Champions’ salary bill is still miles in front of rivals

THE scale of the task facing Aberdeen at Hampden on Sunday has been highlighted in the 2018 Global Sports Salaries Survey. The report, produced by sportingintelligence.com, underlines the vast financial advantage Celtic currently enjoy over the rest of their Premiership rivals. It reveals that Brendan Rodgers’s men currently earn over SIX times more than their Pittodrie counterparts on average — and almost twice as much as those at Rangers. First-team players at the Scottish champions pick up a basic weekly average of £16,646, or £865,614 annually. In comparison, Rangers pay their players £8,972 per week, amounting to an average of £466,556 over a 12-month period. Aberdeen are third on the domestic list at £2,667 (£138,667), with Hearts fourth: £2,146 (£111,600), just ahead of city rivals Hibs: £1,988 (£103,376). These figures have increased from the 2017 report, which showed Celtic and Rangers handed out £14,135 and £6,338 per week respectively. Celtic have risen four places to 199th out of 349 global sports teams surveyed, while Rangers rose by 13 to 243rd. The reports also shows the gap between the richest and the poorest is growing, with top-flight newcomers Livingston paying the least amount on salaries at £671 per week (£34,882).