Manchester United are getting a terrible ROI (return on investment). Not only are they not among the true contenders for the Premier League title right now, they’re not even in the top four and in line for UEFA Champions League. Yet they are a team comprised of the highest paid footballer in not just Great Britain, but the entire world.
They’re also have the fourth most expensive wage bill in all of sports.
The Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association are first (£6.54 million per player average), the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball (£5.81 million on average) second and the Los Angeles Clippers of the NBA (£5.78 million on average).
ESPN FC cited a global sports salary survey, produced annually by the Sporting Intelligence website.
The revelations in the survey, as reported by ESPN FC:
United’s first-team squad earn £5.77 million-a-year basic salary on average, which is £110,961-per-week. That is reportedly more than double the average basic first-team pay in England’s top division, which is £2,438,275-a-year or £48,766-a-week.
The next highest football clubs on the list of world sports teams are fifth-placed Barcelona (£5.64m) and ninth-placed Manchester City (£5.42m).
Obviously, Paul Pogba, with his infamous £89.3 million contract, skews the average high for the Red Devils.
It is also worth mentioning that United can afford it these high wages, given that they’re essentially proverbially printing money over at Old Trafford with their massive revenue streams.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication and Bold Global.
He also consistently appears on numerous radio and television talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram and Sound Cloud.