Barcelona have highest wage-bill as Man Utd top spending charts

12 January 2017 13:31

Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain spent the most on transfers during the 2015 financial year, while Barcelona and Real Madrid had the game’s highest wage-bills.

UEFA’s annual club licensing benchmarking report, released on Thursday, provided a wealth of information on the state of clubs’ finances.

It highlighted net transfer spending from Spain’s big two that was beaten by clubs on Italy and England as they splash out on high wage costs to maintain their star-studded squads.

 

UNITED AND PSG THE BIGGEST SPENDERS

UEFA’s report ranked the top 20 clubs by net transfer costs, calculating player acquisitions and sales and spreading the values over the length of each player’s contract.

United’s net total transfer spend was €100million across the 2015 financial year, putting them well clear of PSG (€84m) at the top of the spending charts. United also rank as the highest net spenders over a six-year period.

The €100m figure – made up of €131m spending and €31m sales – was the second highest of the decade, behind Manchester City’s splurge in 2011.

City were third with a net spend of €74m, with three Serie A sides Inter (€60m), AC Milan (€50m) and Juventus (€41m) making up the top six.

Barcelona were seventh (€37m), narrowly ahead of Chelsea (€36m) and Arsenal (€34m).

QPR (10th, €34m) and Sunderland (12th, €27m) were among the teams to have higher net transfer costs than Madrid (15th, €26m) over the financial year.

 

BARCA AND MADRID HAVE TOP WAGE BILLS

Barca and Madrid’s low comparative spending can perhaps be explained by their massive wage bills.

Luis Enrique’s team were the biggest payers in the game with an astonishing €340m splashed out on player salaries over the 2015 financial year, an increase of 37 per cent.

Madrid paid out €289m, with Chelsea (€284m), City (€276m) and United (€266m) not far behind.

PSG (€255m), Arsenal (€250m), Bayern Munich (€236m) and Liverpool (€216m) make up the nine teams to be paying out more than €200m on wages. 

Of those, Chelsea’s bill took up the highest proportion of their total revenue, consuming 69 per cent.

Premier League strugglers Swansea City and relegated Aston Villa (19th and 20th, both €110m) were surprise inclusions in the top 20.

 

MADRID’S SQUAD VALUE COMES OUT ON TOP

The report also provided a breakdown of the top 20 clubs by value of their squad.

Madrid’s squad had the highest balance sheet value of €365m, followed by United (€313m) and Chelsea (€294m).

Barcelona (€223m) were sixth behind City (€253m) and Arsenal (€224m), with Premier League teams making up six of the top nine.

English side Southampton (17th, €99m) came in above Borussia Dortmund (18th, €96m).

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