New official wage figures reveal how the gap between the Premier League and everyone else "continues to widen -- but how lower-league salaries have remained close to ordinary family incomes," according to Nick Harris of the London DAILY MAIL. With FA Cup weekend in "full swing," teams with contrasting financial resources "are being pitted against each other, nowhere more dramatically than at New Meadow" on Monday, where League One club Shrewsbury Town will host England’s "richest club," ManU. The new wage data "covers the past five seasons across the Football League." Last season, average basic pay in the Championship was £324,250 per player per year, before appearance money and bonuses, while it was £69,500 in League One and £40,350 in League Two. In the Premier League, first-team average salaries were around £1.7M last season, rising above £2M with "routine" bonuses. That means top-flight players "earned just over five times as much as Championship players," almost 25 times as much as League One players, and "around 42 times as much as League Two players," whose basic average salaries are roughly the same as the national average household income of almost £40,000 ($57,000). Thirty years ago, a top-flight footballer earned on average £25,000 per year, or "just two-and-a-half times as much as the average household income" of £9,788. The Premier League’s TV deals "have driven the growth at the top end, with some trickle-down to the Championship," but below that pay levels "are much closer to ordinary fans, as they have been for decades" (DAILY MAIL, 2/20).
