Manchester City won the Premier League last year, with record paychecks. This is second only to Barcelona, but Man City is not suffering the financial repercussions. In fact they also have record revenues of almost $900 million in the 21-22 season! So why is Man City so good? 

Well first of all, it’s their sponsors. They are getting money from their owner, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan. The seemingly endless reserve of cash is definitely a factor. If they have more money, they can get better players (just look at Kevin de Bruyne with his almost $500,000 per week paycheck).

So, usually the richest teams win - we have also seen this in Serie A, where the gap between Juventus, the team with the highest wage bill, and the lowest, Spezia, was about 9.5 times*. Again, in the Bundesliga, we have Bayern on top and a 15.5 times difference between them and Greuther Furth. La Liga had a 18.5 times difference (Real Madrid and Rayo Vallecano) and France holds a stunning 41.5 times difference between PSG and Clermont foot. Compared to that, the pay gap between Man City and Brentford, the lowest paid club, of 5.65 times, isn’t even comparing. The extreme difference between wages is playing a part in their winning streak. 

But why aren’t all these other clubs sitting in order of their pay? It’s mostly due to the way soccer is: low-scoring, fluctuations, bad performances, good performances, and sheer work rate. For example, in Ligue 1 it’s true that PSG was sitting in first while Clermont Foot was fourth to last, but in the prem Brentford still finished middle of the table at 13th while Man City took the win.

By now we’re all expecting Man City to win the league this year, despite other team’s efforts. So while the European leagues may not be completely fair in regards to wages, it’s interesting to see the ups and downs for the teams we know and love. 

*stats as of the 21-22 season

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/15/business/manchester-city-player-wages.html

https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/38705038/why-premier-league-european-football-anything-fair