The Premier League pay the higher wages than any other league in the world, according to the Sporting Intelligence Survey.
The survey, which tracks 349 teams across eight sports in 13 countries, has found that the Premier League is the richest league in the world, paying players £2.99 million per year on average.
That's more than £700,000 per year more than La Liga clubs are paid on average and more than £1.4 million more than Serie A clubs pay their players.Though, La Liga giants Barcelona and Real Madrid more than anyone else, with Barcelona breaking the £10 million mark in terms of the average wage, while their fierce rivals - now without Cristiano Ronaldo - pay £8 million per year on average.
The Spanish giants are above any other club or franchise in any other sport in their average pay scale, topping six of the highest paying NBA franchises. Then come Juventus and Manchester United on the list with the latter shelling out an average of £6.7 million per year.
The Red Devils are the highest paying club in the Premier League, contributing a sizeable chunk to a league that pays more than any other. Manchester City pay their players an average of £5.93m per year, just over £700,000 less than their city rivals. Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool are all also in the top 40 highest paying sports teams in the world.
Premier League players earn an average of £55,714 per week which is 36% higher than the next highest paying league in La Liga and almost double the average weekly pay in Serie A.And not only are Premier League clubs shelling out higher wages than anybody else, but they are also paying more in transfer fees, according to 21st Club's head of football intelligence Omar Chaudhuri, who contributed to the survey
Chaudhuri told The Guardian: “One Scandinavian team we met last year were looking to sell one of their brightest young stars to raise some income. Our objective valuation of the player – based on similar players in the market – assessed him to be worth €6m to €8m (£5.3m to £7.1m). ‘But if we sold him to an English club,’ said the club’s sporting director, ‘we could maybe get double that.’ If anything, he had underestimated this premium.”
As with any survey based on averages, the figures are warped by the bigger clubs and that's certainly true in La Liga, where, below the top three or four clubs, most clubs fail to keep up with what the majority can offer in the Premier League.
Even in the Premier League, the wages paid by the likes of Cardiff and Huddersfield are minuscule compared to the likes of Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea.However, all 20 clubs contribute towards the sky-high total and it also means that the Premier League is the third-highest paying sports league in the world in terms of average money per game.
Premier League players earn, on average, £78,703 per game, and that ranks third in the world's sporting leagues. Cricketers in the Indian Premier League earn a staggering £274,624 per year, making them the highest paid players per game, while the NFL ranks second with players earning an average of £138,354 per game.
Though, it's the NBA that remains the highest paying sports league in the world with average basic salaries of £5.9 million per season based on the current season. That's almost double what the Premier League, football's highest paying league, pays its players.
