BS: Premiership wages 'to top £1bn

Subject: BS: Premiership wages 'to top £1bn
From: GUEST,Bob
Date: 31 May 07 - 10:02 AM

Salaries and bonuses will increase next season as a £1.7bn television deal for top-flight games comes into effect, the report says.

Deloitte's annual review of football finances showed Premier League wages rose 9% to £854m in 2005/06.

Chelsea's outlay totalled £114m while four other clubs paid more than £50m.

The new TV revenue - including domestic and international rights - equates to about £300m extra per season over the lifetime of the current three-year deal.

        
Whilst wages will rise, clubs do have the opportunity to increase the importance of performance related pay structures
Paul Rawnsley
Sport Business Group, Deloitte

However, Deloitte said the wave of new owners at clubs, including Aston Villa and Liverpool, was likely to result in more restraint in spending, with servicing debt and investing in stadia being other key priorities.

"A lot of these new owners have had sporting success but also considerable financial success", said director of Deloitte's Sports Business group, Alan Switzer.

"A decent chunk of the money will still flow through to the players, but we don't think it will be the same proportion that flowed through previously."

        
JUST FANCY THAT! - STATS FROM THE 2005/06 SEASON
Four Championship teams paid more in wages than they made in revenue
Premier League and Football League clubs paid about £50m in agents fees
France's Ligue 1 made a profit for the first time since 2000
English professional football paid about £650m in taxes
Chelsea's pre-tax losses fell from £140m to £80m

While spending on transfers is set to exceed £300m this summer, Deloitte's Paul Rawnsley said it was not viable for clubs to simply throw money at players.

"Whilst wages will rise, clubs do have the opportunity to increase the importance of performance related pay structures," he said.

"This will both insulate the business in future when on-pitch results are not so good, and also help motivate and reward players and management for winning."

Graph showing where revenue is made

The report confirmed that the Premiership was once again the top-earning league in the world.

Its 20 clubs generated £1.4bn in turnover on 2005/06, a figure expected to rise to £1.8bn in 2007/8.

And the report pointed out that the increased revenue - alongside cost controls - should almost double combined operating profits to £260m next season.

Manchester United was once again top of the English revenue league, making £167.7m.

The club was followed by Chelsea on £152.8m, Arsenal on £133m and Liverpool on £121.6m.


Are they worth it I ask ?

Subject: RE: BS: Premiership wages 'to top £1bn
From: gnu
Date: 31 May 07 - 10:20 AM

Apparently, yes.

Subject: RE: BS: Premiership wages 'to top £1bn
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 31 May 07 - 12:20 PM

Of course they are. Their careers are over by the time they reach their early thirties. Assuming they make £100k a week while they're playing, thats £5.2 million a year. It's tough living the next 40 years or so on perhaps as little as £50 million.

Subject: RE: BS: Premiership wages 'to top £1bn
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 31 May 07 - 12:52 PM

Derby is still buzzing from the other night. There ain't many things that can give so much to peoples lives.

Subject: RE: BS: Premiership wages 'to top £1bn
From: Rog Peek
Date: 31 May 07 - 01:15 PM

If the fans are silly enough to pay the exobitant prices for season tickets and replica shirts, then the players will be laughing all the way to the bank.

I might be persuaded if so many of them weren't such a bunch of cheating pre-madonas.

Almost never watch anymore, the behaviour that is exhibited towards referees and fellow players sickens me.

Subject: RE: BS: Premiership wages 'to top £1bn
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 31 May 07 - 01:52 PM

Of course the vast majority of the players at the lower levels never get a fraction of the silly money, and yet it's that's which keeps the game alive. For the time being anyway. Sooner or later the silly money and the business model is liable to kill the showbiz sport.

It's the same as music really.

Subject: RE: BS: Premiership wages 'to top £1bn
From: GUEST,Bruce Michael Baillie
Date: 01 Jun 07 - 01:04 AM

...Personally I think they're all a bunch of overpaid wankers! but then I've never been to a football game in my life and certainly aren't about to start now. But like the man said, if the fans are so fucking stupid as to pay these inflated prices to wear some tastless badly designed nylon tat while watching a load of stroppy oiks laying into one another for 90 minutes what can you expect, a fool and his money are soon parted!
...I could go on but perhaps I'd better not!

Subject: RE: BS: Premiership wages 'to top £1bn
From: alanabit
Date: 01 Jun 07 - 04:26 AM

The first time I went to a football match, it was a Third Division affair. Watford, who were promoted that year, beat Plymouth Argyle by 2-1 on a dull April evening at Home Park. As a young teenager, I was staggered by the power, speed and skill of these men, who were only mediocre by the standards of professional football. Like them or not, they are good at one thing.
I will go along with the complaint that there is a large amount of cheating and bad sportsmanship in the game. However, anyone who thinks it is an easy living should try a training session with those guys. If I belted a football at you with all of my puny might, it would move at about half the speed a pro could shift it. Believe me, you would get out of the way! It is a pro's job to put his body in the way of that ball.
As Kevin McGrath pointed out, the very high rewards are reaped by a handful of players, with mainly very short careers. Whatever you think, they do not get paid for nothing. Not many jobs carry meniscus operations, broken legs, Achilles tendon and cruciate ligament injuries as occupational hazards. Now when someone starts a thread about company directors receiving huge bonuses after they have made imncompetent decisions, resulting in huge job losses, then I will happily join in the virtual lynch mob. Like them or loathe them, the elite professional footballers have reached the top of a very greasy pole. They deserve the rewards.

Subject: RE: BS: Premiership wages 'to top £1bn
From: Grab
Date: 01 Jun 07 - 07:31 AM

As always, they're only worth what someone's prepared to pay. If the clubs aren't prepared to pay that much, the players won't get paid that much. And the clubs can only pay that if people will pay to watch (either in person or on TV), or if some rich bloke is prepared to subsidise them as his own little hobby.

Graham.