The Liverpool View: Footballers – we pay your wages!

Kieran Maguire is a Lecturer in  Economics, Finance and Accounting at the University’s School of Management:

As supporters watch another sitter being missed, defensive howler or baffling substitution, the cry often goes out “We pay your wages you useless bounder” directed at players and/or managers of their favourite teams (other expletives are also available).

An analysis by the University of Liverpool Management School shows that in reality this isn’t the case, and for some clubs the fans are contributing less than 10% of the wage bill.

In the Premier League the total wage bill for the last season for which details are available (2014/15) show total wage bill of the 20 clubs of just over £2 billion, 29% (£598 million) of this came from fans.

On a club by club basis though, some fans are paying far more than others. Arsenal, whose season tickets are the most expensive in the Premier League, are the only set of fans who contribute over half the wage bill of their team. Gooners see their club paying out £1.91 in wages for every pound paid by fans. At the other end of the scale, for every pound paid by Swansea City fans the club paid out £10.67 in wages.

Here on Merseyside Liverpool paid £2.82 and Everton £4.33 in wages for every pound paid directly from fans.

There seems to be no regional bias, as the top three clubs in terms of the wages/fans ratio are from London, the North West and the North East.

Observers may not be surprised that clubs from socially deprived areas such as Swansea and Stoke are at the bottom of the table, as fans have less disposable income and the areas are not necessarily popular with casual fans or football tourists.

However, there are two London clubs at the bottom of the table, QPR had a one season visit to the Premier League in 2014/15, and Crystal Palace, a club for whom paying only a small fraction in the pound is part of their heritage, is from a fairly rundown area of the capital.

Premier League 2014/5
  £’000 £’000 £’000 Wages/
Team Revenue Matchday Wages Matchday
Arsenal (3) 343,719 100,401 192,213 52%
Manchester United (4) 395,178 90,583 202,561 45%
Newcastle (15) 128,830 26,784 65,087 41%
Tottenham Hotspur (5) 196,377 41,248 100,832 41%
West Ham (12) 120,747 27,212 72,715 37%
Liverpool (6) 297,947 58,956 166,085 35%
Chelsea (1) 319,456 70,778 217,067 33%
Burnley (19) 78,770 7,318 29,395 25%
Southampton (7) 110,619 18,297 78,258 23%
Everton (11) 125,572 17,904 77,515 23%
Leicester City (14) 104,437 13,091 57,438 23%
Manchester City (2) 351,766 43,330 193,821 22%
Hull City (18) 84,090 10,000 55,611 18%
Aston Villa (17) 115,692 13,848 83,777 17%
Sunderland (16) 97,007 11,567 75,158 15%
West Bromwich Albion (13) 96,269 10,695 69,801 15%
Crystal Palace (10) 102,396 10,246 68,028 15%
Stoke City (9) 99,626 9,923 66,580 15%
Queen’s Park Rangers (20) 85,875 8,125 72,914 11%
Swansea City (8) 102,954 7,731 82,541 9%
Total 3,357,327 598,037 2,027,397 29%

By far the biggest contributor to clubs’ coffers was broadcasting rights, which brought in over £1.7 billion, a sum likely to be substantially eclipsed in 2016/17 when the new Sky/BT deal commences. This means that for every £1 paid in by fans through the turnstiles, the TV companies are putting in £2.86. Commercial income, in the form of sponsorship, advertising and so on, brought in £975 million to clubs.

Premier League 2014/15
  £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Team Revenue Matchday Broadcast Commercial
Arsenal (3) 343,719 100,401 124,844 118,474
Manchester United (4) 395,178 90,583 107,664 196,931
Newcastle (15) 128,830 26,784 77,174 24,872
Tottenham Hotspur (5) 196,377 41,248 95,261 59,868
West Ham (12) 120,747 27,212 78,974 14,561
Liverpool (6) 297,947 58,956 122,641 116,350
Chelsea (1) 319,456 70,778 135,565 113,113
Burnley (19) 78,770 7,318 66,586 4,866
Southampton (7) 110,619 18,297 84,175 8,147
Everton (11) 125,572 17,904 81,690 25,978
Leicester City (14) 104,437 13,091 73,675 17,671
Manchester City (2) 351,766 43,330 135,426 173,010
Hull City (18) 84,090 10,000 66,600 7,490
Aston Villa (17) 115,692 13,848 71,447 30,397
Sunderland (16) 97,007 11,567 69,071 16,369
West Bromwich Albion (13) 96,269 10,695 77,465 8,109
Crystal Palace (10) 102,396 10,246 79,668 12,482
Stoke City (9) 99,626 9,923 77,372 12,331
Queen’s Park Rangers (20) 85,875 8,125 65,903 11,847
Swansea City (8) 102,954 7,731 85,190 10,033
Total 3,357,327 598,037 1,776,391 982,899
Average 167,866 29,902 88,820 49,145

In the Championship, without the same level of support from broadcasting income, you may think that fans contribute more, but the opposite is the case as only 27 pence of every pound paid in wages came from fans.

Championship 2014/15
  £’000 Matchday/Wages%
Team Matchday Wages
1 Leeds (15) 13,417 19,848 68%
2 Middlesbrough (4) 12,061 20,481 59%
3 Brighton (20) 10,475 20,641 51%
4 Rotherham (21) 3,029 5,985 51%
5 Charlton (12) 5,110 11,480 45%
6 Ipswich (6) 6,500 15,966 41%
7 Derby (8) 8,368 21,767 38%
8 Sheff Wed (13) 5,130 13,401 38%
9 Blackpool (24) 3,015 7,970 38%
10 Wolves (7) 5,622 17,657 32%
11 Millwall (22) 4,598 15,156 30%
12 Forest (14) 8,386 29,714 28%
13 Birmingham (10) 3,976 14,114 28%
14 Huddersfield (16) 3,644 13,288 27%
15 Brentford (5) 4,784 17,712 27%
16 Watford (2) 5,144 20,689 25%
17 Norwich (3) 10,713 48,529 22%
18 Fulham (17) 7,035 37,068 19%
19 Reading (19) 5,681 33,337 17%
20 Cardiff (11) 5,671 41,566 14%
21 Blackburn (9) 4,064 29,958 14%
22 Wigan (23) 2,433 27,591 9%
23 Bournemouth (1) * 30,437 0%
24 Bolton (18) **
Total 138,856 514,355 27%
Average 6,312 22,363

(* Bournemouth did not provide a breakdown of income in their accounts)

(** Bolton have failed to submit accounts to Companies House and are in breach of company law).

What is noticeable in the Championship is that all the clubs at the top of the table were not in receipt of parachute payments following relegation from the Premier League. This means that to compete with relegated clubs these clubs are more reliant on benevolent owners (Steve Gibson at ‘Boro and Tony Bloom at Brighton) or fans paying high prices to watch their team (Leeds).

Championship 2014/15 (£’000)      
Team Revenue Matchday Broadcast Commercial
1 Norwich (3) 52,165 10,713 28,697 12,755
2 Fulham (17) 41,990 7,035 29,590 5,365
3 Cardiff (11) 40,292 5,671 28,547 6,074
4 Reading (19) 35,034 5,681 24,417 4,936
5 Wigan (23) 30,254 2,433 24,027 3,794
6 Wolves (7) 26,392 5,622 13,000 7,770
7 Leeds (15) 24,419 13,417 5,026 5,976
8 Brighton (20) 23,681 10,475 5,774 7,432
9 Blackburn (9) 22,392 4,064 13,373 4,954
10 Derby (8) 21,467 8,368 5,094 8,005
11 Birmingham (10) 21,048 3,976 12,408 4,664
12 Middlesbrough (4) 20,504 12,061 4,351 4,092
13 Watford (2) 18,393 5,144 4,630 8,619
14 Blackpool (24) 17,988 3,015 13,126 1,847
15 Forest (14) 17,438 8,386 4,615 4,437
16 Ipswich (6) 16,414 6,500 5,067 4,847
17 Sheff Wed (13) 14,930 5,130 5,028 4,772
18 Charlton (12) 11,766 5,110 4,179 2,477
19 Huddersfield (16) 11,453 3,644 4,178 3,631
20 Millwall (22) 11,200 4,598 4,682 1,920
21 Rotherham (21) 10,675 3,029 3,526 4,120
22 Brentford (5) 9,954 4,784 4,372 798
23 Bournemouth (1) 12,867
24 Bolton (18) Not yet available: Due 31 March 2016
Total 512,716 138,856 247,707 113,285
Average 22,292 6,312 11,259 5,149

Whilst broadcast revenues are tiny compared to those of the Premier League, they still contribute a quarter of a billion pounds to clubs in the Championship. This means for every £1 paid in by fans the broadcasters are contributing £1.78.

The upshot of all this is that broadcasters and sponsors are now calling the shots in both divisions.

This is evidenced by some early season fixtures having kick off times changed. The English Premier League (EPL),as it now likes to be known, now has Southampton fans having to travel to Old Trafford at 7:45pm on a Friday night in August. A couple of weeks later Brighton fans have the joys of a 5:30 pm kick off on the Bank Holiday Saturday.

No public transport for either set of fans who want to return home after the match. So fans therefore have the extra cost of overnight stays if they want to watch their teams.

Commercial departments are also driving clubs’ behaviour. Liverpool went to the USA, Everton to Germany, whilst both Manchester United and City visited China, where the football took second place to players being seen gurning in front of cameras as the clubs sell their history and heritage to snack food and photocopier ‘official partners’.

With grounds in the Premier League at full capacity, it is difficult to see how fans can contribute more financially, so the main payers in the form of TV companies and commercial departments will continue to dictate the venue and timing of matches to suit their needs and advertisers.

The new EPL TV deal means that clubs are likely to receive about £35-40 million extra each season from that source. Chelsea have signed a £60 million a season kit deal with Nike, and commercial departments at clubs are trying every way possible to ‘monetise’ their clubs.

This will come at a cost to fans who will have to accept even more disruption to their plans. The new TV deal has extended the football ‘weekend’ from Friday night to Monday night.

Armchair fans will also pay more. To fund the new TV deal Sky have upped their prices so it will cost about £750, and it will be £1,000 if you want BT Sport and HD.

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