Wage bill costly for Premier League

Wages are taking up most of the English Premier League's spending, according to a football finances report.

The revenues of the league's clubs exceeded GBP 1.5 billion for the first time by Deloitte's number-crunching. But the ratio of players' wages to turnover hit its highest level since the league started in 1992.

Only eight of the 20 league clubs had an operating profit for 2006-2007. That dropped from 16 the prior year.

The top flight French, Italian and Spanish leagues saw about the same proportion of turnover being spent on wages as in the English Premier league.

Germany had only 45 percent of income going toward salaries. And, as such, the Bundesliga had the highest operating profit margin in Europe at 18 percent. Germany also had the lowest ticket prices and the highest attendance figures.

The Deloitte report noted, though, that much of the spending increase came at English clubs where new ownership had entered the picture.

Wages paid by top-flight English sides grew by 13 percent from the previous season to GBP 969 million. Chelsea paid the highest wages — GBP 132.8 million. But that also might have been due to the record broadcasting deals – foreign and domestic — that have lined the league's pockets.

With that income in mind, the report predicted the 2007-2008 season revenues will rise to GBP 1.9 billion.

Source: euFootball.BIZ © Copyright 2006 - All rights reserved.