Premiership wages

Woolly Blue · October 30, 2011

Reidy's Bottle Of Grecian said:
http://www.sportingintelligence.com/2011/10/30/1985-leicesters-lineker-was-englands-top-scorer-everton-won-the-title-and-the-difference-in-pay-from-first-to-fourth-division-was-merely-31-301003/?

When Everton won the First Division title in 1984-85, a typical XI would have been Southall, Stevens, Van Den Hauwe, Ratcliffe, Mountfield, Reid, Steven, Heath, Sharp, Bracewell and Sheedy, with plenty of appearances as well for some bloke called Andy Gray.
The top scorer in domestic football was a Leciester City striker called Gary Lineker, in his final season with the Foxes before a big money move to Everton. He got 24 First Division goals that season, the same as Chelsea’s Kerry Dixon.
Liverpool were runners-up in the league, followed by Tottenham, Manchester United and those other mid-80s big-punchers, Southampton, with Chelsea and Arsenal tucked in behind in sixth and seventh.
The rewards on offer to top players were obviously decent. Figures published for the first time today show that top division players in England earned a basic average of £480 per week (£25,000 a year), which was more than double what the average worker earned, and which was three times as much as players earned in the Fourth Division.
It should be stressed: the gap between the top division and the fourth was only three times as much. Today the difference is 30 times as much.
As we report elsewhere Sportingintelligence has obtained an official PFA document showing the average basic weekly wages, division by division, for the past 25 years.

The table below sets out the basic weekly wages and the difference between the top division and each of the rest.
The ratio between the First Division when Lineker was a Fox and the other divisions was 1.61 to 1 compared to the Second Division, 2.21 to 1 compared to the Third and 3 to 1 compared to the Fourth.
By the time the Premier League started (1992) it was 1.89 to 1, 3.53 to 1 and 4.63 to 1, which is getting bigger but not anywhere as extreme as it would become.
Now it’s 5.51 to 1, 15.85 to 1 and 29.92 to 1.

Would be interesting to see income from Sky plotted on these graphs too.
You can't really blame the players for taking their cut. If people didn't pay for Sky then the wages would be substantially lower.

chicoazul · October 30, 2011

invokes gypsy laws*

Reidy's Bottle Of Grecian · October 30, 2011

another article on there about where and how the prem is watched worldwide.......

.INDIA
Name: Rajeesh Nair.
Age: 22.
Occupation: Software engineer for a multinational company.
Game watched: Man Utd 2 Norwich 0. Date: 1 October 2011. Time: 7.30pm local time. (3pm UK).
Where: In the company dormitory where I live, in Mysore, in Karnataka state south-west India.
Who else was watching: A few friends who also have an interest in football.
TV channel carrying the game: ESPN Star Sports.
How much does it cost: I don’t pay for it because it’s provided where I live. But a subscription cost for an ordinary domestic subscriber would be 400 rupees per month (about £5.20 / $8) for a bundle of channels that includes ESPN Star Sports.

Rajeesh: Indian CFC fan
What’s the local tipple and how much does it cost: The local beer that we usually drink is Kingfisher Blue (it’s awesome) and it costs us around 150 rupees (£1.95 / $3) for a bottle.
What’s the popularity of the English Premier League in your country: I have to say that the popularity of the EPL has surely increased a lot after Venkys became the owners of Blackburn Rovers last year. That got a lot of attention here. And think it will be a great hit in India if we guys here could see some EPL teams coming to India and playing at least a friendly match here. We watch games on TV but we want to see teams live in front of us, even if it’s only a friendly. I’m actually a Chelsea fan and have followed them for several years. But we – people who follow the EPL – all excited about Blackburn Rovers coming to India this week and these kind of promotional matches will help to make EPL a bigger hit in India in my view.
Any other observations: As I’ve said, I am big fan of Chelsea and you perhaps wouldn’t believe me but it’s true that we have intense rivalries over here based on supporting different teams. Certainly defeat by one team to another supported by a colleague can start a row! Among the people I know, I’d say the main teams which are been followed here in India now are Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal, Spurs … and of course Blackburn Rovers since last year.