Barcelona became the first football team to spend over half a billion euros in wages after its staff costs "shot up" by 42% over the past year, a KPMG study found, according to Rik Sharma of REUTERS. KPMG’s Football Benchmark study analyzed the squads and finances of the champions of Europe’s top eight leagues. Barcelona, which signed Brazilian Philippe Coutinho from Liverpool in Jan. '18 for a club record €160M, has staff costs of €562M a year. Paris St. Germain has the second-highest wage bill on the KPMG list at €332M, an increase of 20%. Expenditure on wages "rose across the board" with the exception of EPL champion Man City, which saw its spending on wages fall 5% (REUTERS, 1/14). In Dublin, Mark Paul reported the study found PSG "made the most profit" of the clubs that won their league. Barcelona recorded net operating revenues (excluding the effect of player transfers) of €689M, ahead of Bayern Munich at €596M and Man City's €568M. PSV Eindhoven, meanwhile, had revenues of just €62M. Only two of the eight clubs made an operating loss over the season, with Galatasaray "in the red" by €49M and Juventus losing €19M. PSG made a profit of €32M, while PSV "scraped into the black" by €200,000 (IRISH TIMES, 1/15).
