his 0.5 shot per roundto-head in Las Vegas in golf’s

exempt player.

38 			of on-course improvement allows

graduates and fully exempt

them to leverage those higher

players is approximately half apurses into earnings almost threestroke per round in performancetimes higher than Challenge Tour

while the gap between

graduates ($676k vs $246k).

Challenge Tour graduates

Rory McIlroy (second left) with the 15th Club team after winning the 2018
Ryder Cup

events.

The gap between Q-School

and fully exempt players is

The story is similar for Q-School

approximately a quarter of agrads; small improvements on

stroke per round. Those are small

course yield significant increases

gaps to close in reality – one toin earnings potential. We have

two shots per event – but thea very simple mandate whenfinancial payoffs are significant –working with the golfers in ourdouble the earnings potential forstable - to help them optimise

Q-School Grads and almost 50

performance and win. The

per cent more earnings potential

process behind this “simple”

for Challenge Tour graduates.

task involves a crack team of

EARNINGS AT DIFFERENTLEVELS OF THE GAME

quantitative analysts surfacing
insights from our global golf
database and feeding theintelligence to player, caddie,‘Top tier’ (Fully exempt, top 110

coach and manager.

players): a possible $13.4m in prize“The gap between
Q-School graduatesand fully exempt
players isapproximately
half a stroke perround in performance while thegap between
Challenge Tour
graduates and fully
exempt players isapproximately aquarter of a stroke
per round.”money and average winnings of

A great nugget that our head of

Successfully executing a plan

$676k.

Golf Intelligence, Jake Nichols,is largely dependent on the

recently discovered is that the

many factors aligning. We pride‘Second tier’ (Challenge Tour

estimated value of five extra

ourselves on our ability to add

Graduates): a possible $9.4m inyards off the tee is worth almost

significant value, influencing

prize money (70% of the above)$600,000 per season, disproving

the decision-making process,and average winnings of of $246k

the popular notion of drive forconstructively challenging(36% of above).

show, putt for dough.

conventional thinking andsuggesting alternative possibilities‘Third tier’ (Q-School Graduates):

Navigating the intricacies of thegrounded in objective data.

a possible $5.6m in prize money

world’s leading golf tours and in(42% of the above) and average

particular, the many stakeholders

For more information visit:

winnings of $147k (22% of above).

that surround the world’s best

https://www.15thclub.com

golfers, is not without its challenges.
The financial implications of theRelationships have to be forged,

stats above are stark: Challenge

trust established, respect earned.

Tour players who improve by justYou can have the best brains and0.25 strokes per round can reachthe most brilliant analytical models,

the same performance levels as

which we clearly believe are

Fully exempt players – which can

important, but our contribution is

unlock 40 per cent+ earnings

one part of the jigsaw.

potential. In addition, that level39

sportingintelligencesportingintelligence

NBA ANALYSISAVERAGE FIRST-TEAM PAY, NBA, 2018-19 SEASONNATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION

20182019

30TEAMS

TOTAL SALARIES:AVERAGE SALARY RANKING:AVERAGE SALARY PER PLAYER:MEDIAN SALARY:£2,592,695,473$3,411,468,703£5,905,912$7,770,999

PLAYERS

439

No1 LEAGUE£3,283,554$4,320,500

THE STATE OF PLAY

The NBA remains the best paid sports league in the world by average salary, and Oklahoma City Thunder are still just - the best paid NBA team if not the best paid sports team on the planet. The Golden State Warriors are snappingat their heels in the NBA with The Washington Wizards and The Toronto Raptors not far behind.

RANK
TEAM
			
1
Oklahoma City Thunder2
Golden State Warriors
3
Washington Wizards
4
Toronto Raptors
5
Houston Rockets
6
Miami Heat
7
Charlotte Hornets
8
Minnesota Timberwolves
9
Boston Celtics
10
Portland Trail Blazers
11
Cleveland Cavaliers
12
Memphis Grizzlies
13
San Antonio Spurs
14
Detroit Pistons
15
Utah Jazz
16
Denver Nuggets
17
New Orleans Pelicans
18
LA Clippers
19
Orlando Magic
20
Milwaukee Bucks
21
Chicago Bulls
22
Dallas Mavericks
23
Philadelphia 76ers
24
Indiana Pacers
25
Phoenix Suns26
Los Angeles Lakers
27
New York Knicks
28
Brooklyn Nets
29
Sacramento Kings
30
Atlanta Hawks

AVG ANNUALPER PLAYER, ££7,848,811£7,819,700£7,633,608£7,577,470£7,487,744£7,038,292£6,530,440£6,468,615£6,417,395£6,407,941£6,280,614£6,097,037£5,987,742£5,974,595£5,934,107£5,896,357£5,740,892£5,678,214£5,605,026£5,470,642£5,279,249£5,229,053£5,200,055£5,145,052£4,892,554£4,802,904£4,663,496£4,622,406£4,289,405£3,969,785

AVG ANNUALPER PLAYER,$		$10,327,383$10,289,079$10,044,221$9,970,355$9,852,295$9,260,911$8,592,684$8,511,336$8,443,941$8,431,501$8,263,966$8,022,417$7,878,608$7,861,310$7,808,035$7,758,365$7,553,805$7,471,334$7,375,034$7,198,214$6,946,381$6,880,333$6,842,178$6,769,805$6,437,570$6,319,611$6,136,178$6,082,113$5,643,954$5,223,401

The story of how The Thunder reached No1 was covered in last year’s report, which is available here: https://globalsportssalaries.com/GSSS%202017.pdf That also details how NBA pay levels have rocketed since the current
9-year $24 billion TV deals came on stream in 2016-17. They soared from $4.6m in 2015-16 to $6.4m a year later,then rose again to $7.1m in 2017-18 and yet again to $7.8m now.
Our NBA figures for 2018-19 include only the 439 ‘full-time’ NBA players on the opening day rosters, and not thetwo-way (TW) players who are effectively the developmental part-timers. More on the TW player origins can be foundin last year’s report.
When considering the ‘genesis’ of the current ‘main’ players in the NBA, two universities stand out as the major‘producers’, with 27 of the 439 (or more than 6%) being alumni of Kentucky with 23 alumni from Duke. That pair areboth well ahead of UCLA (15), Washington (13), Kansas (12), North Carolina (11), Texas (10) and Arizona (10).
A special report within the GSSS 2015 - available here: https://www.globalsportssalaries.com/GSSS%202015.pdf also had Kentucky and Duke ahead that season. Both had 18 players (of 448) although there were closer challengers
then in Kansas (17), North Carolina (16) and UCLA (15) with Arizona and Florida (12 each) a little further back and theonly others in double figures.

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NBA ANALYSISNATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATIONRATIO BETWEEN HIGHEST PAID TEAM AND LOWEST PAID: 1.98 TO 1

FIVE OF 18 LEAGUES HAVE A ‘FAIRER’ SPREAD, WITH A LOWER GAP; 12 OF 18 ARE LESS ‘FAIR’.
THE NBA SHOULD BE COMPETITIVE, BUT MOST OF THE 10 WORST-PAID TEAMS DO BADLY.

ON BALANCE

The difference between the average Thunder salary at the top of the NBA pay list (£7.8m) and the average Hawks
salary at the bottom (£3.96m) is not quite double. The total payrolls for their respective 14 and 15 ‘full-time’ players
add up to £110m and £59.5m. It doesn’t bode well for the Hawks and the other lowest payers immediately above
them. There is a consistent pattern in recent years of (most) teams at the bottom of the list having poor seasons.
Yet a ratio of 1.98 to 1 from top to bottom in pay terms is fairer than in most of the leagues in this study. And overthe last decade of completed NBA seasons (at the time of writing), there have been six different Finals winners, ninedifferent finalists, and only the Warriors have won more than twice in that period (3 times). And the Warriors-Cavaliers
four-year duopoly looks done.

sportingintelligence

AVERAGE FIRST-TEAM PAY PER GAMELEAGUE		GAMES PERREGULAR SEASON

AVG £ PER
PLAYER PER GAME

AVG $ PER
PLAYER PER GAME

IPL

14

£274,624$361,350NFL

16£138,354$182,047

Premier League

38£78,703$103,558NBA

82£72,023$94,768

La Liga

38£57,923$76,215

Bundesliga

34£41,076$54,047

Serie A

38

£39,997$52,628

CSL

30£26,640$35,053

Ligue 1

38

£26,047$34,272

NHL

82£25,800$33,948

MLB

162£21,171$27,857

AFL

22£8,950$11,776

MLS

34£8,388$11,037

J-League34£7,042$9,266NPB

143£4,703$6,188

Scottish Premiership38£4,638$6,102CFL

18£3,889$5,117WNBA

34£1,744$2,295The NBA remains less ‘top heavy’ in wage spread than most of the GSSS leagues, with the top 10 per cent of earners
making ‘only’ 34 per cent of the money. No fewer than 130 of the 439 players will make at least $10m this season for
their on-court activity alone, or 29.6% of the players; and 44 of those will make at least $20m.

THE MONEY TALK

If the money talks, then the Thunder will be expecting to make some kind of challenge to the Warriors. The Wizards,
Raptors, Rockets, Heat and Hornets, all of them averaging £6.5m+ per man in salaries will want at least post-season
action to justify their costs. At the other extreme, the Hawks, Kings, Nets, Knicks, Lakers and Suns are the six teams
averaging below £5m per man.

TOTAL ATTENDANCE,
MOST RECENTCOMPLETED NBA
SEASONFOR THOSE FANSALONE TO MEET THATSALARY BILL, EVERY
TICKET WOULD COST:

22,124,559

AVERAGE 17,987 PER GAMETOTAL FIRST-TEAM
SALARIES, CURRENTNBA SEASON£117.19 EACH

£2,592,695,473

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IPL ANALYSISAVERAGE FIRST-TEAM PAY, IPL, 2018 SEASONINDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE

2018

8

TEAMS

TOTAL SALARIES:AVERAGE SALARY RANKING:AVERAGE SALARY PER PLAYER:MEDIAN SALARY:£66,247,720$87,168,750£3,844,734$5,058,901

PLAYERS

128

RANK
TEAM
			
1
Kolkata Knight Riders

AVG ANNUALPER PLAYER, ££4,035,237

2£3,933,466

Kings XI Punjab

AVG ANNUALPER PLAYER, $$5,309,565$5,175,655

3

Mumbai Indians£3,913,111$5,148,871

4

Rajasthan Royals£3,910,567$5,145,524

5Sunrisers Hyderabad£3,841,871$5,055,134

6Delhi Daredevils£3,760,454$4,948,005

7Royal Challengers Bangalore£3,755,366$4,941,311

8

Chennai Super Kings£3,607,797$4,747,139

No2 LEAGUE£2,605,349$3,428,118

THE STATE OF PLAY

Two notable things happened with IPL wages in 2018: they got bigger, and the outlay by different teams got closer together.
The rise saw the pro-rated average annual salary rise from $3.9m in 2017 to more than $5m this year, a leap of 29.8 per cent.
That is no doubt related to the fact that the team owners are now making more money and are passing some of it on.
A new five-year TV rights deal, concluded last year for $2.55bn (£1.96bn) for 2018-2022, has come on stream.That guarantees
the medium-term future of an event that has often struggled for certainty. The uplift in the rights value is extraordinary, from$100m per year for the first decade to more than five times as much under the new deal with Star India - for all rights globally.
The tiny difference in average player spending this year between the best-paid team from Kolkata and the worst-paid from
Chennai (with a top-to-bottom ratio of 1.12 to 1) makes IPL the ‘fairest’ league in this year’s survey in this regard. It may becoincidence but 2018’s results were less polarised (wins from top to bottom) than in any IPL season to date.
Uniquely in the GSSS, IPL salaries are pro-rated from weekly pay to annual pay because, again uniquely, IPL players typicallyhave multiple different professional employers concurrently. The vast majority of other teams in other leagues contract theirplayers for at least a year at a time. You simply don’t get NFL stars playing a season in the USA then another in Germany inthe same year; or a Premier League player appearing freelance for six different teams in a campaign.
The West Indies all-rounder Kieron Pollard was paid to play for his country in 2017, for example, as well as for teams in Australia (Adelaide), Pakistan (Karachi), India in the IPL (Mumbai, earning more than $1m for two months), Bangladesh (Dhaka)
and South Africa (Bloemfontein). Jamaica’s Chris Gayle in 2016 was paid to play for his country plus teams in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Australia, Jamaica and India. And so on.

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IPL ANALYSISINDIAN PREMIER LEAGUERATIO BETWEEN HIGHEST PAID TEAM AND LOWEST PAID: 1.12 TO 1

NONE OF THE 18 LEAGUES HAVE A ‘FAIRER’ SPREAD, WITH A LOWER GAP.
AMONG THE LEAGUES IN THIS SURVEY, THE IPL’S OUTCOME SHOULD BE CLOSEST TO RANDOM.

ON BALANCE

The difference between the average Kolkata salary at the top of the IPL list (just over £4m annually when pro-rated
from weekly sums) and the average Chennai salary at the bottom (£3.6m) has shrunk from the corresponding ratio of
1.9 to 1 last year to 1.12 to 1 this time.
This short-form competition (in more senses than one), with its star-heavy but largely transient staff is an excellent
canvas on which to build a competitive event. The salary cap assists that as does the player auction, with a play-off
phase adding randomness. Five different winners in 10 seasons represents a moderate spread of success, while four
more have been runners-up.

sportingintelligence

AVERAGE FIRST-TEAM PAY PER GAMELEAGUE		GAMES PERREGULAR SEASON

AVG £ PER
PLAYER PER GAME

NFL

16

£138,354$182,047

Premier League

38£78,703$103,558NBA

82£72,023$94,768

La Liga

38£57,923$76,215IPL

14£274,624*

AVG $ PER
PLAYER PER GAME
$361,350*

Bundesliga

34£41,076$54,047

Serie A

38

£39,997$52,628

CSL

30£26,640$35,053

Ligue 1

38

£26,047$34,272

NHL

82£25,800$33,948

MLB

162£21,171$27,857

AFL

22£8,950$11,776

MLS

34£8,388$11,037

J-League34£7,042$9,266NPB

143£4,703$6,188

Scottish Premiership38£4,638$6,102CFL

18£3,889$5,117WNBA

34£1,744$2,295*When 7-week contracts extrapolated to annual, pro rata

THE MONEY TALKIn a small league with half the eight teams reaching the play-off phase, the winners from Chennai and runners-up
from Hyderabad were respectively the lowest and fourth-lowest payers by our metric while the other two of thelast four were the best payers and fourth-best payers. Something other than - purely - money was at play, whether
recruitment nous, coaching or tactics, which is arguably as it should be.

TOTAL ATTENDANCE,
MOST RECENTCOMPLETED IPLSEASONFOR THOSE FANSALONE TO MEET THATSALARY BILL, EVERY
TICKET WOULD COST:

1,440,000

AVERAGE 25,714 PER GAMETOTAL FIRST-TEAM
SALARIES, CURRENTIPL SEASON£46.01 EACH

£66,247,720

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MLB ANALYSISAVERAGE FIRST-TEAM PAY, MLB, 2018 SEASONMAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL

2018

30
TEAMS

TOTAL SALARIES:AVERAGE SALARY RANKING:AVERAGE SALARY PER PLAYER:MEDIAN SALARY:£3,007,826,284$3,957,697,825£3,429,676$4,512,768

PLAYERS877

No3 LEAGUE£1,101,991$1,450,000

THE STATE OF PLAY

Major League Baseball players saw their average earnings climb by just one per cent between 2017 and 2018, although
this still equates to a $44,699 rise per man. It also takes MLB players past the $4.5m mark for the first time. The MLB as
a whole has dropped one place to the third-best paying league in the world - by average first-team pay - behind the
NBA and the IPL. This was due to a leap in IPL rather than anything detrimental happening in baseball.

RANK
TEAM
			

AVG ANNUALPER PLAYER, £

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30

£5,609,483£5,314,446£4,898,383£4,820,323£4,564,905£4,486,821£4,378,303£4,376,624£4,358,319£4,301,134£4,127,502£3,987,747£3,882,837£3,651,368£3,461,855£3,282,187£3,149,614£3,132,495£3,059,505£2,831,199£2,465,328£2,442,173£2,422,158£2,415,813£2,216,732£2,183,193£2,038,771£1,959,280£1,807,244£1,587,197

San Franciso Giants
Chicago Cubs
Boston Red Sox
LA Angels
Washington Nationals
Seattle Mariners
New York Yankees
New York Mets
Houston Astros
Toronto Blue Jays
LA Dodgers
St Louis Cardinals
Baltimore Orioles
Colorado Rockies
Cleveland Indians
Minnesota Twins
Arizona Diamondbacks
Detroit Tigers
Texas Rangers
Kansas City Royals
Milwaukee Brewers
Philadelphia Phillies
Chicago White Sox
Cincinnati Reds
Pittsburgh Pirates
Atlanta Braves
Miami Marlins
Tampa Bay Rays
San Diego Padres
Oakland Athletics

AVG ANNUALPER PLAYER, $		
$7,380,898$6,992,692$6,445,240$6,342,531$6,006,454$5,903,712$5,760,926$5,758,715$5,734,630$5,659,386$5,430,924$5,247,036$5,108,996$4,804,431$4,555,072$4,318,667$4,144,229$4,121,704$4,025,664$3,725,262$3,243,852$3,213,385$3,187,049$3,178,702$2,916,753$2,872,622$2,682,594$2,578,000$2,377,953$2,088,417

A trend from last year’s list that highlighted the NBA’s dominance over MLB continues: again there is a not a single MLBteam in this year’s top 20 teams, whereas there had been between two and six every year in the first seven editions of
the GSSS. And the New York Yankees - the MLB’s No1 brand in terms of global recognition - are getting closer andcloser to falling out of the top 50.
In every GSSS before last year, the Yankees were inside the top 10, from No1 in the inaugural study in 2010 to No3 thefollowing year, No6 in 2012, then No5, No2, No9 and then No2 in 2016 year behind the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers.
Last year the Yanks were down to No31 and this year they are No46.
The highest placed MLB team last year were the Detroit Tigers at No22; this year it’s the San Francisco Giants at No27.
MLB still has more individual players earning $10m+ each than any sports league, at 134 of them (15 per cent of players), down one from last year. But the NBA is even catching up here, with 130 such players in 2018.

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MLB ANALYSIS
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALLRATIO BETWEEN HIGHEST PAID TEAM AND LOWEST PAID: 3.53 TO 1

EIGHT OF 18 LEAGUES HAVE A ‘FAIRER’ SPREAD, WITH A LOWER GAP; NINE OF 18 ARE LESS ‘FAIR’.
MLB IS ACTUALLY BECOMING SLIGHTLY MORE COMPETITIVE THAN PREVIOUSLY IN WAGE SPREAD.

ON BALANCE

Conflicting phenomena remain at play in MLB - first that money does talk to an extent, as you would expect with big
disparities between the best and worst payers. Yet over time, success is spread. To be clear about terms, by ‘overtime’ we mean for this exercise the past 10 years and ‘spread’ means different teams winning the World Series, orfinishing as runners-up.
Seven different teams have won in the past 10 seasons. In reverse order: the Red Sox, Astros, Cubs, Royals, Giants,
Cardinals and Yankees. The Giants (2010, 2012, 2014) and Red Sox (2013, 2018) were multi-winners in the period.
A further six teams have been runners-up: the Dodgers, Indians, Mets, Tigers, Rangers and Phillies. So a maximum
possible 20 winners and runner-up slots have been filled by 13 different teams. You might argue that is 65 per cent ofthe ‘peak spread’ possible.
The reason why this might be the case is more complex. On one level, an individual team’s payroll can go up anddown dramatically from one season to the next, and that does happen. Another might be that MLB ‘competitivebalance’ tools, including but not only the luxury tax, have had an effect. In grossly simplistic terms, big-spending
teams pay tax over a certain payroll and some of that money gets redistricted to other teams. The Yankees alone
have paid $320m luxury tax since 2003.

THE MONEY TALK

If the money alone talked, then No1 payers the San Francisco Giants would have won the World Series after being
joined in the League Championship Series (in effect the season semi-finals) by the Chicago Cubs, Red Sox and
LA Angels. In fact the Giants and Angels both bombed, finishing second bottom of their respective leagues withrespective 73-89 and 80-82 win-loss records. The Red Sox and Cubs both made the post-season, with the Red Sox
going on to win the World Series against the LA Dodgers.

sportingintelligence

AVERAGE FIRST-TEAM PAY PER GAMELEAGUE		GAMES PERREGULAR SEASON

AVG £ PER
PLAYER PER GAME

AVG $ PER
PLAYER PER GAME

IPL

14

£274,624*$361,350*NFL

16£138,354$182,047

Premier League

38£78,703$103,558NBA

82£72,023$94,768

La Liga

38£57,923$76,215

Bundesliga

34£41,076$54,047

Serie A

38

£39,997$52,628

CSL

30£26,640$35,053

Ligue 1

38

£26,047$34,272

NHL

82£25,800$33,948

MLB

162£21,171$27,857

AFL

22£8,950$11,776

MLS

34£8,388$11,037

J-League34£7,042$9,266NPB

143£4,703$6,188

Scottish Premiership38£4,638$6,102CFL

18£3,889$5,117WNBA

34£1,744$2,295*When 7-week contracts extrapolated to annual, pro rata

TOTAL ATTENDANCE,
MOST RECENTCOMPLETED MLB
SEASONFOR THOSE FANSALONE TO MEET THATSALARY BILL, EVERY
TICKET WOULD COST:

69,625,244

AVERAGE 28,830 PER GAMETOTAL FIRST-TEAM
SALARIES, CURRENTMLB SEASON£43.20 EACH

£3,007,826,28450 			

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EPL ANALYSISAVERAGE FIRST-TEAM PAY, PREMIER LEAGUE, 2018-19

ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE FOOTBALL

20182019

20TEAMS

TOTAL SALARIES:AVERAGE SALARY RANKING:AVERAGE SALARY PER PLAYER:MEDIAN SALARY:£1,623,964,155$2,136,812,035£2,990,726$3,935,197

PLAYERS

543

No4 LEAGUE£2,236,000$2,942,129

RANK
TEAM
			
1
Man Utd2
Man City3
Chelsea4
Liverpool
5
Arsenal6
Tottenham
7
Everton
8
West Ham
9
Crystal Palace
10
Leicester
11
Southampton
12
Bournemouth
13
Watford14
Wolves15
Fulham16
Brighton
17
Newcastle
18
Burnley
19
Huddersfield20
Cardiff

AVG ANNUALPER PLAYER, ££6,534,654£5,993,000£5,020,004£4,862,963£4,853,130£3,515,778£3,252,690£3,189,333£2,757,000£2,710,710£2,669,333£1,989,520£1,775,172£1,757,600£1,727,440£1,695,040£1,650,133£1,603,197£1,238,000£957,471

AVG ANNUALPER PLAYER, $$8,598,297$7,885,589$6,605,321$6,398,687$6,385,748$4,626,060$4,279,889$4,196,525$3,627,661$3,566,752$3,512,309$2,617,810$2,335,772$2,312,650$2,272,966$2,230,334$2,171,245$2,109,487$1,628,960$1,259,840

THE STATE OF PLAY

The Premier League’s status as the world’s wealthiest football league endures. The 20 clubs who competed in the 201718 season split ‘central revenues’ of £2.42bn in May, at an average of more than £120m each, as they will next May. For
the 2018-19 season, the 20 clubs are earning £320m between them just for the names of their principle shirt sponsors
on their jerseys. Sleeve deals, training complex sponsorship and (non-shirt) betting partners bring in yet more cash. And
that is before a ticket, pie or replica kit is sold.
The 20 clubs who comprise the cast for this season spent £1.3 billion gross on new players in the summer window
alone, down from £1.4 billion in summer 2017 but easily clear of any other league. Our survey meanwhile indicatesaverage basic pay is up by more than 10 per cent year on year.
Figures from the CIES Football Observatory in Switzerland after the summer 2018 window shut concluded the current
PL title holders (and this season’s favourites) Manchester City squad are the most expensive in the history of global football, in terms of purchase prices paid for the first-team squad collectively. They cost €976m to buy (£864m). Two other
English clubs were in the top four most expensive squads currently - Manchester United (£696m) and Liverpool (£624m)- with another three in the top 10: Chelsea (£596m), Arsenal (£379m) and Tottenham (£348m).
A key pre-season question was whether those six clubs could combine to deliver a meaningful title race involving two or
three of them at least. City looked a cut above in the early stages of the season. If the ‘big six’ could deliver somethingcompetitive between them, what would that mean for the rest? With approaching a third of the season gone, it looked
frankly dire, with points dropped by the ‘big six’ against the ‘other 14’ fewer and further between than ever.

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EPL ANALYSISENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE FOOTBALLRATIO BETWEEN HIGHEST PAID TEAM AND LOWEST PAID: 6.82 TO 1

ELEVEN OF 18 LEAGUES HAVE A ‘FAIRER’ SPREAD, WITH A LOWER GAP; SIX OF 18 ARE LESS ‘FAIR’.
THE RATIO WAS ‘ONLY’ 5 TO 1 LAST SEASON SO THE LEAGUE IS MORE POLARISED TOP TO BOTTOM NOW.

ON BALANCE

The two Manchester clubs, United and City, remain clear of the rest in basic pay terms according to our calculations.
United are in front now, above £6.5m per man, with City pretty much on the £6m mark. We thought last year thatwhichever of the pair achieved the most on the pitch would end up with the larger of the two overall wage bills (allstaff) for 2017-18. In fact City won the league and had wages of £260m and United faltered but paid out £296m.
United’s hike in this respect was largely down to money paid out merely for the club returning to the Champions
League. City’s ‘like-for-like’ total wage bill isn’t actually known because not all the salaries of the staff who work
for City appear in the MCFC (club) wage bill. Instead, an undisclosed amount of MCFC salaries are paid by parent
company City Football Group, and then MCFC pay for that labour via ‘external charges’ which have risen from £42m
to £105m since 2013, and not via the wage bill per se.

sportingintelligence

AVERAGE FIRST-TEAM PAY PER GAMELEAGUE		GAMES PERREGULAR SEASON

AVG £ PER
PLAYER PER GAME

AVG $ PER
PLAYER PER GAME

IPL

14

£274,624*NFL

16£138,354$182,047

Premier League

38£78,703$103,558$361,350*

NBA

82£72,023$94,768

La Liga

38£57,923$76,215

Bundesliga

34£41,076$54,047

Serie A

38

£39,997$52,628

CSL

30£26,640$35,053

Ligue 1

38

£26,047$34,272

NHL

82£25,800$33,948

MLB

162£21,171$27,857

AFL

22£8,950$11,776

MLS

34£8,388$11,037

J-League34£7,042$9,266NPB

143£4,703$6,188

Scottish Premiership38£4,638$6,102CFL

18£3,889$5,117WNBA

34£1,744$2,295*When 7-week contracts extrapolated to annual, pro rata

Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal are all at broadly similar basic pay levels now, and all clear of Tottenham. The gap
from the top of the division to the bottom in pay terms is widening in a season where the also-rans are more obvious
than ever.
This time a year ago, the Premier League had had four different winners in the previous five years (and sevendifferent teams in the top two), indicating slight movement to greater competitiveness. But remove Leicester’s
miracle of 2015-16 and the pattern of a decade shows the title going to either City, United or Chelsea (three timeseach), with three other clubs (Tottenham, Arsenal and Liverpool) stepping up as high as second when that slot wasn’t
filled already by one of the first trio.

TOTAL ATTENDANCE,
MOST RECENTCOMPLETED EPLSEASON

THE MONEY TALKAVERAGE 38,297 PER GAME

If the money talks, then Manchester would have a 1-2 finish with Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal chasing two moreChampions League slots and Tottenham in sixth. Nobody would be surprised to see the ‘big six’ finish in the top
six places in some order. In the past 15 years, the big six have filled 44 of the 45 podium places - Leicester alone
crashing the top three.
The intrigue lies with who will be most successful applying non-financial resources - coaching and tactical nous;
motivational skills; dietary, fitness and recovery techniques. Wages alone would see Cardiff, Huddersfield and Burnley
drop - and if they don’t that is testament to managers punching above their weight.

54 			FOR THOSE FANSALONE TO MEET THATSALARY BILL, EVERY
TICKET WOULD COST:

14,552,748

TOTAL FIRST-TEAM
SALARIES, CURRENTEPL SEASON£111.59 EACH

£1,623,964,155

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NFL ANALYSISAVERAGE FIRST-TEAM PAY, NFL, 2018-19 SEASONRANKNATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE

20182019

32
TEAMS

TOTAL SALARIES:AVERAGE SALARY RANKING:AVERAGE SALARY PER PLAYER:MEDIAN SALARY:£3,754,381,582$4,940,015,286£2,213,668$2,912,745

PLAYERS

1,696

No5 LEAGUE£835,993$1,100,000

THE STATE OF PLAY

NFL average pay climbed 7.85 per cent from 2017 to 2018, or by $211,977 per man to just over $2.9m. The NFL remains
ahead of every league in the world by total wage spend, at close to $5bn in basic salaries for the active roster players
alone, albeit with that divided among 1,696 players, whereas Major League Baseball’s $3.96bn in 2018 is being spent on
877 players and the NBA’s $3.4bn in 2018-19 is being split among just 439 people.

TEAM

			
1
Jacksonville Jaguars
2
Minnesota Vikings
3
Tampa Bay Bucs
4
Pittsburgh Steelers
5
San Francisco 49ers
6
Tennessee Titans
7
Denver Broncos
8
Green Bay Packers
9Carolina Panthers
10
Chicago Bears
11
Atlanta Falcons
12
Los Angeles Rams
13
Detroit Lions
14
New England Patriots
15
Cleveland Browns
16
Philadelphia Eagles
17
Cincinnati Bengals
18
Oakland Raiders
19
Los Angeles Chargers
20
Washington Redskins
21
New Orleans Saints
22
New York Giants
23
Miami Dolphins24
Kansas City Chiefs
25
New York Jets
26
Houston Texans
27
Arizona Cardinals
28
Baltimore Ravens
29
Seattle Seahawks

AVG ANNUALPER PLAYER, ££2,536,491£2,519,814£2,438,003£2,434,568£2,408,655£2,406,870£2,381,475£2,337,670£2,335,273£2,316,595£2,314,767£2,289,311£2,288,997£2,256,217£2,226,452£2,220,546£2,208,272£2,207,359£2,182,950£2,181,448£2,147,411£2,136,569£2,117,913£2,114,637£2,109,298£2,094,579£2,060,499£1,982,292£1,954,424

AVG ANNUALPER PLAYER, $		
$3,337,489$3,315,544$3,207,898$3,203,379$3,169,282$3,166,934$3,133,519$3,075,881$3,072,728$3,048,151$3,045,746$3,012,251$3,011,838$2,968,706$2,929,542$2,921,771$2,905,621$2,904,420$2,872,302$2,870,326$2,825,541$2,811,275$2,786,728$2,782,417$2,775,392$2,756,025$2,711,183$2,608,279$2,571,611

Perhaps the most notable performances by mid-November with 10 games gone of the regular season were those by threeteams all firmly ensconced in ‘mid-table’ in wage terms this campaign: the LA Rams (in 12th using our average pay metric),
the New Orleans Saints (21st) and the Kansas City Chiefs (in 24th). Each of the three - and only those three - had 9-1 winloss records from their first 10 games.
And it was the Saints, who notched up a ninth straight win in Week 11 after starting with a defeat, who were catching theeye most of all. It wasn’t just the manner of that ninth win (a 48-7 trouncing that could have been bigger) that was astonishing. It was the team being drubbed, the Philadelphia Eagles, reigning champions and now holders of a record they don’t
want - owners of the heaviest defeat ever suffered by incumbent Super Bowl holders.
The Saints’ Drew Brees, who turns 40 in January, scored four touchdowns to leave the Eagles with a 4-6 record and his
team with a yet another NFL record - being the first to score 40+ points in as many as six of their 10 games.
Brees was, of course, the MVP quarter-back in Miami, Florida when the Saints won their only Super Bowl, in February
2010, defeating the Colts. And the NFL of course loves a stirring narrative. But with the Patriots, Steelers and Bears among
those very much in the chasing pack as December approaches, that’ll likely be the case whatever.

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NFL ANALYSISNATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUERATIO BETWEEN HIGHEST PAID TEAM AND LOWEST PAID: 1.38 TO 1

FOUR OF 18 LEAGUES HAVE A ‘FAIRER’ SPREAD, WITH A LOWER GAP; 13 OF 18 ARE LESS ‘FAIR’.
THE NFL REMAINS THE FAIREST OF THE MAJOR NORTH AMERICAN LEAGUES IN WAGE DISTRIBUTION.

ON BALANCEThe NFL draft, along with the salary cap, and an algorithm-based scheduling formula that makes Goldbach’s
Conjecture seem straightforward, all contribute to assist competitive balance, as does the randomness-enhancing
play-off system.
Nine different teams have won the Super Bowl over the past 10 years - the Eagles, Patriots, Broncos, Seahawks,
Ravens, Giants, Packers, Saints and Steelers. Only the Patriots (2017 and 2015) have been multiple winners in thattime. Another five teams - the Falcons, Panthers, 49ers, Colts and Cardinals - have been runners-up at least once inthe period for a total of 14 different finalists of a maximum possible 20.
Only four leagues of 18 have a ‘fairer’ pay ratio between the best paid and worst paid teams, and while averagesalaries in the NFL still trail two of the other major US leagues (the NBA and MLB), they are now ahead of the NHL.

sportingintelligence

AVERAGE FIRST-TEAM PAY PER GAMELEAGUE		GAMES PERREGULAR SEASON

AVG £ PER
PLAYER PER GAME

AVG $ PER
PLAYER PER GAME

IPL

14

£274,624*$361,350*NFL

16£138,354$182,047

Premier League

38£78,703$103,558NBA

82£72,023$94,768

La Liga

38£57,923$76,215

Bundesliga

34£41,076$54,047

Serie A

38

£39,997$52,628

CSL

30£26,640$35,053

Ligue 1

38

£26,047$34,272

NHL

82£25,800$33,948

MLB

162£21,171$27,857

AFL

22£8,950$11,776

MLS

34£8,388$11,037

J-League34£7,042$9,266NPB

143£4,703$6,188

Scottish Premiership38£4,638$6,102CFL

18£3,889$5,117WNBA

34£1,744$2,295*When 7-week contracts extrapolated to annual, pro rata

A figure of ‘only’ 6.9 per cent of NFL players are earning $10m+ this season (against 29.6 per cent in the NBA and15.3 per cent in MLB) but given the larger number of NFL players that still means 117 NFL players on active rosters
at kick-off in 2018 were on $10m+ contracts for this year.

THE MONEY TALK

If the money talks, the Jaguars, Vikings and Bucs would be among those feeling confident about a berth in the postseason with more than half the regular season gone at the time of writing. But they are not. At the other end, theColts, Bills and Cowboys would have been fretting for their campaigns before a game was played. Which wasn’t thecase.

TOTAL ATTENDANCE,
MOST RECENTCOMPLETED NFL
SEASONFOR THOSE FANSALONE TO MEET THATSALARY BILL, EVERY
TICKET WOULD COST:

17,255,759

AVERAGE 67,405 PER GAMETOTAL FIRST-TEAM
SALARIES, CURRENTNFL SEASON£217.57 EACH

£3,754,381,582

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LA LIGA ANALYSISAVERAGE FIRST-TEAM PAY, LA LIGA, 2018-19 SEASONSPANISH TOP-DIVISION FOOTBALL

20172018

TOTAL SALARIES:£1,045,502,196$1,375,671,789
AVERAGE SALARY PER PLAYER:£2,201,057$2,896,151

20
TEAMS

PLAYERS

475

AVERAGE SALARY RANKING:

No6 LEAGUEMEDIAN SALARY:£923,000$1,214,483

RANK
TEAM
			

AVG ANNUALPER PLAYER, £AVG ANNUALPER PLAYER, $		

1Barcelona£10,454,259$13,755,714

2

Real Madrid£8,089,582$10,644,272

3

Atletico Madrid£6,155,066$8,098,836

4

Valencia£2,861,015$3,764,524

5Sevilla£2,776,461$3,653,267

6

Athletic Bilbao£1,762,760$2,319,440

7Villarreal£1,670,760$2,198,386

8Real Sociedad£1,487,109$1,956,738

9

Celta Vigo

£1,289,828$1,697,155

10Real Betis£1,289,597$1,696,851

11

Espanyol£1,204,424$1,584,781

12

Leganes£831,168$1,093,651

13

Alaves£796,575$1,048,133

14

Girona£740,629$974,520

15

Eibar

£722,251$950,337

16

Getafe£695,493$915,130

17

Levante£675,414$888,710

18

Rayo Vallecano£626,544$824,407

19

Huesca£551,223$725,299

20

Valladolid£547,993$721,050

THE STATE OF PLAY

La Liga 2018-19 kicked off with a terrific burst of chaos that saw freak results on most matchdays in the opening threemonths. A title race looked like it might be shockingly open after 12 games had been played. At that stage Barcelona
were on 24 points, just four ahead of sixth-placed Real Madrid on 20 points, and in between them were Sevilla (23),
Atletico (23), Alaves (23) and Espanyol (21).
Real Madrid kicked off their campaign after a turbulent summer of their own making. First they alienated much of Spainby announcing Julen Lopetegui as Zinedine Zidane’s successor - while he was managing Spain at the World Cup in Russia.
This led to Lopetegui’s dismissal as Spain’s manager and ratcheted up the pressure on him to be an instant hit as Real
Madrid’s new boss, as if that pressure by itself were not enough. Real then followed their Lopetegui ‘coup’ by selling theirstar man and best player Cristiano Ronaldo to Juventus, and after four wins and a draw in their opening five games (not allof them convincing), they lost four of their next five (drawing the other), crashing to defeats to Sevilla, Alaves, Levante (athome!) and to Barca (5-1!) in the Clasico.
Barca were better but still suffered defeats in their opening dozen games to Leganes and to Real Betis (at home!).
In financial terms, the La Liga clubs collectively are paying average basic wages almost a third more now than at this timeat the start of last season, a big jump that closes the gap on the Premier League ahead - but still leaves a huge difference.
And it should be stressed that much of the rise - like much of the total wage spend in the division - is down to wage
growth at the three richest clubs, Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico. While the Premier League pays most overall, La
Liga clubs combined just pip their English rivals in the number of individuals earning a basic $10m+ this season, with 30
players at that level (£7.6m) in Spain against 28 in England.

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LA LIGA ANALYSISSPANISH TOP-DIVISION FOOTBALLRATIO BETWEEN HIGHEST PAID TEAM AND LOWEST PAID: 19.1 TO 1

FOURTEEN OF 18 LEAGUES HAVE A ‘FAIRER’ SPREAD, WITH A LOWER GAP; THREE OF 18 ARE LESS ‘FAIR’.
THE WAGE GAP FROM TOP TO BOTTOM IN LA LIGA IS GROWING; LAST SEASON IT WAS 13.4 TO 1.

ON BALANCE

The gulf between Spain’s two giants and the rest is well known but if there were any doubt then you need only lookat the official prescribed budget maximums for each club. Taking into account the forecast income for each club, the
LFP, aka La Liga, makes an announcement each Autumn to set limits on spending. This year the list was published on
13 September. At one extreme Barcelona are allowed to spend £560m this season, followed by Real Madrid (£501m)
and Atletico Madrid (£259m). At the other extreme, Valladolid can spend £21m, Huesca £26m and Rayo Vallecano£29m. That is the competitive balance in a nutshell.
This budget includes all spending ‘in relation to players, the manager, assistant manager and fitness coach … andon the reserves, the youth system and other areas [including] fixed and variable wages, social security, collective
bonuses, acquisition costs (including commissions for agents).’

sportingintelligence

AVERAGE FIRST-TEAM PAY PER GAMELEAGUE		GAMES PERREGULAR SEASON

AVG £ PER
PLAYER PER GAME

AVG $ PER
PLAYER PER GAME

IPL

14

£274,624*$361,350*NFL

16£138,354$182,047

Premier League

38£78,703$103,558NBA

82£72,023$94,768

La Liga

38£57,923$76,215

Bundesliga

34£41,076$54,047

Serie A

38

£39,997$52,628

CSL

30£26,640$35,053

Ligue 1

38

£26,047$34,272

NHL

82£25,800$33,948

MLB

162£21,171$27,857

AFL

22£8,950$11,776

MLS

34£8,388$11,037

J-League34£7,042$9,266NPB

143£4,703$6,188

Scottish Premiership38£4,638$6,102CFL

18£3,889$5,117WNBA

34£1,744$2,295*When 7-week contracts extrapolated to annual, pro rata

Barcelona’s allowable spending alone is more than that of the 13 ‘smallest’ La Liga clubs this season combined.
Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid together account for more than 56 per cent of all budget, with the other17 clubs combined having just under 44 per cent.
On this basis it is almost a surprise there have been as many as three La Liga winners over the past decade, Atletico
winning from Barca in 2013-14. In the nine other seasons it was either Barcelona or Real Madrid winning, usuallyfollowed by the other.

THE MONEY TALK

If the money talks, then Barcelona will win their seventh title in 10 years, with Real Madrid as runners-up and Atleticoin third place with Valencia and Sevilla vying for fourth. At the other end, Valladolid, Huesca and Rayo Vallecano
would be going down although Levante, Getafe, Eibar, Girona. Alaves and Leganes all join them in having first-teambasic pay below £1m a year.

TOTAL ATTENDANCE,
MOST RECENTCOMPLETED LA LIGA
SEASONFOR THOSE FANSALONE TO MEET THATSALARY BILL, EVERY
TICKET WOULD COST:

10,209,924

AVERAGE 26,868 PER GAMETOTAL FIRST-TEAM
SALARIES, CURRENTLA LIGA SEASON£102.40 EACH

£1,045,502,196

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NHL ANALYSISAVERAGE FIRST-TEAM PAY, NHL, 2018-19 SEASONNATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE

20182019

31TEAMS

TOTAL SALARIES:AVERAGE SALARY RANKING:AVERAGE SALARY PER PLAYER:MEDIAN SALARY:£1,508,434,704$1,984,798,383£2,115,617$2,783,728

PLAYERS

713

No7 LEAGUE£1,481,988$1,950,000

THE STATE OF PLAY

The 2018-19 season is the 101st in NHL playing history and includes 31 teams for a second time following the introduction
last season of newcomers Vegas Golden Knights, who reached the Stanley Cup finals in their debut campaign. They lost
4-1 to the Washington Capitals, the team the GSSS 2017 said would win if the money talked. (Full disclosure, not every
team did exactly as the money said. Obviously). Despite the extra team, the season remains an 82-game venture from
October to April followed by the Stanley Cup play-offs and then an ultimate shot at glory for two franchises.

RANK
TEAM
			

AVG ANNUALPER PLAYER, £

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31

£2,686,930£2,668,757£2,462,790£2,454,552£2,453,341£2,394,083£2,340,552£2,333,365£2,293,465£2,274,465£2,274,176£2,261,231£2,229,196£2,217,052£2,211,352£2,197,970£2,132,213£2,126,843£2,061,335£2,048,200£1,999,296£1,912,226£1,888,930£1,886,122£1,866,874£1,855,309£1,842,091£1,796,739£1,663,904£1,582,948£1,168,335

Los Angeles Kings
Minnesota Wild
Pittsburgh Penguins
Nashville Predators
Winnipeg Jets
Calgary Flames
St Louis Blues
San Jose Sharks
Buffalo Sabres
Washington Capitals
Philadelphia Flyers
Florida Panthers
Colorado Avalanche
New York Rangers
Detroit Red Wings
Tampa Bay Lightning
Vegas Golden Knights
New York Islanders
Anaheim Ducks
Dallas Stars
Columbus Blue Jackets
Boston Bruins
Carolina Hurricanes
Chicago Blackhawks
Ottawa Senators
Edmonton Oilers
New Jersey Devils
Arizona Coyotes
Montreal Canadiens
Vancouver Canucks
Toronto Maple Leafs

AVG ANNUALPER PLAYER, $$3,535,435$3,511,522$3,240,513$3,229,674$3,228,080$3,150,109$3,079,674$3,070,217$3,017,717$2,992,717$2,992,337$2,975,304$2,933,152$2,917,174$2,909,674$2,892,065$2,805,543$2,798,478$2,712,283$2,695,000$2,630,652$2,516,087$2,485,435$2,481,739$2,456,413$2,441,196$2,423,804$2,364,130$2,189,348$2,082,826$1,537,283

In June this year the National Hockey League Players’ Association announced the 2018-19 salary cap at $79.5m per teamfor 2018-19 and we continue to be grateful to them for the official salary data used to compile the NHL numbers for thisreport. In the USA, only in football (soccer, via the MLS Players’ Union) and in ice hockey are detailed salary numbers foreach player formally and officially declared.
Before this NHL season began, their were two exhibition games between the Calgary Flames and the Boston Bruins in
China - the second time after 2017 that NHL teams had played in China. The first game was in Shenzhen and the secondin Beijing. The NHL’s rationale last season was an attempt to expand its global footprint, in Olympic season, while also
exploiting interest in winter sports following the decision to send the Winter Olympics of 2022 to Beijing. China is ahuge potential market and the success of the 2017 fixtures meant the exercise was repeated. A further two pre-season
overseas games were played in Europe in October 2018, with the Devils playing local team SC Bern in Switzerland and theEdmonton Oilers playing Kolner Haie in Cologne.
The NHL is in the eighth year of a 10-year TV deal with NBC and in the fifth year of a 12-year deal with Sportsnet and
TVA Sports in Canada. Given that TV new deals often give salaries a boost but the main NHL deal is tailing off, you might
expect flat wages. In fact uniquely among the 18 leagues in this GSSS, the NHL average pay comes out as slightly down
on 2017. This may be due to a quirky combination of (i) a few big players not being in the opening 23-man rosters and (ii)some big new contracts being agreed but not being applicable for 2018-19.
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NHL ANALYSISNATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUERATIO BETWEEN HIGHEST PAID TEAM AND LOWEST PAID: 2.3 TO 1

SIX OF 18 LEAGUES HAVE A ‘FAIRER’ SPREAD, WITH A LOWER GAP; 11 OF 18 ARE LESS ‘FAIR’.
NHL WAGE DISPARITY IS GROWING (IT WAS 1.6 TO 1 LAST YEAR) AS WAGES OVERALL ARE DIPPING.

ON BALANCE

The difference between the average LA Kings salary at the top of the NHL pay list (£2.7m) and the average Maple
Leafs salary at the bottom (£1.17m) is relatively small, but bigger than last year, and less ‘fair’ than six other leagues
in this report. The distribution of money among the individual players is ‘fair’ - with the highest earning 10 per cent ofplayers making ‘only’ 26 per cent of all the money, which is down from 28 per cent last year. In the most ‘top heavy’league in this survey, the Chinese Super League, it’s more than 67 per cent.
The recent spread of honours has been reasonable rather than excellent, with five different Stanley Cup winners overthe past decade, and three teams multiple champions in that time: the Penguins on three, Blackhawks on three andKings on two. But then there have been an additional nine different runners-up, so 14 teams contesting the Cup froma theoretical maximum of 20.

sportingintelligence

AVERAGE FIRST-TEAM PAY PER GAMELEAGUE		GAMES PERREGULAR SEASON

AVG £ PER
PLAYER PER GAME

AVG $ PER
PLAYER PER GAME

IPL

14

£274,624*$361,350*NFL

16£138,354$182,047

Premier League

38£78,703$103,558NBA

82£72,023$94,768

La Liga

38£57,923$76,215

Bundesliga

34£41,076$54,047

Serie A

38

£39,997$52,628

CSL

30£26,640$35,053

Ligue 1

38

£26,047$34,272

NHL

82£25,800$33,948

MLB

162£21,171$27,857

AFL

22£8,950$11,776

MLS

34£8,388$11,037

J-League34£7,042$9,266NPB

143£4,703$6,188

Scottish Premiership38£4,638$6,102CFL

18£3,889$5,117WNBA

34£1,744$2,295*When 7-week contracts extrapolated to annual, pro rata

THE MONEY TALK

If the money alone talks, then the LA Kings, Minnesota Wild, Pittsburgh Penguins and Nashville Predators will beleading the charge come April, while the Maple Leafs, Vancouver Canucks, Montreal Canadiens and Arizona Coyotes
will be experiencing the play-offs from the outside. Two seasons ago, nine of the top 10 best-paid teams made theplay-offs, and just three of the 10 worst-paid teams but last year was more random.

TOTAL ATTENDANCE,
MOST RECENTCOMPLETED NHL
SEASONFOR THOSE FANSALONE TO MEET THATSALARY BILL, EVERY
TICKET WOULD COST:

22,174,263

AVERAGE 17,446 PER GAMETOTAL FIRST-TEAM
SALARIES, CURRENTNHL SEASON£68.03 EACH

£1,508,434,704

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SERIE A ANALYSISAVERAGE FIRST-TEAM PAY, SERIE A, 2017-18 SEASONITALIAN TOP-DIVISION FOOTBALL

20172018

TOTAL SALARIES:£829,857,125$1,091,926,005
AVERAGE SALARY PER PLAYER:£1,519,885$1,999,864

20
TEAMS

PLAYERS

546

AVERAGE SALARY RANKING:

No8 LEAGUEMEDIAN SALARY:£885,000$1,164,483

RANK
TEAM
			

AVG ANNUALPER PLAYER, £AVG ANNUALPER PLAYER, $		

1Juventus£6,726,615$8,850,879

2Internazionale£3,706,739$4,877,327

3

Milan

£3,550,172$4,671,317

4

Roma

£2,842,212$3,739,782

5

Napoli£2,820,938$3,711,790

6

Lazio

£1,570,161$2,066,018

7Torino£1,277,940$1,681,513

8

Fiorentina£1,063,702$1,399,619

9Sampdoria£973,500$1,280,931

10

Bologna£943,491$1,241,446

11Cagliari£853,730$1,123,338

12

Genoa

£797,593$1,049,472

13

Atalanta£759,625$999,515

14

Sassuolo£754,284$992,488

15

Parma

£580,336$763,606

16

Udinese£579,828$762,937

17

SPAL£534,052$702,705

18

Chievo£531,000$698,690

19

Frosinone£516,250$679,282

20

Empoli£419,866$552,460

THE STATE OF PLAY

Juventus landed a record-extending seventh consecutive Serie A title in 2017-18 to take their all-time tally of titles to 34
and stretch their lead as Italy’s most frequent champions over Milan and Inter (both on 18). Whether they will make it toeight straight remains to be seen but after 12 games played before the November international break they were six points
clear without hitting top gear often. At that stage Napoli were in second place (28 points) with Internazionale in third (25),Lazio fourth (22), Milan fifth (21) and Roma sixth (21). Those six clubs are also the six best-paid in Serie A by average basic
salary by this GSSS’s calculations, albeit in a slightly different order. The bottom trio after 12 games - Empoli, Frosinone
and Chievo - are also Serie A’s lowest paid teams this season.
Money was front and centre as Cristiano Ronaldo joined Juventus in the summer from Real Madrid to become the mostexpensive player ever signed by a top-flight Italian club, on the biggest wages paid by an Italian club, in a move that
influenced share price positively (at least initially) in the way that no other signing has done at an Italian club.
Money - an insufficiency of it - was the root cause of a major headache for Chievo in September when they were docked
three points and fined €200,000 after being found guilty of false accounting. They had been accused of creating false
profits via bogus transfer deals with Cesena in the fourth tier in order to have the funds to be eligible to participate in Serie
A. The punishment was seen as lenient in some quarters. (Chievo’s nickname, Mussi Volanti, or ‘Flying Donkeys’ derives
from the Serie B 1989-90 season when cross-city rivals Hellas Verona taunted them that donkeys would fly before Chievo
reached Serie A).
Returning to financial issues, average basic pay across Serie A has risen by 16 per cent to £885,000 this season, driven by
hikes at big clubs, where the best-paying six clubs (of 20) account for 65 per cent of all wages.

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SERIE A ANALYSISITALIAN TOP-DIVISION FOOTBALLRATIO BETWEEN HIGHEST PAID TEAM AND LOWEST PAID: 16 TO 1

TWELVE OF 18 LEAGUES HAVE A ‘FAIRER’ SPREAD, WITH A LOWER GAP; FIVE OF 18 ARE LESS ‘FAIR’.
SERIE A IS POLARISED IN WAGE TERMS AND THE SMALLEST CLUBS HAVE NO CHANCE OF THE TITLE.

ON BALANCE

The difference between the average Juventus salary at the top of the Serie A pay list (which has soared to £6.7m
largely but not only due to Cristiano Ronaldo) and the average Empoli salary at the bottom (£420,000) is huge.
Juventus could take their basic first-team pay budget and pay the wages of every player in the bottom nine teams
and still have £6m to spare. Cristiano Ronaldo’s salary alone, pre-tax, would be enough to pay the salaries of all theplayers at any of the clubs outside Italy’s top six.
Serie A has has three different winners in the past 10 years, with Milan winning the title before Juve’s seven in a row,then Inter winning five in a row before that. That trio have won all the titles in the past 17 years between them. And
only two further clubs, Roma and Napoli, have finished in the top two in the same period. So five teams have split
the combined 36 top-two places available since 2000-01.

sportingintelligence

AVERAGE FIRST-TEAM PAY PER GAMELEAGUE		GAMES PERREGULAR SEASON

AVG £ PER
PLAYER PER GAME

AVG $ PER
PLAYER PER GAME

IPL

14

£274,624*$361,350*NFL

16£138,354$182,047

Premier League

38£78,703$103,558NBA

82£72,023$94,768

La Liga

38£57,923$76,215

Bundesliga

34£41,076$54,047

Serie A

38

£39,997$52,628

CSL

30£26,640$35,053

Ligue 1

38

£26,047$34,272

NHL

82£25,800$33,948

MLB

162£21,171$27,857

AFL

22£8,950$11,776

MLS

34£8,388$11,037

J-League34£7,042$9,266NPB

143£4,703$6,188

Scottish Premiership38£4,638$6,102CFL

18£3,889$5,117WNBA

34£1,744$2,295*When 7-week contracts extrapolated to annual, pro rata

THE MONEY TALK

If the money talks, then Juventus will claim a record-extending eighth straight title with Inter, Milan, Roma, Napoli
and Lazio in the top six. It really would be zero surprise to see Juve win and then a final top six comprising the otherfive in some order. On wages alone then Empoli, Frosinone and Chievo are for the chop. SPAL, Udinese and Parmaare not spending much more and others could be vulnerable.

TOTAL ATTENDANCE,
MOST RECENTCOMPLETED SERIE A
SEASONFOR THOSE FANSALONE TO MEET THATSALARY BILL, EVERY
TICKET WOULD COST:

9,411,539

AVERAGE 24,767 PER GAMETOTAL FIRST-TEAM
SALARIES, CURRENTSERIE A SEASON£88.17 EACH

£829,857,12570 			

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BUNDESLIGA ANALYSISGERMAN TOP-DIVISION FOOTBALL

20182019

TOTAL SALARIES:£715,046,592$940,858,306
AVERAGE SALARY PER PLAYER:£1,396,575$1,837,614

18
TEAMS

PLAYERS512

AVERAGE SALARY RANKING:

No9 LEAGUEMEDIAN SALARY:£702,000$923,692

AVERAGE FIRST-TEAM PAY, BUNDESLIGA, 2018-19 SEASON
RANK
TEAM
			

AVG ANNUALPER PLAYER, £AVG ANNUALPER PLAYER, $		

1

Bayern Munich£6,352,435$8,358,534

2

Borussia Dortmund£3,206,769$4,219,466

3

Bayer Leverkusen£2,218,840$2,919,550

4

Schalke£2,128,522$2,800,709

5

Wolfsburg£1,933,996$2,544,751

6

RB Leipzig£1,561,393$2,054,481

7

Borussia Monchengladbach£1,307,429$1,720,315

8

Hoffenheim£1,191,517$1,567,798

9

Stuttgart£1,188,417$1,563,719

10Eintracht Frankfurt£910,000$1,197,378

11

Werder Bremen£907,987$1,194,729

12Hertha Berlin£831,740$1,094,403

13

Mainz

£623,161$819,956

14

Hannover 96£592,172$779,180

15

Augsburg£565,776$744,448

16

Fortuna Dusseldorf£506,567$666,540

17SC Freiburg£447,750$589,150

18

FC Nurnberg£309,824$407,666

THE STATE OF PLAY

Bayern, Bayern, Bayern, Bayern, Bayern, Bayern. Six league titles in a row. Seven in the last 10 years. Thirteen in the last
20. Twenty-seven titles from 53 completed Bundesliga seasons in the league’s current format. More than half the honours
annexed by one team. Bayern Munich are the biggest, richest and strongest club by far in Germany over half a century
and more, with double the resources (at least) of their nearest challengers. And yet there could be something like a title
race afoot in Germany’s top division (at the time of writing).
With 11 of 34 games played by the international break of mid-November, the leaders were Borussia Dortmund (on 27
points) with Borussia Mönchengladbach next (23), then RB Leipzig (22) and Eintracht Frankfurt (20) before Bayern (also 20).
This time last year a reinvigorated Bayern under Jupp Heynckes were already back at the summit before the November
break after an early managerial sacking.
But new manager Niko Kovac has not managed that and the Bayern hiccup by October led to chairman Karl-Heinz
Rummenigge and president Uli Hoeness calling an extraordinary press conference to accuse the media of “disrespect”.
They alleged the press had broken the German constitution with their criticism. “We will no longer accept this recent
kind of media coverage,” said Rummenigge.
Yet Dortmund under Lucien Favre were the good news story that deserved media coverage as their thrusting young bucks
went unbeaten in their first 11 league games, England’s 18-year-old Jadon Sancho and the USA’s 20-year-old Christian
Pulisic among them.

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BUNDESLIGA ANALYSISGERMAN TOP-DIVISION FOOTBALLRATIO BETWEEN HIGHEST PAID TEAM AND LOWEST PAID: 20.5 TO 1

FIFTEEN OF 18 LEAGUES HAVE A ‘FAIRER’ SPREAD, WITH A LOWER GAP; TWO OF 18 ARE LESS ‘FAIR’.
THE WAGE GULF BETWEEN THE RICHEST AND POOREST IN THE BUNDESLIGA IS INCREASING.

ON BALANCE

The difference between the average Bayern Munich salary at the top of the Bundesliga pay list (£6.4m) and theaverage Nurnberg salary at the bottom (£310,000) is the starkest sign of a great divide. New TV money last year
seemed to be one reason that top-to-bottom ratio was dropping to ‘only’ 11.6 to one after being 14 to 1 the season
before season. But this proved not to be the case and the differential continues to grow: Bayern’s strength is now 20
times that of the Bundesliga’s weakest link.
Our survey shows no fewer than half of the 18 Bundesliga clubs now having average first-team pay of £1m or more,
down from 10 last season but still up from five in 2016. None of the three lowest spenders that year averaged morethan £350,000 per year per player while this year the penultimate figure is £447,750 and the third bottom more thanhalf a million. The average salary is up 12.6 per cent year-on-year (in pounds) and while some of that is currency
fluctuation, the new TV deal is making a difference.

sportingintelligence

AVERAGE FIRST-TEAM PAY PER GAMELEAGUE		GAMES PERREGULAR SEASON

AVG £ PER
PLAYER PER GAME

AVG $ PER
PLAYER PER GAME

IPL

14

£274,624*$361,350*NFL

16£138,354$182,047

Premier League

38£78,703$103,558NBA

82£72,023$94,768

La Liga

38£57,923$76,215

Bundesliga

34£41,076$54,047

Serie A

38

£39,997$52,628

CSL

30£26,640$35,053

Ligue 1

38

£26,047$34,272

NHL

82£25,800$33,948

MLB

162£21,171$27,857

AFL

22£8,950$11,776

MLS

34£8,388$11,037

J-League34£7,042$9,266NPB

143£4,703$6,188

Scottish Premiership38£4,638$6,102CFL

18£3,889$5,117WNBA

34£1,744$2,295*When 7-week contracts extrapolated to annual, pro rata

Enough difference to topple Bayern? Maybe. Possibly. Unlikely. No. Or perhaps yes.

THE MONEY TALK

If the money talks, then it’s Bayern for six in a row ahead of Dortmund, Wolfsburg and Schalke, with Leverkusen,
Leipzig and Hoffenheim in the top seven. Finances alone would dictate that Freiburg, Hannover, Augsburg, Stuttgart,
Mainz and Werder Bremen will be scrapping - although the season hasn’t conformed to expectation.

TOTAL ATTENDANCE,
MOST RECENTCOMPLETED BUNDESLIGASEASONFOR THOSE FANSALONE TO MEET THATSALARY BILL, EVERY
TICKET WOULD COST:

13,661,796

AVERAGE 44,646 PER GAMETOTAL FIRST-TEAM
SALARIES, CURRENT
BUNDESLIGA SEASON£52.34 EACH

£715,046,592

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LIGUE 1 ANALYSISAVERAGE FIRST-TEAM PAY, LIGUE 1, 2018-19 SEASONFRENCH TOP-DIVISION FOOTBALL

20182019

TOTAL SALARIES:£544,376,562$716,290,680
AVERAGE SALARY PER PLAYER:£989,776$1,302,347

20
TEAMS

PLAYERS550

AVERAGE SALARY RANKING:

No10 LEAGUEMEDIAN SALARY:£461,760$607,584

RANK
TEAM
			

AVG ANNUALPER PLAYER, £AVG ANNUALPER PLAYER, $		

1

PSG£6,105,840$8,034,064

2

Marseille£2,133,900$2,807,786

3

Lyon

£1,572,519$2,069,120

4

Monaco£1,564,781$2,058,938

5

Lille

£990,020$1,302,668

6Saint-Etienne£814,247$1,071,386

7Rennes£808,119$1,063,322

8

Nice

£730,119$960,690

9Bordeaux£615,214$809,498

10

Nantes£568,058$747,451

11

Toulouse£523,529$688,859

12

Guingamp£422,124$555,431

13

Angers£417,542$549,402

14

Dijon

£404,651$532,440

15

Strasbourg£404,226$531,881

16

Montpellier£402,239$529,266

17

Caen£383,993$505,258

18

Reims

£381,834$502,417

19

Amiens£242,753$319,415

20

Nimes

£229,440$301,897

THE STATE OF PLAY

After Paris Saint-Germain obliterated the transfer world record by paying €222m for Neymar from Barcelona in summer
2017, they romped to the Ligue 1 title. They cruised it by a 13-point margin from Monaco, scoring 108 goals, with Edinson
Cavani (26 league goals), Neymar (19), Kylian Mbappé (13) and Angel di Maria (11) all in double figures. When you’re
spending massive sums on players and wages and are able to strip your closest domestic rivals - recently Monaco - of theirbest players (exhibit A being Mbappé, who moved permanently to PSG in summer 2018 for €145m and add-ons), you’relikely going to keep crushing the pack.
And so it seems to be transpiring in 2018-19. Mbappé returned from his Russian summer as a teenage World Cup winnerwith France. He and Neymar and PSG’s other illustrious cast under coach Thomas Tuchel won their first 13 straight league
games (at the time of writing), a record. This isn’t a competition in any meaningful sense - it’s a procession. And given that
PSG’s only recent serious challengers Monaco spent the early part of the season reeling from off-pitch turmoil and on-pitch
failure, it wasn’t looking like that anyone would stop PSG winning a sixth title in seven years.
PSG are still caught up in renewed allegations around possible breaches of Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules, although nothing
will happen to impact their participation in the tournaments they are contesting this season.
Yet for all the massive investment poured into PSG from Qatar in recent times, our calculations suggest PSG’s basic
first-team squad wage bill has actually dropped a little this year. The biggest hitters remain on the payroll in the form of
Neymar, Cavani and Mbappé but some significant wages were shed with the summer departures of Thiago Motta (retired),Hatem Ben Arfa (end of contract), Javier Pastore (sold), Yuri Berchiche (sold) and Gonçalo Guedes (sold) to name just five.
Monaco’s meltdown and continuing sale of players means they have been usurped as Ligue 1’s second highest payers by
not just Marseille but Lyon too. But there remains the same sort of gulf between PSG and the also-rans in this regard, PSG
paying about three times as much as their closest financial ‘challengers’.

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LIGUE 1 ANALYSISFRENCH TOP-DIVISION FOOTBALLRATIO BETWEEN HIGHEST PAID TEAM AND LOWEST PAID: 26.6 TO 1

ALL OF THE OTHER LEAGUES HAVE A ‘FAIRER’ SPREAD, WITH A LOWER GAP; NONE OF 18 ARE LESS ‘FAIR’.
PSG STARTED AS THE MOST CERTAIN FAVOURITES IN ALL OUR LEAGUES; LIGUE 1 ISN’T A COMPETITION.

ON BALANCE

The difference between the average PSG salary at the top of the Ligue 1 pay list (£6.1m) and the average Nîmes
salary at the bottom (£229,000) is bigger in relative terms than that the difference between the best and worst paidteams in any league in this report.
Actually, while Nîmes are Ligue 1’s lowest payers by our metric, they are not so far behind a posse of other ‘small
budget’ clubs. Nine teams are paying an average lower than £500,000 a year with Amiens, Reims, Caen, Montpellier,
Strasbourg, Dijon, Angers and Guingamp all in that bracket. Their squads are each operating on basic wages
combined of £12m or less - as PSG spend closer to £170m with potentially big bonuses on top.
PSG will spend more on wages than the 13 smallest Ligue 1 budgets combined. The best paid 10 per cent of Ligue 1
players (dominated by PSG players) earn 52 per cent of all the division’s wages.

sportingintelligence

AVERAGE FIRST-TEAM PAY PER GAMELEAGUE		GAMES PERREGULAR SEASON

AVG £ PER
PLAYER PER GAME

AVG $ PER
PLAYER PER GAME

IPL

14

£274,624*$361,350*NFL

16£138,354$182,047

Premier League

38£78,703$103,558NBA

82£72,023$94,768

La Liga

38£57,923$76,215

Bundesliga

34£41,076$54,047

Serie A

38

£39,997$52,628

CSL

30£26,640$35,053

Ligue 1

38

£26,047$34,272

NHL

82£25,800$33,948

MLB

162£21,171$27,857

AFL

22£8,950$11,776

MLS

34£8,388$11,037

J-League34£7,042$9,266NPB

143£4,703$6,188

Scottish Premiership38£4,638$6,102CFL

18£3,889$5,117WNBA

34£1,744$2,295*When 7-week contracts extrapolated to annual, pro rata

Money doesn’t guarantee success: the 2016-17 season showed that. But it influences it hugely. In the five seasons
before the oil wealth flowed into PSG, Ligue 1 had five different winners: in reverse order Montpellier, Lille, Marseille,
Bordeaux, Lyon. In the seasons since? PSG, PSG, PSG, PSG, Monaco (blip), PSG and PSG (champions elect).

THE MONEY TALK

If the money talks, PSG will win the title at a canter. And three from ‘small budget teams’ will go down.

TOTAL ATTENDANCE,
MOST RECENTCOMPLETED LIGUE 1
SEASONFOR THOSE FANSALONE TO MEET THATSALARY BILL, EVERY
TICKET WOULD COST:

8,559,056

AVERAGE 22,524 PER GAMETOTAL FIRST-TEAM
SALARIES, CURRENT
LIGUE 1 SEASON£63.60 EACH

£544,376,562

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CSL ANALYSISAVERAGE FIRST-TEAM PAY, CSL, 2018 SEASONCHINESE SUPER LEAGUE FOOTBALL

2018

TOTAL SALARIES:£390,814,796$514,234,109
AVERAGE SALARY PER PLAYER:£799,212$1,051,603

16
TEAMS

PLAYERS

489

AVERAGE SALARY RANKING:

No11 LEAGUEMEDIAN SALARY:£260,000$342,108

RANK
TEAM
			

AVG ANNUALPER PLAYER, £AVG ANNUALPER PLAYER, $		

1Guangzhou Evergrande£1,664,792$2,190,533

2

Shanghai SIPG

£1,658,968$2,182,870

3Hebei China Fortune£1,628,774$2,143,141

4Jiangsu Suning£1,057,333$1,391,239

5Tianjin Quanjian£945,630$1,244,259

6

Beijing Guoan£918,667$1,208,782

7Shangdong Luneng£893,310$1,175,417

8

Shanghai Shenua£731,355$962,317

9

Changchun Yatai£655,871$862,995

10

Dalian Yifang£531,911$699,889

11

Tianjin Teda

£481,867$634,040

12

Guangzhou R&F£431,097$567,237

13

Guizhou Hengfeng£351,419$462,398

14

Henan Jianye£328,774$432,601

15

Chongqing Lifan£290,194$381,837

16

Beijing Renhe£274,800$361,582

THE STATE OF PLAY

The CSL continues to consider ways to tackle the financial insanity of recent years and plans are in place to introduce
a salary cap, probably from 2021. The most likely structure would be based around turnover, with wages limited to a
maximum 75 per cent of income, but until it materialises, nobody will be sure.
It has been obvious for some time that many of the CSL clubs must be haemorrhaging money; there is no evidence
that current revenues from tickets, TV or commercial deals can pay the massive wage bills of the biggest spenders. But
quantifying the precise state of the league’s finances is impossible when there is close to no transparency from most clubs.
The recent official financial reports of Guangzhou Evergrande have provided insight into the remarkable losses at thatclub, CSL champions for seven straight years from 2011 to 2017 before being runners-up to Shanghai SIPG this year.
Evergrande are co-owned by the Evergrande Group (whose chairman is Xu Jiayin, one of China’s richest multi-billionaires)and the Alibaba Group (exec chair, Jack Ma, ditto), companies with stupendous resources. The 2016 report, in Chinese,
can be found in the resources section of www.sportingintelligence.com, which is here: https://tinyurl.com/ycua4uvz
The 2017 report is just as long, complex and fascinating and the upshot is this: China’s wealthiest and most successful club
by a mile had income in 2017 of about £63m but made a loss of £118m due to costs of more than £180m, of which thewage bill was more than £100m.
Our GSSS 2018 survey finds basic average first-team pay of £1.66m at Evergrande, for a total first-team (basic) pot of
about £50m so the total wage bill (all staff, inclusive of bonuses and benefits) will likely be £100m+ again. The situations at
Shanghai SIPG and Hebei China Fortune look similar.
The problem with a salary cap is that it won’t be fully supported by all the clubs. Some of them can afford to have a
popular asset losing large sums, at least in the medium term, because against their owners’ wider riches, the losses are
small. Caps may also start to impinge on ability to attract good foreign talent at a time when the CSL wants to keep hiring
top players.
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CSL ANALYSISCHINESE SUPER LEAGUE FOOTBALLRATIO BETWEEN HIGHEST PAID TEAM AND LOWEST PAID: 6.06 TO 1TEN OF 18 LEAGUES HAVE A ‘FAIRER’ SPREAD, WITH A LOWER GAP; SEVEN OF 18 ARE LESS ‘FAIR’.
THE GAP BETWEEN RICHEST AND POOREST HAS FALLEN FROM 16 TO 1; MORE TEAMS ARE CONTENDING.

ON BALANCE

As noted last year, the imbalance in wage spending from top to bottom makes it virtually impossible for the lesser
clubs to compete. The richest teams have some of the most successful managers in the world and multiple major
players typically from Brazil or Argentina. They will keep winning the title. The poorer teams’ “stars” are relatively
unheralded players from lower-ranked European and African nations.
Evidently the authorities in China saw lavish spending by some clubs to be a potential problem, if not for competitive
reasons then for financial stability. As long ago as summer 2017 the Chinese FA wrote to clubs to threaten bans if
they did not settle outstanding debts and pay late wages and bonuses.
New rules that a maximum of three foreign players can appear per team in one game (to deter big-name, high-cost
imports) and that two ‘young’ (under 23) local players should be in each 18-man match day squad are now in force.

sportingintelligence

AVERAGE FIRST-TEAM PAY PER GAMELEAGUE		GAMES PERREGULAR SEASON

AVG £ PER
PLAYER PER GAME

AVG $ PER
PLAYER PER GAME

IPL

14

£274,624*$361,350*NFL

16£138,354$182,047

Premier League

38£78,703$103,558NBA

82£72,023$94,768

La Liga

38£57,923$76,215

Bundesliga

34£41,076$54,047

Serie A

38

£39,997$52,628

CSL

30£26,640$35,053

Ligue 1

38

£26,047$34,272

NHL

82£25,800$33,948

MLB

162£21,171$27,857

AFL

22£8,950$11,776

MLS

34£8,388$11,037

J-League34£7,042$9,266NPB

143£4,703$6,188

Scottish Premiership38£4,638$6,102CFL

18£3,889$5,117WNBA

34£1,744$2,295*When 7-week contracts extrapolated to annual, pro rata

For now the CSL remains by far the most ‘top heavy’ league in pay terms with the top 10 per cent of players (led by
the big foreign names) earning more than 67 per cent of all wages.

THE MONEY TALK

If the money talked, then Evergrande would have won the title with Shanghai SIPG second and Hebei China Fortune
third as Jiangsu Suning came fourth. Evergrande actually came second with Shaghai top, Hebei sixth and Suning
fifth. Money alone would have dictated that Beijing Renhe and Chongqing Lifan would go down but they finishedeighth and 13th of 16th while the fourth- and eigth-lowest payers dropped.

TOTAL ATTENDANCE,
MOST RECENTCOMPLETED CSLSEASONFOR THOSE FANSALONE TO MEET THATSALARY BILL, EVERY
TICKET WOULD COST:

5,703,840

AVERAGE 23,766 PER GAMETOTAL FIRST-TEAM
SALARIES, CURRENTCSL SEASON£68.52 EACH

£390,814,79682 			

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NPB ANALYSISAVERAGE FIRST-TEAM PAY, NPB, 2018 SEASONNIPPON PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL2017

TOTAL SALARIES:£242,104,514$318,561,120
AVERAGE SALARY PER PLAYER:£672,513$884,892

12TEAMS

PLAYERS360

AVERAGE SALARY RANKING:

No12 LEAGUE

RANK
TEAM
			

AVG ANNUALPER PLAYER, £AVG ANNUALPER PLAYER, $		

1

Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks£1,342,361$1,766,279

2

Yomiuri Giants£1,081,366$1,422,861

3Hanshin Tigers£747,523$983,591

4

Orix Buffaloes£647,106$851,463

5

Saitama Seibu Lions£613,831$807,679

6Tokyo Yakult Swallows£613,194$806,841

7

Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles£575,116$756,737

8

Hiroshima Toyo Carp

£557,639$733,741

9

Yokohama DeNA Bay Stars£539,120$709,375

10

Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters£478,843$630,061

11

Chunichi Dragons£443,519$583,582

12

Chiba Lotte Marines£430,532$566,495

MEDIAN SALARY:£381,944$502,562

THE STATE OF PLAY

The Japan Series was won yet again in 2018 by the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, for a fourth time in five years. They beat
Hiroshima Toyo Carp for the title. The Hawks also happened to be the best paid team in the NPB again, with averagesalaries almost a third bigger than their closest financial rivals - the Yomiuri Giants. Average pay across the league rose byalmost four per cent.
After 143 games of the regular season, the Hawks were only second in the Pacific League behind the Saitama Seibu
Lions in a reverse of what happened in 2017. Their opponents in the Japan Series, Hiroshima, finished top of the Central
League.
The Hawks employed seven of the top 10 earners in the NPB in 2018, again including their Cuban all-star Alfredo
Despaigne, nicknamed ‘El Caballo de los Caballos’ or ‘The Stallion of the Stallions’. He was on around £2.8m while teammate Yuki Yanagita, who impressed MLB teams in the all-stars series in November, was on £3.8m.
The Hawks have been owned since 2005 by the SoftBank Corporation, part of the SoftBank multi-national holding
conglomerate that owns stakes in giants including Yahoo Japan and Uber among many more. The Group is the 39thlargest public company in the world with revenues of £64 billion in 2017.
SoftBank are part of a consortium of investors who earlier this year (2018) were reported to be offering almost £20 billion
to create new and expanded international football tournaments with the world governing body, FIFA. The consortium also
includes money from Saudi Arabia, the USA and China. One of the proposed events would be a revamped club World
Cup; FIFA would retain a 51 per cent stake in the venture.
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NPB ANALYSISNIPPON PROFESSIONAL BASEBALLRATIO BETWEEN HIGHEST PAID TEAM AND LOWEST PAID: 3.12 TO 1
SEVEN OF 18 LEAGUES HAVE A ‘FAIRER’ SPREAD, WITH A LOWER GAP; TEN OF 18 ARE LESS ‘FAIR’.
THE NPB IS RELATIVELY FAIR AND SHOULD BE GENERALLY COMPETITIVE.

ON BALANCE

The difference between the average Hawks salary at the top of the NPB pay list (£1.3m) and the average China Lotte
Marines salary at the bottom (£431,000) is more significant when you note only two teams (the Hawks and Giants)
pay more than £1m per man, and the rest drop off from there. In relatively recent times, the Giants and the Hanshin
Tigers were trading places as top spenders although the Hawks hit No1 in 2016 and have stayed there.
Given that it’s a small league and the structure lends itself to randomness in results, you might expect decent
variation of the spoils. Five different teams have won the Japan Series in the past decade, although the Hawks have
won five in 10 years and four of the last five. Eleven of the current 12 teams have either won the Japan Series orbeen runners-up in the same period, with only the Orix Buffaloes not doing either.

sportingintelligence

AVERAGE FIRST-TEAM PAY PER GAMELEAGUE		GAMES PERREGULAR SEASON

AVG £ PER
PLAYER PER GAME

AVG $ PER
PLAYER PER GAME

IPL

14

£274,624*$361,350*NFL

16£138,354$182,047

Premier League

38£78,703$103,558NBA

82£72,023$94,768

La Liga

38£57,923$76,215

Bundesliga

34£41,076$54,047

Serie A

38

£39,997$52,628

CSL

30£26,640$35,053

Ligue 1

38

£26,047$34,272

NHL

82£25,800$33,948

MLB

162£21,171$27,857

AFL

22£8,950$11,776

MLS

34£8,388$11,037

J-League34£7,042$9,266NPB

143£4,703$6,188

Scottish Premiership38£4,638$6,102CFL

18£3,889$5,117WNBA

34£1,744$2,295*When 7-week contracts extrapolated to annual, pro rata

THE MONEY TALK

If the money talked then the Hawks would have won, and did, comfortably in the end. The Yomiuri Giants’ money
should have seen them contending and it did - they reached what is effectively the semi-final stage. The Hanshin
Tigers should have finished in their league final (or third, in effect) but actually finished bottom of the Central League.
The brilliantly named Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters punched most above their weight - 10th in pay and finishingeffectively fifth, thwarted in the post-season by the Hawks.

TOTAL ATTENDANCE,
MOST RECENTCOMPLETED NPB
SEASONFOR THOSE FANSALONE TO MEET THATSALARY BILL, EVERY
TICKET WOULD COST:

25,139,463

AVERAGE 29,300 PER GAMETOTAL FIRST-TEAM
SALARIES, CURRENTNPB SEASON£9.63 EACH

£242,104,51486 			

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MLS ANALYSISAVERAGE FIRST-TEAM PAY, MLS, 2017 SEASONRANKMAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER

2018

23
TEAMS

TOTAL SALARIES:AVERAGE SALARY RANKING:AVERAGE SALARY PER PLAYER:MEDIAN SALARY:£194,501,661$255,925,286£285,193$375,257

PLAYERS

682

No13 LEAGUE£117,509$154,619

TEAM

			
1
Toronto FC
2
LA Galaxy3
Chicago Fire
4
New York City FC
5
LAFC
6Seattle Sounders
7
Montreal Impact
8Sporting Kansas City
9
Atlanta United
10
Portland Timbers
11
DC United
12
Colorado Rapids
13
Philadelphia Union
14
Orlando City
15
San Jose Earthquakes
16
New England Revolution
17
Minnesota United
18
FC Dallas
19
Columbus Crew
20
Real Salt Lake
21
Vancouver Whitecaps
22
New York Red Bulls
23
Houston Dynamo

AVG ANNUALPER PLAYER, ££696,034£492,790£421,570£388,501£370,412£331,519£309,934£302,801£275,650£269,550£263,002£255,296£233,624£224,805£210,478£210,314£209,420£208,655£202,211£199,375£198,771£197,722£149,380

AVG ANNUALPER PLAYER, $		
$915,835$648,408$554,697$511,186$487,384$436,209$407,808$398,422$362,698$354,671$346,055$335,916$307,399$295,797$276,945$276,728$275,552$274,546$266,067$262,336$261,541$260,161$196,552

THE STATE OF PLAY

The league expanded to 23 current franchises in 2018, its 23rd season, by embracing a new club, Los Angeles FC. They
had a solid debut campaign, finishing third in the Western Conference and fifth in the overall table before losing in theplay-offs at the first hurdle. Atlanta United, debutants in 2017, continue to make a huge impact in MLS, on and off thepitch. On the pitch they still had MLS Cup glory in sight as this report ‘went to press’ in late November, having reached theConference Finals. Off the pitch, they attracted an astonishing average crowd of more than 53,000 per game to their 17
home matches. Seattle Sounders also attracted average gates above 40,000.
The season is getting towards the business end at the time of writing, with a final four of Atlanta against New York Red
Bulls in one conference final and Portland Timbers against Sporting Kansas City in the other.
Two players with mighty international reputations joined MLS clubs in 2018, Zlatan Ibrahimović signing for LA Galaxy andWayne Rooney for DC United. The former scored twice on his debut and later hit a sensational acrobatic screamer for his
500th career goal. If you haven’t seen it, seek it out on YouTube; it came in a 5-3 defeat to Toronto. Similarly if you haven’t
seen Rooney’s astonishing half-pitch track-back, recovery tackle followed by a long, raking diagonal assist against Orlando,
look it up.
Attacking players are valued in MLS, literally, and thus highly paid. Defenders - not so much. There were 50 players
across all MLS teams combined earning $1m or more in 2018 and just four were defenders, the highest paid of themcoming in at 32nd best paid - Michael Mancienne at New England Revolution. The top 30 was comprised of forwards andmidfielders with the exception a solitary goalkeeper, Tim Howard (10th best paid on $2.475m) at Colorado Rapids. The
average goalkeeper pay in MLS was $158,000 in 2018, with defenders averaging $249,000, midfielders $449,000 andforwards $636,000.
If the league is perceived as having some exciting attacking and some poor defending, then perhaps that is because, infootball, you often get what you pay for.
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MLS ANALYSIS
MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCERRATIO BETWEEN HIGHEST PAID TEAM AND LOWEST PAID: 4.66 TO 1

NINE OF 18 LEAGUES HAVE A ‘FAIRER’ SPREAD, WITH A LOWER GAP; EIGHT OF 18 ARE LESS ‘FAIR’.
THE GAP BETWEEN THE BEST PAID AND THE RUMP REMAINS STABLE; PLAY-OFFS ADD RANDOMNESS.

ON BALANCE

The difference between the average Toronto salary at the top of the MLS pay list (£696,034) and the average
Houston salary at the bottom (£149,380) didn’t translate to a positive difference on the pitch. Toronto finished 19thof 23 in the overall table and Houston were 17th. Second-bottom payers the Red Bulls were top of the overall table
and went deep into the post-season. The total payrolls for the respective Toronto and NYRB squads was £20.2m and£6.1m and highlights the gulf at play when some teams splurge on their designated players and others don’t.
Play-offs are part and parcel of American sporting culture, and the randomness introduced by this lottery does keep
a lot more teams involved for a lot longer. Seven different MLS Cup winners in 10 years indicates something right.
By regular season performance alone (or the overall table in other words) there was a strong link between pay andperformance in 2017 … and not in 2018.
But the top three payers using our metric of average first-team salary in 2017 were Toronto, NYC and Chicago Fire,and they also finished 1-2-3 in the overall table. Seattle and Portland were sixth and seventh best payers and finishedseventh and sixth. Sporting Kansas City were 11th on expenditure and in the table, New England were 13th/15th,
San Jose were 15th/12th, FC Dallas were 16th/13th, Philadelphia were 17th/16th, Minnesota were19th/19th,Montreal were 20th/17th and DC United were 21st/21st. We concluded: “The pattern is clear.”This year: it’s pretty much random.

THE MONEY TALK

If the money talked, then Toronto, LA Galaxy, Chicago Fire and NYC FC would have flown high in 2018 and Houston,
the Red Bulls and Vancouver Whitecaps would be staring at relegation (if such dangerous jeopardy existed). In fact
only NYC FC made the post-season among the richest four (losing in the last eight) while Houston far from flopped,
Vancouver did even better and the Bulls stampeded.

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AVERAGE FIRST-TEAM PAY PER GAMELEAGUE		GAMES PERREGULAR SEASON

AVG £ PER
PLAYER PER GAME

AVG $ PER
PLAYER PER GAME

IPL

14

£274,624*$361,350*NFL

16£138,354$182,047

Premier League

38£78,703$103,558NBA

82£72,023$94,768

La Liga

38£57,923$76,215

Bundesliga

34£41,076$54,047

Serie A

38

£39,997$52,628

CSL

30£26,640$35,053

Ligue 1

38

£26,047$34,272

NHL

82£25,800$33,948

MLB

162£21,171$27,857

AFL

22£8,950$11,776

MLS

34£8,388$11,037

J-League34£7,042$9,266NPB

143£4,703$6,188

Scottish Premiership38£4,638$6,102CFL

18£3,889$5,117WNBA

34£1,744$2,295*When 7-week contracts extrapolated to annual, pro rata

TOTAL ATTENDANCE,
MOST RECENTCOMPLETED MLS
SEASONFOR THOSE FANSALONE TO MEET THATSALARY BILL, EVERY
TICKET WOULD COST:

8,552,503

AVERAGE 21,873 PER GAMETOTAL FIRST-TEAM
SALARIES, CURRENTMLS SEASON£22.74 EACH

£194,501,661

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J-LEAGUE ANALYSISJAPANESE TOP-DIVISION FOOTBALL

20172018

TOTAL SALARIES:£124,982,922$164,452,529
AVERAGE SALARY PER PLAYER:£239,431$315,043

18
TEAMS

PLAYERS

522

AVERAGE SALARY RANKING:

No14 LEAGUEMEDIAN SALARY:£138,889$182,750

AVERAGE FIRST-TEAM PAY, J-LEAGUE, 2018 SEASON
RANK

TEAM

AVG ANNUAL

AVG ANNUAL			

PER PLAYER, £PER PLAYER, $		

1£1,133,597

Vissel Kobe

$1,491,587

2

Nagoya Grampus Eight£307,500$404,609

3

Urawa Red Diamonds£288,675$379,839

4

Kawasaki Frontale£273,241$359,530

5

Kashima Antlers£256,435$337,417

6

Cerezo Osaka£231,644$304,797

7

Gamba Osaka£217,060$285,608

8

FC Tokyo£208,935$274,917

9

Shimizu S-Pulse£176,019$231,605

10

Sanfrecce Hiroshima£174,752$229,939

11

Yokohama F Marinos£173,657$228,498

12

Jubilo Iwata£165,370$217,594

13

Kashiwa Reysol£157,407$207,117

14

Consadole Sapporo£133,611$175,805

15

Shonan Bellmare£123,889$163,013

16

Sagan Tosu

£101,595$133,678

17

Vegalta Sendai£100,694$132,494

18

V-Varen Nagasaki£66,991$88,146

THE STATE OF PLAY

Hiroshi Mikitani is a multibillionaire businessman, worth an estimated $7.1bn, and is the founder and CEO of
e-commerce and internet firm Rakuten. It will be a company familiar to many if only because they are the shirt sponsorsof Spanish giants Barcelona as part of a 3-year, €220m deal that started in 2017-18. That was the final season in which
Spanish legend Andrés Iniesta played for Barca but though he left, he still plays with Rakuten on his shirt.
Rakuten own and sponsor J-League team Vissel Kobe, based in the home city of Hiroshi Mikitani, chairman of the
club. If the question on everyone’s lips when it was announced Iniesta was going to Vissel was ‘To WHERE?’, thenthe answer becomes clearer when you know the information above. It’s just international trade helping to facilitatea move no doubt made more attractive by a three-year contract worth €25m-a-year. To put that in perspective, it’sroughly three times the basic salary budget of most of the other J-League teams.
The bigger picture for Kobe, and perhaps the league in the near future if more big names can be attracted, is not
greater global recognition but their popularity and earning power in Asia, where the Chinese Super League hasout-glitzed them, albeit losing money in the process. Iniesta’s arrival helped Kobe sell 50,000 pieces of merchandise(from shirts and bags to teddy bears) in a fortnight; their annual sales total is typically 150,000 items.
Iniesta was unable to improve his new club’s fortunes dramatically and they finished 12th of 18 clubs. Kawasaki
Frontale won the title from Sanfrecce Hiroshima and Kashima Antlers. That trio progress to the Asia Champions
League (directly or via play-offs), which is where Mikitani aims to take Kobe sooner rather than later.
J-League clubs have to abide by foreign player limits of five per club and four for any matchday squad. The
overwhelming foreign nationality of choice is Brazilian players. Only three of the 18 clubs did not have at least one
Brazilian in 2017 while a majority of clubs had two or three.
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J-LEAGUE ANALYSISJAPANESE TOP-DIVISION FOOTBALLRATIO BETWEEN HIGHEST PAID TEAM AND LOWEST PAID: 16.9 TO 1

FOUR OF 18 LEAGUES HAVE A ‘FAIRER’ SPREAD, WITH A LOWER GAP; FOUR OF 18 ARE LESS ‘FAIR’.
THE GAP BETWEEN THE BEST PAID AND THE WORST HAS BALLOONED SOLELY DUE TO VISSEL KOBE.

ON BALANCE

The difference between the average Kobe salary at the top of the J-League pay list (£1.1m) and the average V-Varen
Nagasaki salary at the bottom (£66,991) is absolutely massive and almost entirely down to the pay received by Iniesta
and his fellow star foreigner Lukas Podolski. The total basic payrolls for their respective squads was £34m and £2m.
The gap between Nagoya’s pay in second behind Kobe (£307,500) and V-Varen is a much closer.
The J-League’s spread of honours in the past decade was reasonable but not better. Five different J-League winners
in 10 years include three wins for Sanfrecce Hiroshima, two for Kawasaki Frontale and Kashima Antlers and one eachfor Gamba Osaka, Kashiwa Reysol and Nagoya Grampus.

sportingintelligence

AVERAGE FIRST-TEAM PAY PER GAMELEAGUE		GAMES PERREGULAR SEASON

AVG £ PER
PLAYER PER GAME

AVG $ PER
PLAYER PER GAME

IPL

14

£274,624*$361,350*NFL

16£138,354$182,047

Premier League

38£78,703$103,558NBA

82£72,023$94,768

La Liga

38£57,923$76,215

Bundesliga

34£41,076$54,047

Serie A

38

£39,997$52,628

CSL

30£26,640$35,053

Ligue 1

38

£26,047$34,272

NHL

82£25,800$33,948

MLB

162£21,171$27,857

AFL

22£8,950$11,776

MLS

34£8,388$11,037

J-League34£7,042$9,266NPB

143£4,703$6,188

Scottish Premiership38£4,638$6,102CFL

18£3,889$5,117WNBA

34£1,744$2,295*When 7-week contracts extrapolated to annual, pro rata

THE MONEY TALK

If the money talked, then Vissel Kobe would have won, with Nagoya second, Urawa Red Diamonds third, Kawasaki
Frontale fourth and Kashima Antlers fifth with V-Varen bottom of the pile. In fact Kobe were 12th, Nagoya wererelegated, the Red Diamonds were sixth, Frontale were champions and the Antlers were third. And V-Varen were
bottom of the pile.

TOTAL ATTENDANCE,
MOST RECENTCOMPLETED J-LEAGUESEASONFOR THOSE FANSALONE TO MEET THATSALARY BILL, EVERY
TICKET WOULD COST:

5,778,178

AVERAGE 18,883 PER GAMETOTAL FIRST-TEAM
SALARIES, CURRENT
J-LEAGUE SEASON£21.63 EACH

£124,982,922

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AFL ANALYSISAVERAGE FIRST-TEAM PAY, AFL, 2017 SEASONAUSTRALIAN FOOTBALL LEAGUE, AUSSIE RULES

2017

TOTAL SALARIES:£139,202,000$183,161,992
AVERAGE SALARY PER PLAYER:£196,891$259,069

18
TEAMS

PLAYERS707

AVERAGE SALARY RANKING:

No15 LEAGUEMEDIAN SALARY:£186,034$244,783

RANK
TEAM
			

AVG ANNUALPER PLAYER, £AVG ANNUALPER PLAYER, $		

1Richmond£207,554$273,099

2

Greater Western Sydney£207,539$273,079

3

Adelaide Crows£203,263$267,453

4

Essendon£203,263$267,453

5

Sydney Swans£198,958$261,789

6

Geelong£198,951$261,780

7

Collingwood£198,883$261,690

8

Brisbane Lions£196,132$258,071

9Hawthorn£196,061$257,97810Gold Coast£194,714$256,205

11

Port Adelaide£194,714$256,205

12

North Melbourne£194,704$256,191

13

St Kilda£194,704$256,191

14

Fremantle£194,671$256,148

15

West Coast Eagles£193,747$254,932

16

Western Bulldogs£193,743$254,927

17

Carlton£190,381$250,503

18

Melbourne£182,556$240,207

THE STATE OF PLAY

The AFL’s annual report always comes highly recommended for the granular detail on many aspects of the way thecompetition is run - including salary expenditure - and the latest editions are available here: http://www.afl.com.au/afl-hq/
annual-reports. One reason we include the 2017 AFL season in this report (and not the recently finished 2018 season) is
the annual report provides an excellent corroboratory source for the survey material we gather; the other reason is related
and more prosaic - some team information takes longer to piece together than others.
The AFL remains outstanding in one key aspect among leagues in this report - the ‘fairness’ as measured by the difference
between the club with the highest average first-team pay and the lowest. A salary floor and ceiling for player payments
helps with this. Debate continues into other amendments that need to be made, including the extent to which total
football department spending should be regulated, as opposed to solely player payments.
Clubs with the biggest overall spending (the extra, in effect, being on more or better coaches, facilities and other auxiliary
spending) tend to win more. That’s too complex an issue for these few paragraphs and further reading on the AFL’s
Competitive Balance Policy is recommended.
But the cap model overall has been a demonstrable success since its introduction in 1987. The traditionally three richestand most successful clubs from Carlton, Collingwood and Essendon had appeared in 75 Grand Finals of 90 up to then (83per cent) and won 41 of them (46 per cent of all titles). In the 32 Grand Finals since 1987, the ‘big three’ have appeared in
11 (or 34 per cent) and won six (19 per cent).
This isn’t to say the AFL is perfect; far from it. But a league that so consistently pushes itself to consider competitivebalance issues is a ‘fairer’ league than most.
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AFL ANALYSIS

AUSTRALIAN FOOTBALL LEAGUE, AUSSIE RULESRATIO BETWEEN HIGHEST PAID TEAM AND LOWEST PAID: 1.14 TO 1

ONE OF 18 LEAGUES HAS A ‘FAIRER’ SPREAD, WITH A LOWER GAP; 16 OF 18 ARE LESS ‘FAIR’.
THE AFL HAS COMPETITIVE BALANCE POLICIES FRONT AND CENTRE; THE WAGE DIFFERENTIALS SHOW IT.

ON BALANCE

Seven different Grand Final winners in 10 years include three wins for Hawthorn and two for Geelong. A further four
different teams have been runners-up, making 11 different teams filling 20 places. That’s not as good as the more
obviously ‘unfair’ MLB (in pay terms), with 16 in 20; but AFL has had six different teams filling six berths over the past
three years, seven over four and eight over five.
Our research suggests the various competitive balance mechanisms at least serve to spread the most major ‘stars’around the league. To grossly simplify, the best players command the biggest money, and the cap limits the amountof ‘top stars’ playing at any one club.
Only two players earned $1.2m or more (Australian dollars) in 2017, three more earned $1.1m to $1.2m, four earned$1m to $1.2, then 11 earned $900,000 to $1m and nine earned $800,000 to $900,000. Only Greater Western Sydney
and Richmond had as many as four of those 29 players, while 11 teams had just one or none. Every team had at least
one player earning $700,000-plus and most had two.

THE MONEY TALK

If the money alone talked, then Richmond, Greater Western Sydney, Essendon and Adelaide would have been thebest four teams and in fact three of them (not Essendon) reached the last four (the preliminary finals). The same threewere top of the ladder before the finals series. Melbourne, Carlton and Western Bulldogs should have done less well
but finished ninth, 16th and 10th (of 18) on the ladder.

sportingintelligence

AVERAGE FIRST-TEAM PAY PER GAMELEAGUE		GAMES PERREGULAR SEASON

AVG £ PER
PLAYER PER GAME

AVG $ PER
PLAYER PER GAME

IPL

14

£274,624*$361,350*NFL

16£138,354$182,047

Premier League

38£78,703$103,558NBA

82£72,023$94,768

La Liga

38£57,923$76,215

Bundesliga

34£41,076$54,047

Serie A

38

£39,997$52,628

CSL

30£26,640$35,053

Ligue 1

38

£26,047$34,272

NHL

82£25,800$33,948

MLB

162£21,171$27,857

AFL

22£8,950$11,776

MLS

34£8,388$11,037

J-League34£7,042$9,266NPB

143£4,703$6,188

Scottish Premiership38£4,638$6,102CFL

18£3,889$5,117WNBA

34£1,744$2,295*When 7-week contracts extrapolated to annual, pro rata

TOTAL ATTENDANCE,
MOST RECENTCOMPLETED AFL
SEASONFOR THOSE FANSALONE TO MEET THATSALARY BILL, EVERY
TICKET WOULD COST:

6,893,909

AVERAGE 34,818 PER GAMETOTAL FIRST-TEAM
SALARIES, CURRENTAFL SEASON£20.19 EACH

£139,202,00098 			

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AVERAGE FIRST-TEAM PAY, SCOTTISH PREMIERSHIP,
2018-19 SEASONSCOT PREM ANALYSISSCOTTISH TOP-DIVISION FOOTBALL

20182019

12TEAMS

TOTAL SALARIES:AVERAGE SALARY RANKING:AVERAGE SALARY PER PLAYER:MEDIAN SALARY:£54,633,280$71,886,470£176,236$231,892

PLAYERS

310

No16 LEAGUE

RANK
TEAM
			

AVG ANNUALPER PLAYER, £1£865,614

CelticAVG ANNUALPER PLAYER, $		
$1,138,975

2

Rangers£466,556$613,894

3

Aberdeen£138,667$182,4584Hearts£111,600$146,843

5

Hibernian£103,376$136,0226

Dundee£62,833$82,676

7

Kilmarnock£62,816$82,653

8

St Johnstone£48,630$63,987

9

Hamilton£47,879$62,999

10

Motherwell£47,342$62,292

11

St Mirren£46,169$60,749

12

Livingston£34,882$45,897£62,400$82,106

THE STATE OF PLAY

One big question at the start of the season was not whether Celtic would win the title in this 122nd season of top-flight
Scottish football but when, how and by what margin? Another was if Brendan Rodgers completes an historic treble treble,
then really, what’s the point for anyone else? And how would Stevie Gerrard fare in his first managerial job, at Rangers?
Would Aberdeen capitalise on their financial advantage over everyone but the Old Firm to make a realistic push? And
which of the clubs getting by on squad budgets similar to what the best-paid individual stars at Celtic Park are earning
would contrive via hard work and cunning and good ideas to be clear of relegation the earliest?
With Hearts setting an early pace and Kilmarnock within sight of a Champions League qualifying berth by the mid-November, it’s fair to say some expectations were confounded early. But the hard financial numbers paint a picture of a gulf inresources between the haves and have-nots, and it will likely tell in the long run. The small community who comprise theScottish Premiership range from bona fide giants (by history, crowds, honours, you name it) to clubs half the size of someof those in England’s fifth division.
Celtic had revenue of £102m in 2017-18, three times that of Rangers on £33m, in turn double that of Aberdeen, in turnbigger than Hearts and Hibs (£12m and a bit less), in turn double Kilmarnock’s. Celtic can afford a total salary bill of nearly£60m, average basic in the high six figures and bonus-inclusive numbers of more than £1m a man. We think Rangers willrise to something close to half that this season, with Aberdeen trailing a long way behind in third, ahead of the Edinburgh
pair, in turn ahead of teams paying wages closer to what ordinary folk earn, or less.
As Motherwell manager Steve Robinson said in an interview with The Times last year: ‘I’ve got first-team squad guys earning £250 [basic] a week. I’ve got three or four boys on that kind of money.’100 			

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SCOT PREM ANALYSISSCOTTISH TOP-DIVISION FOOTBALLRATIO BETWEEN HIGHEST PAID TEAM AND LOWEST PAID: 24.8 TO 1

SIXTEEN OF 18 LEAGUES HAVE A ‘FAIRER’ SPREAD, WITH A LOWER GAP; ONLY LIGUE 1 IS LESS ‘FAIR’.
THE GAP BETWEEN TOP AND BOTTOM HAS GROWN, WITH CELTIC WAY CLEAR BUT RANGERS CHASING.

ON BALANCE

The difference between the average basic Celtic salary at the top of the Scottish Premiership pay list (£865,614) andthe average Livingston basic at the bottom (£35,000) is even larger than last season. To put this into context, there
is considerably less of a resource gulf between Celtic and reigning Premier League champions Manchester City
than between Celtic and most clubs in their own division. Using our GSSS numbers from this report, City players
earn ‘only’ seven times as much as those at Celtic, who in turn earn around 20 times the basic paid at Motherwell,
Hamilton and St Johnstone.
Celtic were paying substantially more than double Rangers last year but we think it won’t be quite double this year.
It isn’t a shock that Celtic began the season with expectations they would win an eighth league title in a row. It is 33
years since any team other than Celtic or Rangers won the title: Aberdeen in 1985. It is difficult to see how this willchange any time soon, not least with Celtic increasingly locked in to the virtuous cycle that is regular Champions
League football - and the extra money it brings, and the extra advantage that provides.

sportingintelligence

AVERAGE FIRST-TEAM PAY PER GAMELEAGUE		GAMES PERREGULAR SEASON

AVG £ PER
PLAYER PER GAME

AVG $ PER
PLAYER PER GAME

IPL

14

£274,624*$361,350*NFL

16£138,354$182,047

Premier League

38£78,703$103,558NBA

82£72,023$94,768

La Liga

38£57,923$76,215

Bundesliga

34£41,076$54,047

Serie A

38

£39,997$52,628

CSL

30£26,640$35,053

Ligue 1

38

£26,047$34,272

NHL

82£25,800$33,948

MLB

162£21,171$27,857

AFL

22£8,950$11,776

MLS

34£8,388$11,037

J-League34£7,042$9,266NPB

143£4,703$6,188

Scottish Premiership38£4,638$6,102CFL

18£3,889$5,117WNBA

34£1,744$2,295*When 7-week contracts extrapolated to annual, pro rata

THE MONEY TALK

If the money alone talked, then the title would be Celtic’s with Rangers as runners-up ahead of Aberdeen, Hearts andHibernian. Livingston, St Mirren and Motherwell would be scrapping it out to avoid the drop. But as has already been
demonstrated in Scotland in 2018-19 so far, financial advantage can be wasted while good managers can turn lesser
resources into a greater sum than their parts.

TOTAL ATTENDANCE,
MOST RECENTCOMPLETED SCOT PREM
SEASONFOR THOSE FANSALONE TO MEET THATSALARY BILL, EVERY
TICKET WOULD COST:

3,147,357

AVERAGE 15,896 PER GAMETOTAL FIRST-TEAM
SALARIES, CURRENT
SCOT PREM SEASON£17.36 EACH

£54,633,280

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CFL ANALYSISAVERAGE FIRST-TEAM PAY, CFL, 2017 SEASONCANADIAN FOOTBALL LEAGUE, GRIDIRON

2017

9

TEAMS

TOTAL SALARIES:AVERAGE SALARY RANKING:AVERAGE SALARY PER PLAYER:MEDIAN SALARY:£27,720,088$36,474,092£70,000$92,106

PLAYERS

396

RANK
TEAM
			

AVG ANNUALPER PLAYER, £AVG ANNUALPER PLAYER, $		

1Toronto Argonauts£75,874$99,835

2

Calgary Stampeders£74,461$97,976

3

Saskatchewan Roughriders£71,181$93,660

4

Edmonton Eskimos£71,101$93,555

5

Winnipeg Blue Bombers£69,815$91,863

6

Ottawa Redblacks£69,040$90,843

7

Hamilton Tiger-Cats£66,837$87,944

8

BC Lions£65,888$86,695

9Montreal Alouettes£65,805$86,586

No17 LEAGUE£47,740$62,816

THE STATE OF PLAY

The Ottawa Redblacks carried their winning 2016 form into the 2017 season to make the play-offs. They met the
Roughriders for the right to play the Toronto Argonauts for a place in the division final. And lost. Elsewhere, the Edmonton
Eskimos beat the Winnipeg Blue Bombers to progress to a meeting with the Stampeders in the quest for the other Grey
Cup final berth. The Argonauts beat the Stampeders to win the 105th Grey Cup.
Saskatchewan started 2017 with hope they could run all the way to the Grey Cup final in Ottawa after moving to a newhome stadium. And fell a hurdle short of the final. They had upped sticks at the beginning of the new term after 95 years
at the Mosaic Stadium at Taylor Field. The newly built Mosaic Stadium boasts a capacity of 33,000 and is expandable to40,000 when the championship game pays a visit.
It was a season to forget for the Montreal Alouettes, who had a 3-15 win-loss record that broke the team record for defeatsin a season. Poor form led to the sacking of the the first French-speaking coach in the history of the franchise, Jacques
Chapdelaine.
The salary cap for 2017 was set at $5.15m (Canadian dollars) with a team floor at $4.55m and individual minimum salaries
set at $53,000.

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CFL ANALYSISCANADIAN FOOTBALL LEAGUE, GRIDIRONRATIO BETWEEN HIGHEST PAID TEAM AND LOWEST PAID: 1.15 TO 1

TWO OF 18 LEAGUES HAVE A ‘FAIRER’ SPREAD, WITH A LOWER GAP; 15 OF 18 ARE LESS ‘FAIR’.
THE CFL HAS BECOME EVER SO SLIGHTLY FAIRER THAN IT ALREADY WAS; COMPETITION ABOUNDS.

ON BALANCEThe CFL has always been the toughest league from which to garner reliable numbers and that is down to the almost
religious secrecy of everyone involved, not least the teams and team owners. No source that could be describedas even vaguely public exists that tells us about player pay, and we can speculate why; certainly some players are
unhappy with their lot. But pointers from agents and insiders do allow insight.
What’s remarkable, in a sport where team incomes vary hugely (50 per cent or more) and one team’s footballoperations budget can be 25 per cent bigger than the next, is the slender difference in pay, at 1.15 to 1 from top tobottom in 2017, even smaller than 2016.
The small difference between the cap floor and ceiling explains it. Other metrics highlight economic competitivebalance, including the top 10 per cent of earners making ‘only’ 23.4 per cent of all salaries.

sportingintelligence

AVERAGE FIRST-TEAM PAY PER GAMELEAGUE		GAMES PERREGULAR SEASON

AVG £ PER
PLAYER PER GAME

AVG $ PER
PLAYER PER GAME

IPL

14

£274,624*$361,350*NFL

16£138,354$182,047

Premier League

38£78,703$103,558NBA

82£72,023$94,768

La Liga

38£57,923$76,215

Bundesliga

34£41,076$54,047

Serie A

38

£39,997$52,628

CSL

30£26,640$35,053

Ligue 1

38

£26,047$34,272

NHL

82£25,800$33,948

MLB

162£21,171$27,857

AFL

22£8,950$11,776

MLS

34£8,388$11,037

J-League34£7,042$9,266NPB

143£4,703$6,188

Scottish Premiership38£4,638$6,102CFL

18£3,889$5,117WNBA

34£1,744$2,295*When 7-week contracts extrapolated to annual, pro rata

Seven different winners of the Grey Cup in 10 years points to a decent spread of honours. All nine current teams
have either won or been runners-up at least once each in the past eight years.

THE MONEY TALK

It’s a small league and comes with the randomness of play-offs and a tiny pay differential but average first-team
pay leaders and runners-up in 2017 were Grey Cup winners and runners-up the Argonauts and Stampeders. Third
biggest spenders Saskatchewan were also in the last four and the two lowest spenders were among three teams who
failed to make the play-offs.

TOTAL ATTENDANCE,
MOST RECENTCOMPLETED CFL
SEASONFOR THOSE FANSALONE TO MEET THATSALARY BILL, EVERY
TICKET WOULD COST:

1,996,180

AVERAGE 24,644 PER GAMETOTAL FIRST-TEAM
SALARIES, CURRENTCFL SEASON£13.89 EACH

£27,720,088

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WNBA ANALYSISAVERAGE FIRST-TEAM PAY, WNBA, 2018 SEASONWOMEN’S NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION

2018

12
TEAMS

TOTAL SALARIES:AVERAGE SALARY RANKING:AVERAGE SALARY PER PLAYER:MEDIAN SALARY:£8,538,529$11,234,997£59,295$78,021

PLAYERS

144

No18 LEAGUE

RANK
TEAM
			

AVG ANNUALPER PLAYER, £AVG ANNUALPER PLAYER, $		1

Phoenix Mercury£64,312$84,6212

Los Angeles Sparks£64,258$84,549

3

Dallas Wings£64,104$84,347

4

Minnesota Lynx

£63,387$83,404

5

Seattle Storm£62,379$82,078

6

New York Liberty£60,986$80,244

7

Atlanta Dream£60,438$79,524

8

Connecticut Sun£56,359$74,157

9

Washington Mystics£55,800$73,42110

Chicago Sky£54,187$71,298

11

Indiana Fever£53,669$70,617

12

Las Vegas Aces

£52,641$69,264£48,813$64,228

THE STATE OF PLAY

The WNBA became the first women’s league in the world to be included in the main list in the GSSS last year as part ofan in-depth look into gender (in)equality in global sport. You can read that report here: https://globalsportssalaries.com/
GSSS%202017.pdf
We explored not just the lack of opportunities for women to make a living (a living wage) in professional team sport but
the massive disparities between earnings for men and women who have them. The WNBA is the best paid women’s sports
league (as a whole) in the world. Yet pay levels remain fractions of those of men. This season, for example, the average
NBA salary of $7.77m for the men is basically 100 times as big as the average in the WNBA, where the figure is $78,021.
There are reasons for this of course, including not only the established structures and popularity that mean there is big
money on offer for TV deals and sponsorships in men’s sport, and much less for women’s sport. But this isn’t somethingthat can’t be changed and the GSSS 2017 explores the issues.
On the court in the WNBA in 2018, Seattle Storm beat the Washington Wizards 3-0 in the WNBA Finals for a first title
since 2010 and a third in all.
The 12-team league is split across Western and Eastern conferences – with the top eight sides across the two progressing
to the play-offs. The eventual finalists were two of the three teams with the best records in the regular season. The Storm
were the best team in the regular season with 26 wins and eight losses, followed by the Atlanta Dream (23-11) with theWizards third by that measure (22-12).
The Storm dominated the end of season awards with forward Breanna Stewart taking the league MVP and finals MVP
awards. Natasha Howard was the most improved player.
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WNBA ANALYSISWOMEN’S NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATIONRATIO BETWEEN HIGHEST PAID TEAM AND LOWEST PAID: 1.22 TO 1

THREE OF 18 LEAGUES HAVE A ‘FAIRER’ SPREAD, WITH A LOWER GAP; 14 OF 18 ARE LESS ‘FAIR’.
THE WNBA IS COMPETITIVE; THE TOP-TO-BOTTOM WAGE DIFFERENTIAL HAS SLIGHTLY DECREASED.

ON BALANCE

Five different teams have won the WNBA finals in the past 10 seasons, with the Lynx winning four and the Mercury
two. A further four teams have reached the finals. If the ratio between the best paid team in average pay (our uniquemetric in the GSSS) is small at 1 to one, and only three leagues are ‘fairer’, then it becomes more so if you take total
player payroll figures.
Official figures for the 2017 season obtained by Sporting Intelligence for our gender inequality issue report show
the differential between the Atlanta Dream at one extreme (total final salaries $938,983) and the Chicago Sky at theother end ($788,291) was 1.19 to 1.
The 12 total payrolls in 2017, for the record, were: Dream $938,983; Lynx, $956,653; Mercury, $955,960; Sparks,$950,625; Mystics, $931,697; Sun, $914,221; Liberty, $876,136; Stars, $860,911; Fever, $924,936; Wings, $848,852;
Storm, $818,032; Sky $788,291.

sportingintelligence

AVERAGE FIRST-TEAM PAY PER GAMELEAGUE		GAMES PERREGULAR SEASON

AVG £ PER
PLAYER PER GAME

AVG $ PER
PLAYER PER GAME

IPL

14

£274,624*$361,350*NFL

16£138,354$182,047

Premier League

38£78,703$103,558NBA

82£72,023$94,768

La Liga

38£57,923$76,215

Bundesliga

34£41,076$54,047

Serie A

38

£39,997$52,628

CSL

30£26,640$35,053

Ligue 1

38

£26,047$34,272

NHL

82£25,800$33,948

MLB

162£21,171$27,857

AFL

22£8,950$11,776

MLS

34£8,388$11,037

J-League34£7,042$9,266NPB

143£4,703$6,188

Scottish Premiership38£4,638$6,102CFL

18£3,889$5,117WNBA

34£1,744$2,295*When 7-week contracts extrapolated to annual, pro rata

In 2018 we have a very slightly bigger 1.198 to 1 ratio from top to bottom, from $1,015,447 to $847,402.

THE MONEY TALK

If the money alone talked, then the Phoenix Mercury would have been 2018 champions having beaten the LA Sparks
in the finals. The Wings and the Lynx would have been in the semi-finals. On the flip side, the Aces, Fever, Sky andMystics would have missed the play-offs. In fact the Mercury made the semis and the Sparks play-off stage earlier,while the Wings and Lynx both made the play-offs. The Aces, Sky and Fever did indeed miss the play-offs along withNew York Liberty, while the Mystics made the WNBA finals.

TOTAL ATTENDANCE,
MOST RECENTCOMPLETED WNBASEASONFOR THOSE FANSALONE TO MEET THATSALARY BILL, EVERY
TICKET WOULD COST:

1,574,078

AVERAGE 7,716 PER GAMETOTAL FIRST-TEAM
SALARIES, CURRENT
WNBA SEASON£5.26 EACH

£8,280,998

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ABOUT SPORTING INTELLIGENCE
www.sportingintelligence.com is an award-winning website specialising in thebusiness and finance of sport, particularly football. Independently owned andedited, the content is largely research-based and / or investigative in nature, produced
by a coalition of writers, researchers, academics, and sports business professionals.
Sportingintelligence content is regularly cited in national and international media from the BBC
to the Financial Times and Wall St Journal to Radio Four, NPR in the USA, CNN and hundreds ofother TV and radio stations, newspapers, magazines, journals and online outlets.
More information on our company can be found at:www.sportingintelligence.com/about-us
Further queries can be emailed to us at:
nick@sportingintelligence.com

The compilation of this report and its predecessors would not have been possible without theassistance of specialists across a number of sports and countries featured. Our thanks go to allof them, and those who helped in the wider production of this report, not least (in alphabeticalorder): Jonnie Baker, Katie Brazier, Omar Chaudhuri, Jasmine Collette, Alex Dandanis, Arijana
Demirovic, John Didulica, Magnus Erlingmark, Victoria Fuller, David Gerty, Helen Harris, Ian
Herbert, Sonja Hernandez, Terri Jackson, Simon Jones, Chyloe Kurdas, Shaun Martyn, Scott
Mann, Jean-Luc Martin, George Milkov, Nick Pelekanos, Roger Pielke Jr, Becca Russo, Robin
Scott-Elliot, Annette Seitz, Clea Smith, Eriko Takahashi, H.T Torres, Blake Webster, Rich Whittall,
Pete Wilson, Blake Wooster, John Yan and Zhang Yi, Dan Zelezinski. There are dozens of others
who gave freely of their time and advice from inside clubs and leagues to help make this survey
as accurate as possible but contributed.

sportingintelligence

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE
CONSULTANCYSportingintelligence has undertaken journalistic and research projects on the business andfinance of sport for bodies ranging from football leagues in the UK and overseas to major media
companies including ESPN in the USA, as well as institutions including Lloyd’s of London, andfootball clubs from second-tier nationally to those among the top 10 in the world.
Our work has included this for the Premier League (https://issuu.com/markdavieslcfc/docs/
sportcal_premier_league_in_numbers_) and this for La Liga (https://www.laliga.es/en/news/
sportcal); and two projects for Lloyd’s of London that correctly predicted the World Cup winners
in 2014 and 2018, most recently here (https://www.lloyds.com/news-and-risk-insight/pressreleases/2018/06/dream-team); and collabotration with JLT on their injury index (https://www.
jltspecialty.com/our-insights/thought-leadership/sport-media-and-entertainment/footballinjury-analysis); and research projects with organisations including America’s Cup, ESPN The
Magazine and the EFL among others; private clients include individuals and their legal firms
seeking expertise for cases involving quantum claims for loss of earnings. By their nature theselatter cases are often secret, never disclosed, even when settled. Sportingintelligence clients
have settled individual quantum claims for more than £4m on multiple occasions.

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