A lot has been noted in the past about players going off the rails in gambling or suffering depressiong after leaving football, especially the more successful they become - some lucky one's go into punditry and straight back into the game at various levels, which helps sustain their mindset in an environment where their knowledge and skills count still, but many others have to move on to different professions.
I was wondering what the reality of being a professional footballer is financially - how much do players earn on average over their career and what does that amount too?
We often hear about the glamorous side to things, but for many who pursue a career in football it's simply not that lavish and careers in the game don't always last that long...
Kay Voser interview showed the human aspect to being a footballer - what he'd do after retirement, the reality of succumbing to injury or the impact of personal trauma's, so I wanted to know how realistic is it for players to not have a consideration of what to do next after football - is there that space for luxury of choice once they hang up their boots etc and what does that normally accumulate too?
What is the average income, but not only that the average career span of a professional footballer and at what level?
A quick search on google suggest the average premiership footballer earns between £20-£25,000 a week, whilst a championship player can earn between £4-£5,000 per week...
So an average championship player can expect to earn 208,000 - £260,000 a year, if paid for the full 52 week cycle of a year, whilst a premiership player, on average can earn £1.04 million to £1.3 million if the same rules applied..
Whilst those are large sums - what defines an average premiership and championship player to be valued at that level?
The news often focuses on the big earners the news makers, but how much of an honest reflection is that on the game? Is there lunacy in the fact that the average wage of the average footballer and transfer fee to go with it too, hasn't changed that much whilst astronomical fees are paid for the most noteable players?
The Preston player who recently won £1m (€1m?) is reportedly on £10k/week which, although just one anectodal instance, suggests that General's £4-5k is a bit low and Statto's £15k more likely.
In 2010 the PFA released figures spanning almost three decades for footballer earnings in England. The basic annual wages were as follows for 2009/10 season:
Premier League £1.2m
Championship £211k
League One £73k
League Two £40k
(Average UK worker wage £34k)
These basic wages were enhanced by as much as 50% on average by appearance bonuses etc to achieve for example in the PL a total income of £1.8m. .
Compared to the 1984/5 start point, top division footballers were 46 times better off. In the Championship the players were 14 times better off. In League One footballers received 6.5 times more, with League Two achieving 4.6 times more. The average UK worker's wage rose slightly less than three times over the same period.
These figures seem to lend credence to Statto's analysis.
Not so far been able to locate more up to date figures but will continue my search later on today.
Quote from: toshes mate on January 09, 2018, 11:41:18 AM
In 2010 the PFA released figures spanning almost three decades for footballer earnings in England. The basic annual wages were as follows for 2009/10 season:
Premier League £1.2m
Championship £211k
League One £73k
League Two £40k
(Average UK worker wage £34k)
These basic wages were enhanced by as much as 50% on average by appearance bonuses etc to achieve for example in the PL a total income of £1.8m. .
Compared to the 1984/5 start point, top division footballers were 46 times better off. In the Championship the players were 14 times better off. In League One footballers received 6.5 times more, with League Two achieving 4.6 times more. The average UK worker's wage rose slightly less than three times over the same period.
These figures seem to lend credence to Statto's analysis.
Not so far been able to locate more up to date figures but will continue my search later on today.
But those figures will include fringe players and newly signed 17 year olds. I got the impression the OP meant those actually playing for the 1st team which will be very different.
I've seen TC driving his nearly new Bentley, so it's safe to assume that he's doing alright.
Make no mistake the Premiership players are grossly overpaid and sensibly their salary should be capped to a much lower level. Championship players seem to earn more than enough money to set them up for life so have no cause for complaint.
In the good old days wages were much much lower and players really had to think about retirement , some struggled and were really poor in later life, Tommy Lawton finished up on the dole. Many players took over the running of pubs, I think Beddy Jezzard ran a pub locally. Jonny Haynes ran a laundry. The old stars were not afraid of a bit of hard graft.
Quote from: FFCAli on January 09, 2018, 12:52:07 PM
Quote from: toshes mate on January 09, 2018, 11:41:18 AM
In 2010 the PFA released figures spanning almost three decades for footballer earnings in England. The basic annual wages were as follows for 2009/10 season:
Premier League £1.2m
Championship £211k
League One £73k
League Two £40k
(Average UK worker wage £34k)
These basic wages were enhanced by as much as 50% on average by appearance bonuses etc to achieve for example in the PL a total income of £1.8m. .
Compared to the 1984/5 start point, top division footballers were 46 times better off. In the Championship the players were 14 times better off. In League One footballers received 6.5 times more, with League Two achieving 4.6 times more. The average UK worker's wage rose slightly less than three times over the same period.
These figures seem to lend credence to Statto's analysis.
Not so far been able to locate more up to date figures but will continue my search later on today.
But those figures will include fringe players and newly signed 17 year olds. I got the impression the OP meant those actually playing for the 1st team which will be very different.
No I include squad players too - all players who're playing at professional level, regardless of how frequently. I'd be fascinated to know what the average life of a footballer looks like because I imagine it's far from the glamourous one that's portrayed in the papers.. I imagine most are comfortable in the top two leagues but after that it's a very average job, full of people who just play it for the love of it, hardly if ever get recognised in a month of Sunday's (perhaps even a few premiership players hardly get noticed when out and about)... and who have to develop a career outside their profession whilst pursuing football...
I wonder what careers footballers go into afterwards too... We can talk about things like punditry etc, but realistically those jobs are few and far between and also very infrequent... do you think ex players ever charge to go back to their old clubs for publicity stuff? Aside from coaching, which again must be very competitive - there aren't a huge amount of roles available in the game for ex players (especially en masse) to move into.
The figures given by the PFA are all median averages divided simply into the league players are in at the end of the season. There is also some extra work done by the Sports Intelligence foundation to come up with gross take home pay as compared to basic pay which is what the PFA provided. I should also add that players are much better 'looked after' via the PFA and others in career development, education, training for post career retirement and, essentially, early retirement through injury etc than the times filham refers to above. I agree PL players get far too much cake and the lower leagues get way too little but there is nothing new about that.
Just for comparison purposes Manchester United's average player pay in 2016 was £5.8m, with City marginally inferior with £5.4m. They rank fourth and ninth in the global all sports pay league (which doesn't include individuals e.g. tennis, golf etc).
In 2010 the PFA released figures spanning almost three decades for footballer earnings in England. The basic annual wages were as follows for 2009/10 season:
Premier League £1.2m
Championship £211k
League One £73k
League Two £40k
(Average UK worker wage £34k)
I believe 8 years on now, with inflation and greater demand for the game, these numbers can safely be assumed as double at this point.
Quote from: General on January 08, 2018, 11:37:32 PM
What is the average career span of a professional footballer and at what level?
Staggeringly short at an average of eight years according to the PFA in 2015. That is from signing their first contract to terminating professional terms for whatever reason. I would assume that includes a lot of drop outs for any number of reasons including injury and worse but really did surprise me.
Posted this on wrong thread so here in the right one now.
Championship wages based on 80% of them going to top 30 earners and giving an average weekly wage.
I'm using the 80% figure as that has been used in a couple of articles I have read on this subject.
(https://image.ibb.co/ndnYxR/Champ_wages.png)
While footballers understandably get a bad press for the money they earn, just to put their wages into some kind of context, in 2012 Will Smith is reported to have earned $100m for his part in Men in Black 3. That's roughly £74m for that film alone.
Quote from: Southcoastffc on January 09, 2018, 05:03:48 PM
While footballers understandably get a bad press for the money they earn, just to put their wages into some kind of context, in 2012 Will Smith is reported to have earned $100m for his part in Men in Black 3. That's roughly £74m for that film alone.
So Will Smith has been crossly overpaid as well. Try comparing footballers wages with that of a hospital nurse or even the Prime ministers.
Quote from: filham on January 09, 2018, 06:19:48 PM
Quote from: Southcoastffc on January 09, 2018, 05:03:48 PM
While footballers understandably get a bad press for the money they earn, just to put their wages into some kind of context, in 2012 Will Smith is reported to have earned $100m for his part in Men in Black 3. That's roughly £74m for that film alone.
So Will Smith has been crossly overpaid as well. Try comparing footballers wages with that of a hospital nurse or even the Prime ministers.
My point is that as part of the world of entertainment, footballers are not the most exorbitantly paid. I'm not saying that it's right or wrong, but just stating a fact. Whether others are paid appropriately is not what I was commenting on.
Quote from: General on January 08, 2018, 11:37:32 PM
A lot has been noted in the past about players going off the rails in gambling or suffering depressiong after leaving football, especially the more successful they become - some lucky one's go into punditry and straight back into the game at various levels, which helps sustain their mindset in an environment where their knowledge and skills count still, but many others have to move on to different professions.
I was wondering what the reality of being a professional footballer is financially - how much do players earn on average over their career and what does that amount too?
We often hear about the glamorous side to things, but for many who pursue a career in football it's simply not that lavish and careers in the game don't always last that long...
Kay Voser interview showed the human aspect to being a footballer - what he'd do after retirement, the reality of succumbing to injury or the impact of personal trauma's, so I wanted to know how realistic is it for players to not have a consideration of what to do next after football - is there that space for luxury of choice once they hang up their boots etc and what does that normally accumulate too?
What is the average income, but not only that the average career span of a professional footballer and at what level?
A quick search on google suggest the average premiership footballer earns between £20-£25,000 a week, whilst a championship player can earn between £4-£5,000 per week...
So an average championship player can expect to earn 208,000 - £260,000 a year, if paid for the full 52 week cycle of a year, whilst a premiership player, on average can earn £1.04 million to £1.3 million if the same rules applied..
Whilst those are large sums - what defines an average premiership and championship player to be valued at that level?
The news often focuses on the big earners the news makers, but how much of an honest reflection is that on the game? Is there lunacy in the fact that the average wage of the average footballer and transfer fee to go with it too, hasn't changed that much whilst astronomical fees are paid for the most noteable players?
Both weekly wage averages are much higher than that. I think the Championship is something like 15-16K a week (although there's a huge difference between bigger and smaller clubs in the league) and the Prem is closer to 45-50K a week (again skewed by some huge salaries).
It's why Champ clubs should/are able to lure good players from European leagues -- the pay immediately is much higher than what they were making, and if they get to the Prem, it's 3x that big new paycheck.
We have to remember that professional athletes' income earning is opposite to the rest of the world. It's front-loaded, and they must then live off their savings for the rest of their lives, while inflation eats away at what's left when they hang up their boots. You or I work for 30 odd years, slowly growing our life savings, scrimping and saving, and socking away what we can, hopefully making more every year until we, too, hang it up. The professional player has to worry about wealth preservation over the majority of his lifetime. You and I work until retirement which usually occurs from 60 to 67, depending on personal circumstances. So, yeah, their salaries seem like a lot. They are a lot. But not from the perspective of 40+ more years of having to live off of what's left.
They have mine fields of entourages, sycophants, financial planners, extended family members, etc., all trying to break off a piece of that money. The landscape is littered with former players who end up with nothing, because they couldn't manage their money, didn't have the self-discipline to live small with their eyes on preserving what they earned. The buying sprees. The clubbing. Bar keep, Remy Martin for everyone. Everyone's your friend. Until the money's gone. Or until you wise up. Oh, wait, there's the phone again. Some guy I hardly know keeps calling me about investing in a new tech start up company.
Interesting that this thread came up this week and then we have the situation of Paul Moody ex Fulham FC Striker.
He has had a troubled time recently and fans of Oxford, Millwalll and ourselves have set up Justgiving Sites to help Paul out at this time.
If you have not see the thread its at http://www.friendsoffulham.com/forum/index.php?topic=63218.0
Forever Fulham: good post. You mention 'minefields'. Surely agents have to be the lowest of the low. Read today that the Barkley move the those people down the road was for a £15M fee. ON TOP, was an agents fee of £7M. For Christ's sake, the kid has been gagging to leave, he had sign posted (and been accepted) by the club he wanted to go to and yet they blag a commission worth about half the fee?
I know there are lots of things wrong in this world but this breed of scum bag sets the bar very high.
I feel player agents are only slightly higher up the rung than real estate agents. Leeches all of them. I'm paying a combined total commission of 6% so that somebody can open the front door so my wife and I can look around. And then, while pointing to the kitchen, say, "Here's the kitchen." Sheesh.
Quote from: Forever Fulham on January 10, 2018, 04:07:25 AM
We have to remember that professional athletes' income earning is opposite to the rest of the world. It's front-loaded, and they must then live off their savings for the rest of their lives, while inflation eats away at what's left when they hang up their boots. You or I work for 30 odd years, slowly growing our life savings, scrimping and saving, and socking away what we can, hopefully making more every year until we, too, hang it up. The professional player has to worry about wealth preservation over the majority of his lifetime. You and I work until retirement which usually occurs from 60 to 67, depending on personal circumstances. So, yeah, their salaries seem like a lot. They are a lot. But not from the perspective of 40+ more years of having to live off of what's left.
They have mine fields of entourages, sycophants, financial planners, extended family members, etc., all trying to break off a piece of that money. The landscape is littered with former players who end up with nothing, because they couldn't manage their money, didn't have the self-discipline to live small with their eyes on preserving what they earned. The buying sprees. The clubbing. Bar keep, Remy Martin for everyone. Everyone's your friend. Until the money's gone. Or until you wise up. Oh, wait, there's the phone again. Some guy I hardly know keeps calling me about investing in a new tech start up company.
they are allowed to have another job after retirement. With the hours they keep for footballing there's plenty of time for study or to learn a trade