Four Premier League clubs "are among the top ten best-paid sports teams in the world," a study has found, according to David Hughes of the London INDEPENDENT. Sportingintelligence.com's Global Sports Salaries survey found that the "highest-placed English side" is Man City, which pays its first-team players £96,445 ($149,934) per week on average. Man City is joined in the top 10 by ManU, which is sixth with £89,988 ($139,896), eighth-placed Chelsea with £83,713 ($130,141) and Arsenal in 10th with an "average weekly wage" of £77,963 ($121,202). The four clubs are "unsurprisingly" all owned by multi-billionaires, with Man City's Sheikh Mansour topping the list -- "he is on the board of the sovereign wealth fund of Abu Dhabi," which has estimated assets of $773B (INDEPENDENT, 5/20).
PSG TOPS LIST: The London GUARDIAN reported Paris St. Germain is paying a "higher average wage than any other club in any sport worldwide." PSG's average weekly wage of £101,898 ($158,411) makes it sport's "biggest spenders," ranking the club above Real Madrid (£96,933) ($150,693). Eight of the top 12 in the list are football teams, three come from
baseball and one from basketball -- though the NBA "remains the top paying
league as a whole," with players averaging £2.67M ($4.15M) annually. The top 12 clubs are below:
1. PSG £101,898
2. Real Madrid £96,933
3. Man City £96,445
4. Barcelona £90,675 ($140,964)
5. MLB L.A. Dodgers £89,999 ($139,913)
6. ManU £89,988
7. Bayern Munich £85,935 ($133,595)
8. Chelsea £83,713
9. MLB N.Y. Yankees £81,992 ($127,465)
10. Arsenal £77,963
11. NBA Brooklyn Nets £70,102 ($108,981)
12. MLB Detroit Tigers £69,633 ($108,252) (GUARDIAN, 5/20).
FOREIGN OIL: ESPN's Anthony Olivieri wrote there are six teams among the top 10 whose business relationships "have been buoyed by black gold." Sportingintelligence.com Editor Nick Harris said, "Foreign ownership, and oil money in particular, has transformed elite
English soccer in the past decade and is now making a significant
impression in other leagues -- and sports. Before Qatar Sports Investments bought France's PSG in 2011, they
weren't among the top 10 French clubs in all-time title wins. Now
they're on a hat trick of title wins and the world's richest sports
team" (ESPN, 5/20).
