According to one of the owners of London's "Crystal Palace," Steve Parish, playing in the richest league in the world brings a lot of problems.
Last week, in an interview given, the 51-year-old businessman said that the pressure of trying to keep a Premier League club afloat is almost unbearable, as relegation would mean a "financial Armageddon."
"We are all affected by the curse of too much money," Parish said.
The English champions this year, London's "Chelsea," earned a total of 151 million pounds sterling. Following closely behind are "Manchester City" with 147 million earned from the Premier League alone, "Liverpool" with 146 million, and London's "Tottenham" with 145 million. The "Potters" moved ahead in earnings because more television viewers watched their matches.
If these amounts don't seem incredibly, then the fact that the team at the bottom of the league table, "Sunderland," added more than 93 million pounds sterling to their bank account should.
On the other hand, football players are demanding higher and higher salaries.
"I have maybe the twentieth most expensive squad in the world in terms of wages," Parish told "The Times." "But do I have the 20th best squad in terms of capability? I very much doubt it."
Indeed, according to the latest "Sportsmail" analysis, 24 clubs spend more on player wages than "Crystal Palace," but their team is certainly not the 25th best in the world.
"Daily Mail" published figures showing how much each club spent on player wages this season. Official numbers won't be released until 2018, but based on previous expenses and projected growth, approximate salaries can be estimated now.
It is worth noting that not only the top clubs but also the smaller clubs are quickly increasing their expenses. For instance, the chairman of Liverpool's "Everton," Bill Kewright, believed that last season's 84 million pound wages will exceed the 100 million pound mark this year, and "Bournemouth's" wages have grown from 59.6 million to almost 70 million.
On one hand, more money in the Premier League should make it easier for medium-strength English clubs to attract stars, as "Paris Saint-Germain" demonstrated by acquiring Yohan Cabaye from "Crystal Palace."
However, this also leads to even higher player demands and transfer fees.
During last summer's transfer window, Premier League clubs spent 1.2 billion pounds - three times more than in 2013. It is predicted that this year transfer fees will increase to 1.5 billion.
The top 25 clubs spending the most on player wages:
1. "Barcelona" - 279 million pounds sterling. 2. "Manchester United" - 265 million pounds sterling. 3. London's "Chelsea" - 256 million pounds sterling. 4. Madrid's "Real" - 250 million pounds sterling. 5. "Manchester City" - 248 million pounds sterling. 6. "Paris Saint-Germain" - 239 million pounds sterling. 7. London's "Arsenal" - 234 million pounds sterling. 8. Munich's "Bayern" - 225 million pounds sterling. 9. "Liverpool" - 200 million pounds sterling. 10. Turin's "Juventus" - 181 million pounds sterling. 11. London's "Tottenham" - 120 million pounds sterling. 12. "Milan" - 115 million pounds sterling. 13. Dortmund's "Borussia" - 113 million pounds sterling. 14. Liverpool's "Everton" - 106 million pounds sterling. 15. "Roma" - 105 million pounds sterling. 16. Milan's "Inter" - 102 million pounds sterling. 17. London's "West Ham" - 95 million pounds sterling. 18-20. "Southampton" - 92 million pounds sterling. 18-20. "Stoke City" - 92 million pounds sterling. 18-20. "Swansea City" - 92 million pounds sterling. 21-22. "Leicester City" - 90 million pounds sterling. 21-22. "Sunderland" - 90 million pounds sterling. 23. Madrid's "Atletico" - 86 million pounds sterling. 24. "West Bromwich Albion" - 84 million pounds sterling. 25. London's "Crystal Palace" - 80 million pounds sterling.
