€445 million wage bill for Bundesliga

The 18 Bundesliga teams are set to spend a total of €445 million on player’s wages for the forthcoming 2005/06 season, a survey carried out by German press-agency dpa revealed. Last season’s double winners Bayern Munich comfortably top the list with €60 million ahead of 2003-04 Bundesliga winners Werder Bremen with €40

million and last season’s runners-up Schalke 04 (€38.5). The leading trio will represent Germany in the UEFA Champions League while UEFA Cup participants Bayer Leverkusen (€36 million), VfB Stuttgart (€35 million) and Hertha BSC Berlin (€23 million) are fourth, fifth and 11th respectively on the list. The bottom-three places

are occupied by Arminia Bielefeld, newly-promoted MSV Duisburg (both €12 million) and FSV Mainz 05 (€11.5 million), who were given the right to play in the UEFA Cup after being drawn in the fair-play draw.