TOP OF THE HEAP
Survey shows how expensive it is to watch English club football
PREMIER LEAGUE tickets are not just the most expensive in the world in absolute terms − at £28.80 on average for a ‘cheap’ adult seat − but take up a larger chunk of the average fan’s wages than virtually any league globally. An exclusive Mail on Sunday study of the world’s football leagues today reveals fans in only two countries, Brazil and China, need spend a bigger portion of their weekly income to watch top-flight-football, and only by a whisker.
Our analysis weighs the average price of a ‘typical’ top-flight ticket in 34 countries against local income. It shows a supporter in England could buy 14.3 tickets with a week’s pay (£411).
In Brazil the average seat costs £12.73, or 14.2 tickets for a week’s pay, and in China the income is £140 and the average seat, according to a spokesman, is £10, or just 14 tickets.
Statistics on this page and available in full online show the extraordinary range of prices that fans pay around the world.
The cheapest tickets when weighted to income are in Algeria, where a £1.40 seat means a fan could buy 118 tickets with a week’s pay.
Germany’s Bundesliga is often lauded as a bargain − but 22 countries offer better value against local wages. A typical Bundesliga seat costs £19.17, meaning a fan there can buy 27 tickets with a week’s pay.
Premier League clubs have the highest average incomes in the world, at around £155m each, and the highest average wages, at £2.3m. Both put its closest rival, Germany’s Bundesliga, in the shade, on £1.46m and £90m comparatively.
Spain’s La Liga is indisputably home to the game’s most stellar names − Ronaldo, Messi, Bale, Suarez and James − but the Premier League is home to the most stars at the summer’s World Cup, 112. The Bundesliga beats the Premier League in average attendance per match, at 42,609 for last year, but the Premier League (36,695) had more fans overall, at 13.94m to 13m in Germany’s top flight.
Spanish clubs have won most continental trophies over the past decade, with four Champions Leagues, and five UEFA Cup/Europa Leagues. The EPL is next on four (3CL, 1 UC).