Manchester United highest ranked football team in the Global Sports Salaries Survey

November 2016

Manchester United highest ranked football team in the Global Sports Salaries Survey: According to according to Sportingintelligence’s Global Sports Salaries Survey (GSSS) for 2016, Premier League football team, Manchester United, have become the highest ranked football team in the survey. This year Manchester United have climbed from number 6 in 2015, to number 4 in the most recent survey.

2016 marks the first year, since the Global Sports Salaries Survey began, that Manchester United’s average first-team pay has beaten every other football club.

Following a summer of big name hires for the club, including Paul Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the already wealthy team has become even more costly to service and Manchester United’s average basic first-team salary for 2016-17 has been calculated at £110,962 per week or £5.77 million annually.

The survey puts Manchester United (4^th) in front of Barcelona (6^th); the second highest paid football team, whose salary average currently stand at £5.65 million per year. The GSSS has also ranked Manchester United ahead of rival team, Manchester City, who is currently ranked at number 9, with an average salary of £5.4 million per year.

When looking at the top 12 teams in the survey, the only football teams featured are Manchester United, Barcalona and Manchester City. A further 8 teams are from the NBA and the Yankees are from baseball.

In 2015, 5 Premier League football teams were featured in the top 20 list, whereas this year, just Manchester United and Manchester City were featured in the top 30 and only the addition of Chelsea (number 34) made the top 40. Arsenal ranked at 47 and made the top 50 and Liverpool ranked at 60 and made the top 60.

With new television deals for England’s top division came an increase in wages. The increases differ across teams but are especially prevalent within smaller teams. The basic annual pay in the Premier League for 2016-17 currently stands at more than £2.4 million per player.