Why Are Football Players Paid So Much? The Secret is You!

Who hasn’t dreamed of being the next Messi or Ronaldo? Mo Salah took these dreams to a whole new level with the amount of success he achieved. When you dream of being a top football player it usually involves the obscene amounts of money we hear football players receive but have you ever wondered why they get paid so much?

The Most Popular Sport in the World

Football is considered to be the most popular sport with more than 4 billion followers/fans around the globe. Those who can’t watch the game in person at the stadium do so on their TVs/devices which allows for more advertisements to reach a wider audience and as we all know more advertisements = more money!

Many fans also like to buy their team’s paraphernalia like T-Shirts, balls, gloves, etc. Some buy season tickets for their favorite team so that they can attend all the matches while others gamble on the outcome of the matches.

All these reasons and more make football one of the best investments there is. Many businessmen are involved in the sport whether owning teams or stadiums or sponsoring them and it all comes back to the support of those 4 billion fans.

Speaking of football don’t forget Egypt’s upcoming 2 matches in March, check our article for more information.

Where do footballers’ salaries come from?

• Sponsorship/endorsement deals.
• Selling the rights to broadcast matches. Did you know that beIN Sports paid $412 million to purchase the rights to broadcast the European Champions League? And that’s per season!
• Advertising and publicity.

As mentioned earlier many businessmen are involved in the sport due to it sure profit margin.

All these factors encourage clubs to spend more on developing its players, facilities and yes, their players’ salaries, they are their main source of income after all.

Extravagant numbers:

• In 2007 Sky Sports paid 1.7 billion Pounds Sterling for the Premier League broadcasting rights for 5 years.
• Emirates paid 100 million Pounds Sterling for the right to rename Arsenal Stadium to Emirates Stadium for 15 years.
• Not to mention the amount of money clubs spend buying/swapping players. Their salaries are of course huge and always on the rise.

The sport back in the old days

Way back when, football wasn’t as popular as it is today. In fact it wasn’t a sport you pursued professionally, on the contrary clubs used to charge their players for their T-shirts. The sport was mostly popular among students and factory workers as opposed to now where almost everyone follows the sport to the extent it has become a multimillion-dollar industry.