Man City 2nd, Barca 4th – Which European clubs have the highest wage bills?

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Latest figures revealed 

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While football is clearly a sport that is defined by the quality of the players on the pitch, over the course of the last three or four decades it has come to resemble an arms race that has often been fuelled by which clubs are capable of outspending their domestic and continental rivals. That typically takes the form of transfer fees, but a more covert way for some of Europe’s richest clubs to dominate the sport is by offering tantalising salaries that few can rival. And when it comes to bulging wage bills, few financial metrics indicate who the real big hitters in the Champions League truly are quite like the salaries paid by each club. 

Each year UEFA releases their European Club Finance and Investment Landscape report, which is considered by many within the sport to be the most comprehensive breakdown of the finances of Europe’s top clubs. As part of the federations investigations, they also take stock of the wage bills of the continent’s richest clubs. And as such, we can now take a comprehensive look at which clubs paid the highest wage bills over the course of the 2023/24 season. 

To no great surprise, the club that paid more money in salaries last season was none other than Paris Saint-Germain. According to the UEFA report, the Ligue 1 giants stood alone at the top of the list with an annual salary bill of €658 million. That, rather remarkably, is more than €100m more than second-placed Manchester City, who paid out €554m in wages last season. Which not only underlines the financial might of the Parisian club, but perhaps also adds further proof to the growing argument that PSG are one Europe’s biggest underperformers when it comes to challenging for major awards in continental competitions. 

Following Man City are the Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona, whose wage bills stand at an impressive €505m and €476m respectively. They’re then joined by Liverpool, who round up the top five with a wage bill of €449m. Once we take a look at the rest of the top 10, we can begin to appreciate the financial might of the Premier League take shape. While Bayern Munich claim sixth place with a wage bill of €430m last season, they’re flanked by no less than four English clubs in the form of Manchester United (€429m), Chelsea (€395m), Arsenal (€381m) and Aston Villa (€381m). 

In total, no less than nine Premier League clubs paid the top 20 highest wage bills last season, with Tottenham coming in 14th with a wage bill of €260m, Newcastle sitting in 16th with a wage bill of €227m and, rather curiously, Everton made it into the top 20 with a wage bill of €195m. The prominence of English clubs far outweighs their European counterparts, with just four Italian clubs, and three clubs each from Germany and Spain making the top 20. France only had one club in the top 20, even if it just so happened to be the biggest spenders in the aforementioned PSG.