On Thursday, UEFA published the payrolls for European clubs, via Le Parisien, and as many would expect, FC Barcelona and Real Madrid were the first two clubs at the top of the list.
The Catalan club currently has a payroll of €529 million, followed by Los Blancos with €431-million, and in third is Paris Saint-Germain, who is spending €337-million.
Since 2017, the Parisien club has seen a 24 percent increase in their payroll, which is obviously due to the arrivals of Neymar Jr. and Kylian Mbappé.
Despite the high salaries that PSG pay, the capital club does make a large portion of the money back in the revenues that they produce. According to another article in Le Parisien, in 2018-19, PSG generated €635.9 million in revenue, which is fifth among European clubs.
"Deloitte Football Money League 2020"@PSG passe de la 6e à la 5e place au classement des clubs qui ont généré le plus de revenus en 2018-19, grâce à des revenus en hausse de 17,3 % (de 541,7 M€ en 2017-18 à 635,9 M€ en 2018-19).
A venir sur @NewsTankFoot / @NewsTankSport pic.twitter.com/kmAqc07wVt— News Tank Football (@NewsTankFoot) January 14, 2020
Although PSG is generating and spending large sums of money in Europe, they’re the anomaly in France.
With television revenues being the primary source of income at 37 percent, plenty of French clubs are struggling since Ligue 1 only generated €1.7 billion in 2018. If more clubs want to see increased income that allows them to keep their players longer, the league will need to negotiate a better television deal.
When comparing Ligue 1’s television contracts to the rest of Europe, the French league is the worst of all of them in terms of income that they bring in.
Furthermore, at the box office, PSG is once again the anomaly as the Parisian club generates €93.3 per spectator per game. That’s quadruple of what other French clubs are averaging at the ticket offices, which is €21.9 per person per match. Much like their television deal, Ligue 1 is last in the amount clubs average when it comes to ticket income as most European clubs are averaging €27.3.
Seeing PSG generate and spend their income with the top European clubs is a welcome sign for supporters of the club. However, for those that also support the league and French football as a whole, it is a worrisome sign to see how far behind most clubs are in France when it comes to generating revenue.
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