THE CRAZY PAYMENTS THAT DON’T ADD UP
JAW-DROPPING WAGES PUSH CLUBS TO THE BRINK…WITH THE CHAMPIONSHIP AT THE CENTRE OF THE MADNESS
What jumps out is a widening chasm between the second tier and those clubs below them
THE coronavirus crisis has pushed clubs outside the Premier League precariously close to the cliff edge. Many are looking at meltdown. The administrators are on standby. Decades of history — not to mention scores of jobs — are at risk. Looking at these figures, it is easy to see why.
Each year, the EFL send out a questionnaire to their clubs, asking how much they pay playing and non-playing staff. The resulting report — marked ‘ strictly private and confidential’ — is meant to provide useful benchmarking information for those who make up the three divisions.
it is, to be blunt, sensitive information which is not meant to fall into the hands of a newspaper.
What follows is what they do not want you to see — and the starting place is the centre of the madness: the championship, where the race to the riches of the Premier League — along with the short-term wealth of those aided by parachute payments — dominates the uneven landscape.
Fancy a shot at the top flight? This is what you will be up against.
among the 18 championship clubs who responded, the average basic pay for their highest earner is £1,509,564 a year, which is a mind-blowing £29,000 a week. The man on the most — who plays for a southern club — is on £3,536,000 — which works out as £68,000 every seven days.
Frighteningly, all of the above, and indeed all figures throughout the illuminating report, are basic salaries. They do not include any points payments, often now given for each point a team picks up. They do not include win bonuses, promotion bonuses, staying up bonuses or myriad other incentives, including loyalty bonuses.
The reality is that you can add thousands more to those already crazy numbers.
it would, however, be wrong to suggest that every second-tier club are chasing the dream. There are those who buck the trend and may well be in the best position to ride out the pandemic.
at one such cloth-cutting club, the highest earner is on £442,000 — or a relatively paltry £8,500 a week.
The figures are from the 2019-20 season. The survey is anonymous and six second-tier clubs did not respond — but it is worth noting that this season’s championship features the big- spending likes of stoke city, West Bromwich albion, Derby county, Leeds united, sheffield Wednesday and Fulham.
in many cases, the geographical location of each club is disclosed. readers may wish to make their own minds up as to those teams’ identities.
What immediately jumps out from the 80-page report is the widening chasm between the championship and those below, despite some incredible spending from some in League one which includes Portsmouth and sunderland.
indeed, the Black cats’ new owners bemoaned the staggering overspend before hilariously proceeding to do just that themselves in the most recent series of the club’s netflix documentary.
in League one, where 15 of the 24 clubs responded, the average highest earner is on £ 247,188 (£4,753 a week) and in League Two, where 14 responded, it is £114,020 (£2,192).
one player at a northern League one club is on £811,200 (£15,600) and League Two’s highest earner receives £234,000 (£4,500).
not all can enjoy such riches. With the likes of Barnsley, Luton and Wigan in the second tier, there are huge disparities. one player is paid £13,000 for a year’s work in the championship, and two in Leagues one and Two received just £7,800.
squad sizes also make for interesting reading. one championship club in the south boasts 59 players, enough to put out five starting lineups, and the league average was 37. That fell to a more manageable 28 in League one and again to 26 in League Two. The highest paid championship manager among those who responded is paid £ 3.46million a year — £66,538 a week, with an average across the division of £878,000 a year. one assistant manager, meanwhile, receives a whopping £812,496 (£15,625). Those numbers also plummet beneath the second tier, with the average League one manager paid £182,438 — although one at a southern third-tier club landed £550,000. in League Two the average boss is on £79,462, with the lowest-paid manager in the Football League receiving £45,000 at his southern outfit.
now to more championship madness. at one club, a firstteam coach grabs £200,000 and a goalkeeping coach nets £175,000. contrast that with the same role at a northern League Two club, who pay £ 19,500 to train their stoppers.
one first- team fitness coach, at a northern-based championship outfit, is paid £ 282,000. You would hope their players were as fit as the butcher’s dog. in the same league, another northern-based fitness coach picks up less than a tenth of that, at £25,000.
The chasm also exists in pay for the magic sponge brigade. one physio at a championship side in the Midlands was paid £191,000, close to three times the league average.
The much-debated role of sport scientists also shows a substantial discrepancy. one, at a southern second- tier outfit, is paid £ 100,000 a year, dwarfing the league average of £35,617.
no role is spared — not even the task of sticking dirty underpants in the washing machine. at one southern championship club, the kitman trousers £ 56,000, and elsewhere a masseuse picks up £50,000.
unsurprisingly, those in the corridors of power are not missing out. The average salary for a chief executive or managing director in the championship is £295,179, with one cEo at a Midlands club
on a huge £740,000. In League One, that average fell to £89,566 although one official at a northern outfit scoops £140,000. Directors of football also do well, with one at a southern Championship club topping the list by taking home £360,000.
Office workers can also cash in. The head of IT at a southern Championship club is on £115,000 per year, and there is a head of human resources at a Midlands Championship side on £100,000 a year.
Pay for club secretaries is a little more realistic, with an average of £ 58,448 in the Championship, £41,762 in League One and £30,556 in League Two. The same applies to heads of media, PR and communications, with an average of £55,294 in the second tier, followed by £28,138 in League One and £26,908 in League Two. The highest earner, on £88,000, is at a Midlands Championship club. Salaries for heads of marketing and club website editors show equal restraint.
Stadium managers also do well, with one at a southern Championship side taking £89,565. The same role at one northernbased League Two club pays just £2,000.
The EFL declined to comment. What can be said is that the next few months could see huge changes in football.
Although nobody could have seen the pandemic on the horizon, the report suggests that those changes are long overdue.