INFOGRAPHIC: The highest-paying sports teams in the world

Published June 19, 2015 3:37pm

Which team pays its players the most?

According to the Global Salaries Survey by Sportingintelligence, the best-paying sport is football. And the best-paying team in the world is Paris Saint-Germain, the Qatari-owned, Paris-based football team featuring stars like Zlatan Ibrahimovic and David Luiz.

How well paid?

Each Saint-Germain player earns the equivalent of P364.92 million a year on average, or P7.02 million a week in the period under review. And it seems like that amount has paid off as the team won Ligue 1, the top division in France, for the third year in a row in 2015. Topping the payroll is, of course, the 33-year-old center forward Ibrahimovic, who earns P752.93 million a year.

Real Madrid rose from 4th position last year to 2nd this year, with each player making an average of P347.14 million a year, or P6.68 million a week. With superstars like Cristiano Ronaldo (P853.08 million) and Gareth Bale (P1.03 billion) on the payroll, it’s no surprise their wage bill is so high.

Last year’s highest-paying team, Manchester City, slipped to 3rd position this year, with an average annual pay of P345.39 million, or P6.64 million a week.

Of the Top 10 highest paying sports teams in the world, only two are not football teams — the Los Angeles Dodgers, with an average annual pay of P322.31 million a year or P6.20 million a week, and the New York Yankees at P293.63 million a year or P5.65 million a week. Both are Major League Baseball teams in the US.

Those amounts are staggering, but comparing all that to the P400,000 monthly salary cap for the PBA and it becomes even more amazing.

Check out our infographic on the highest-paying sports teams in the world for 2015:

Despite the dominance of football teams in the Top 10 chart, the highest-paying league is actually the US-based National Basketball Association, with 448 players in 30 teams earning an average of P183.88 million yearly. The highest-paying football league, the Premier League, “only” pays its players P153.58 million yearly on average.

Overall, the 9,731 athletes in 333 teams across 17 major pro leagues make a total of P810.99 billion.

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This article first appeared in slightly different form on iMoney.

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