Top football players’ wages up by 1500% in past 50 years: Study
Submitted by Rajiv Dhoot on Mon, 08/20/2012 - 10:43.
London, Aug 20 : A new study has revealed that top football players' wages have witnessed a colossal rise of 1500% in the past 50 years, which is many times more than the 186% increase in average UK wages.
A research by the High Pay Centre think-tank showed that players' wages now account for up to 70% of a club''s turnover, compared with 48% in 1997.
Fans are paying the price for `excessive' wages, with the cheapest available ticket for top games increasing by over 1,000% since 1989, according to the report.
The cheapest ticket to watch Liverpool in 1989 was 4 pounds but now it costs 45 pounds, and prices have risen from 5 pounds to 51 pounds at Arsenal, the research found.
English football clubs accounted for 56% of all debt in top-flight clubs across Europe, while over half of English league clubs have become insolvent in the past 20 years, according to the study.
"Over the last 30 years we have seen massive increases in players'' salaries, accompanying this we have witnessed many fans priced out of the market, levels of debt that would be unsustainable in any other business and a national team that is continually out-performed by teams from much poorer football countries," The Daily Express quoted Dave Boyle, author of the report, as saying.
Nick Isles, chairman of the High Pay Centre said: "Bankers and company executives frequently make the comparison between their own pay and that of professional footballers."
"There are similarities. For both the pay is extremely high, excessively complex and in many cases, secret. In football as in business, the money could be better invested in training and infrastructure, rather than unsustainable salary increases," he added. (ANI)
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