The glory game loses its glitter

The soaring wages bill means many of England's best-known football clubs face going under along with those in the lower divisions

Andrew Yates

Spiralling wage costs and transfer fees threaten to plunge the football industry into a financial crisis. Many clubs, possibly including some in the Premier League, face going under, according to the latest annual review of football finance by the Deloitte & Touche accountancy firm.

Published just three days after the new season's curtain-raising Charity Shield match at Wembley, the report warns that there is a widening gulf between the top football clubs and the also-rans. Clubs in lower divisions will find it increasingly difficult to survive as the Premier League continues to grow richer.

Gerry Boon, Deloitte's editor of the report, fears that players' wages could spiral out of control. "Rising wages are football's biggest problem. Only the Premier League has the revenue to support the wages it pays,"he said yesterday.

The English game lost a staggering pounds 98m last season, a sevenfold increase on the previous year. Almost three-quarters of Premier League clubs ended up in the red and Newcastle United lost pounds 23.6m after splashing out on big name signings such as striker Alan Shearer, who became the world's most expensive player with a price tag of pounds 15m. Manchester United apart, which is the UK's most profitable club, Premier League teams lost an average of pounds 4m each.

Players' salaries are now increasing faster than ever before. Italian international Fabrizio Ravanelli is believed to be the highest-paid footballer in the country, picking up pounds 42,000 a week from Middlesbrough, who were relegated from the lucrative Premier League last season. Dozens of other star names are negotiating huge pay rises, putting further pressure on already overstretched finances.

Dennis Bergkamp at Arsenal, for example, is thought to have just secured a pounds 1m pay deal for the coming season and wages of more than pounds 20,000 a week are becoming commonplace. Deloitte estimates Premier League wages leapt by around 25 per cent last season, having more than doubled in the last four years.

Compared with modern-day players, former football stars earned a pittance. Footballing legends such as Sir Stanley Matthews and Tom Finney, received a maximum wage of pounds 20 a week, equivalent to less than pounds 245 in today's money which, itself, is even less than the current UK average wage of pounds 346 a week.

Transfer fees have also spiralled and pounds 93m of cash was spent on foreign players in the 1995/6 season on the likes of Chelsea imports Jianluca Vialli and Franck Leboeuf.

The disparity in television revenues between Premier League and the lower divisions is responsible for widening the gulf between the haves and the have-nots of football. This season, Premier League clubs can expect to receive an average of pounds 4m from TV deals, thanks to a new satellite contract with BSkyB. But the best-paid First Division club will receive just pounds 1m. The report says many clubs are spending large sums of money in a gamble to get promoted.

"Some clubs will almost certainly become seriously unstuck by trying to make it to the Premier League," said Nigel Haw-kins, a football analyst with Yamaichi Bank.

The number of people arrested at football matches has fallen by more than a third during the past four years, figures released yesterday reveal.

The National Criminal Intelligence Service said the drop came despite the highest attendance figures for five years. However, the total increased by 62 in the past year to 4,400 for 1996/7, but that was against a rise of 437,000 in the number of spectators.

Business Comment, page 17

The top earners

Fabrizio Ravanelli

Middlesbrough

pounds 42,000 (Weekly pay)

Alan Shearer

Newcastle United

pounds 38,462

Gianfranco Zola

Chelsea

pounds 25,000

Paul Merson

Middlesbrough

pounds 25,000

Slaven Bilic

Everton

pounds 25,000

Dennis Bergkamp

Arsenal

pounds 22,000

Les Ferdinand

Spurs

pounds 20,000

Marc Overmars

Arsenal

pounds 20,000

Roy Keane

Manchester United

pounds 15,000

Clubs where wages exceed turnover

Division One

Norwich City 108%

Portsmouth 108%

Reading 108%

Ipswich Town 104%

Millwall 102%

Division Two

Notts County 121%

Hull City 110%

Oxford Utd 109%

Brighton 101%

Division Three

Wigan Athletic 223%

Lincoln City 147%

Cambridge Utd 137%

Colchester Utd 131%

Scarborough 103%