Scottish Premiership side Celtic is "spending more than twice as much" on its average weekly wage bill as rival Rangers and more than five times that of Aberdeen, a new financial study revealed, according to Alasdair Mackenzie of the HERALD SCOTLAND. The Global Sports Salaries Survey conducted by Sporting Intelligence shows that Celtic is "shelling out" an average of £14,135 ($18,800) per week on its players' salaries, compared to £6,338 ($8,440) by Rangers and Aberdeen's £2,623 ($3,500). While that sum places Celtic at "a lowly number 203 in the world rankings," it "blows their domestic competition out of the water." Celtic’s average annual wage expenditure is £735,040 ($979,220), compared to Rangers' £329,600 ($439,100) and Aberdeen’s £136,382 ($181,700). Heart of Midlothian is the next highest spender in the league with an average annual outlay of £95,514 ($127,200) and weekly average of £1,837 ($2,500), followed by Hibernian, which is "just two places behind" with costs of £87,100 ($116,000) and £1,675 ($2,230), respectively. Hamilton Academical is the lowest spender in the division with just £798 ($1,060) per week and a yearly average of £41,488 ($55,300). The survey said, "Among the leagues in this survey, the Scottish Premiership is uncompetitive. The difference between the average basic Celtic salary at the top of the Scottish Premiership pay list (£735,000) and the average Hamilton salary at the bottom (£41,000) is even larger than last season, when it was 'only' 16.9 times bigger" (HERALD SCOTLAND, 11/27).
