Yep, the cash here will surely hurt. From their perspective though, the silver lining is that they've got no distractions trying to get Champions League football for next season and fifth is likely going to be good enough.

As we all know, I'm a bit thick when it comes to football. However I do have a Maths degree and my arithmetic ain't too bad either.Last season, bearing in mind they went to the final of the Europa League, they played 30 home games (of which 4 were cup games), this year they'll play 20 games (1 cup).
They aren't in Europe this season.Guessing Europe isn't counted as a cup?
They aren't in Europe this season.
I’m guessing our wage bill is highly influenced by winning the league @Beamrider? Given that we have a lot of performance based bonuses in our wage/contract set up.
View: https://x.com/cweatherspoon_/status/2014127738089607383?s=46
Yes, bonuses will be a big / the main driver of the extra cost - I don't recall any significant renewals/signings that would contribute a huge uplift, although some contracts may have had pay increases built in (probably not significant).
There are two levels of bonus. Firstly there is a squad-wide bonus which pays out a central pot based on achievements, and it's apportioned based on games played. This seems to be something of a relic, going back before players had bonuses in their individual contracts. It doesn't pay out a huge amount (by their standards).
They will then have individual bonuses for achievements, goals / assists / clean sheets. These can be either game to game or in some cases based on cumulative achievements (e.g. £1m for 20 goals / assists) - the latter being all or nothing if the target isn't met. And then individual bonuses for winning stuff / European qualification / league finish position.
So a player who performs well individually, even though team performance is poor, can still earn a chunk of change (and vice versa).
There may then be further eligibility criteria for the league / CL bonuses - i.e. player needs to play / be on the bench for X% of the games in that competition. This was something learnt by experience after we had to pay a player £1m for CL qualification, even though he'd been out on loan all season and hadn't contributed to it.
Finally, when comparing to other clubs, it's also worth bearing in mind that payroll isn't necessarily like for like. For example, some clubs outsource their merchandising / stewarding / catering & hospitality so their staff costs don't include those people (ours do), and City siphoned c. £16-17m of costs into side companies to make their FFP figures look better as I've posted on previously.
To be clear, and you probably appreciate this, all the wage bills will include staff, but some clubs have more staff than others because they do things in-house that others out-source (the corollary being that they generate higher revenues and net profit as a result).Great point regarding staff. I saw that in our wage bill staff are included so we probably aren't top if you compare it like for like.
To be clear, and you probably appreciate this, all the wage bills will include staff, but some clubs have more staff than others because they do things in-house that others out-source (the corollary being that they generate higher revenues and net profit as a result).
And some try to fudge their FFP reporting by punting some of their staff (and other related costs) into fellow group companies and then not levying adequate charges for the services provided... *cough* CITY *cough*.
Yes. There will be some consultancy costs as well which won't go into staff costs, but those will be genuinely self-employed people.Thanks mate, do you know if we report all the staff into our wage bill?
Yes. There will be some consultancy costs as well which won't go into staff costs, but those will be genuinely self-employed people.
Anyone the club employs, including casual staff who only do match days, is paid via payroll and reported in staff costs.
Those costs also include a pretty large chunk in relation to agent fees paid on behalf of the players - they're treated as benefits in connection with their employment so reported as wages / salaries.
Some clubs do disclose football and non-football staff separately, but that's pretty rare. The only place I've seen an estimate on the split is in some FIFA report where they reckoned, from memory, about 15% of a club's total payroll would be non football staff, but there will be clubs quite a bit higher or lower than that, depending on how they structure their operations. When I first started at the club the ratio in the budget was something like £150m players / coaching, £30m everyone else (17%). It's probably a bit lower now as growth in player wage rates will have outstripped staff, but we'll have grown the workforce a fair bit as well.
