How much do LOI players get paid?

[Colbert Report]

Is this information public? I think it is an excellent way to compare the quality of the league to other leagues. Can anyone tell me where I can find information like average wage, top earner for each team, top earner for the league and total payroll for each team per season? Thanks very much.

[ifk101]

Glen Crowe is the top earner, on about €5,000 a week plus bonuses.

[Spudulika]

Try Football Manager :-) it's about as realistic as figures submitted to the FAI and how Roddy gets his new signings (old Dublin City joke)

[osarusan]

I think it is an excellent way to compare the quality of the league to other leagues.
Seriously?

I doubt that info is in the public domain anyway.

[pineapple stu]

No reason it should be either.

There seems to be an addiction in society lately to having other people's salaries made public.

[Colbert Report]

Sorry, I'm here in North America where all salaries from any professional sports leagues are public by law. I'd like to know solely to compare the quality of leagues. It makes sense that the more a club is willing to pay players, the better players will play for that club. Not always true I realise, lots of times players will take less salary to play for their hometown club, etc.

I remember when Shamrock Rovers played the Danish champions in the Champions League last summer. They played well and only lost 1-0 away, which was an excellent result. They almost went up 1-0 in the return leg if I remember correctly, as they played extremely well and dominated the first twenty-five minutes or so, even hitting the woodwork at one point. In the second half though, Copenhagen kicked things into another gear and I realised just how much of a gulf in quality between the two sides there was.

What kind of investment would be needed to make a LOI competitive with teams like Copenhagen? When you say Glen Crowe is on five thousand euro a week, how much is that per year? Does he get paid only during the weeks of the season or can I just multiply by 52 and have a nice round figure for his gross earnings? Here in North America all annual salaries are in the public domain so it is much easier to see who is getting paid what.

I've often seen people on here contend that the LOI is roughly on par in terms of quality with the lower half of the Championship/upper half of League 1 in England. Is this a fair assumption? How do the earnings of players compare? Surely every starter in the Championship would be on at least five thousand euro a week?

[El-Pietro]

youve been whooshed there lad. Glen Crowe plays Leinster Senior League. No one in the LOI is on as much as €5,000 a year, not even close. Very few players on even a fifth of that anymore.

Majority of players are paid on a 40 week (Correct me if I'm wrong) season, but the numbers are made available, these guys don't get paid very much, a large number of them have full time jobs.

[peadar1987]

Most LOI players would be on part-time contracts, apart from a few at the likes of Sligo and Shams (can't remember offhand which other clubs are full-time, and a few will have some full-timers and some part-timers).

I couldn't find any accounts or anything, but according to this article: http://www.independent.ie/national-news/these-stars-never-crash-their-ferraris-on-way-to-training-2859472.html the weekly wage bill at Shams last season was around €15,000 between a playing squad of 22, plus a coaching staff of say 5, that works out as an average of around €550 a week, and they would almost certainly have the biggest budget in the league these days.

Michael O'Neill (http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2011/sep/28/shamrock-rovers-europa-league) said before the Spurs game that the annual budget for the entire club is €600,000, which would mean that the 65% wage cap is €390,000, or €7500 a week.

This article (http://bornoffside.net/2012/05/the-league-of-ireland-week-in-football-week-9/) has the less-than-reliable Seán Caffrey saying Shams have a wage bill of €30k a week, with Sligo around €20k, Derry €18k and St. Pat's around €22k.

It's hard to work out what the actual figures are (I'd say they lie somewhere between Michael O'Neill and the Indo), but as a rough figure, most players would be comfortably under €1,000 a week, most probably closer to €400.

[razor]

Majority of players are paid on a 40 week (Correct me if I'm wrong) season, but the numbers are made available, these guys don't get paid very muchexcept Joe Gamble of course.

[Sam_Heggy]

Well Harps entire budget including management is €2,500 per week so make of that what you will.

[peadar1987]

except Joe Gamble of course.

He's on eighty bajillion a week. It's a disgrace.

[L.T.F.C.]

He's on eighty bajillion a week. It's a disgrace Joe!

I know of some players with Shams that are on more than 1k a week.

[peadar1987]

I know of some players with Shams that are on more than 1k a week.

Really? Which ones? That's got to be pushing down the average wage for some of the others pretty badly!

[Spudulika]

You have to be careful when speaking about weekly wages in an LOI or European (dodgy country) context. Bonuses are often not calculated. nor is accommodation, transport, expenses etc. Though I do think the FAI licensing needs to have them shown in full. An example from here.

Samuel Eto'o is on a reported 20million euros a year - (no matter what he has to pay 13% tax) - and the club are paying 80,000euros a month for his apartment in Moscow. Now, the apartment (which is on 4 storeys) was listed at 30,000euros a month in January 2011, so why has the price jumped? Much of what is written about wages is complete tosh. Same with transfer fees. The best way to lower your tax payments on profits, or a windfall, is to "invest" in a football club's playing staff. Then again, in Ireland...

[marinobohs]

Wages negotiated individually betwen player and club and there can be a huge difference within the same club. Even within clubs individual contract details are known to a few (usually involved in the negotiations) all the rest are speculation/guesstimates/urban myth. If I recall right US employed a central contract system which explains the increased transperency as against the irish (European) model. As Spud outlined accomadation, cars etc sometimes make up part of the package further muddying the issue

Absolutely no link whatsoever between wages paid and standard of League (except that hiogher wage should attract higher standard player - or David Beckham). Wages paid most closely linked to available money in geographical juristiction and number of individuals with large egos :o

[Dodge]

Its definitely a North American thing. You can see them all here;
http://www.mlsplayers.org/salary_info.html

latest here;
http://www.mlsplayers.org/files/August%201,%202012%20Salary%20Information%20-%20By%20Club.pdf

Ex LOI player Ryan Guy is on $44,000 dollars per year. He was on more with Pats before he left. There's nobody with Pats on anything near that now.

Wonder how that fits in with Colbert's twisted logic

[peadar1987]

Absolutely no link whatsoever between wages paid and standard of League (except that hiogher wage should attract higher standard player - or David Beckham). Wages paid most closely linked to available money in geographical juristiction and number of individuals with large egos :o

I think there's a threshold where the wages start to affect the standard of the league. I'd move to Sweden or Austria if I was going to be paid enough to cover my moving costs, and to make up for the hassle of trying to adust me and my family, if I had one, to the new language and culture. Most players wouldn't leave a £300 a week contract in Ireland because a club in Romania is offering £400, and a 33% wage boost is not to be sniffed at. The percentage is good, but the actual amount in real terms doesn't justify moving.

[nigel-harps1954]

I'd be very surprised if there was many players/if any in the league outside of maybe Sligo and Shamrock Rovers, earning more than 500 a week.

[Colbert Report]

What do players earn in League 1/League 2 over in England? I get the point that nobody from Ireland is going to move to Romania for an extra fifty euro a week, but a move to England for the same money I think most players would consider. No major language or cultural differences. Can someone give me a better way to compare leagues? UEFA have given the LOI a coefficient number of 7.375, but England and Spain are both on 84. Are their leagues really twelve times better than ours? A one off performance in Europe is hardly a great way to rate the leagues, in my opinion. I'm well aware of how the coefficient rankings are calculated, and it obviously favours bigger footballing nations like England who have multiple teams go straight into the group stages of the CL.

This all came from a guy who posted in the International forum and questioned why someone else figured reserve players for Championship teams would be on average better players than u-19 players for LOI teams. Surely the reserve players in the Championship in England would be on five or even ten times the money?

[Longfordian]

Reserve players is a poor comparison. There's a lot of lads who sign with an English club at 16 and progress to the Reserves. They then often get released and come back home. They'll have been on much more money in England but don't turn out to be any better than players in the LOI.

[Spudulika]

Simple thing is this, most of the times players will stay at home if they have an option, even taking a pay cut. Players move to far off places if they're going to take a severe drop in wages or not get a new contract. The other thing to take into account is if they feel that playing part-time and working full/part-time is going to make them better as players. Though there are some players who'd rather stick at home, playing for boot money when they could earn substantially more (50e compared to 800e) as they don't want to move away from family, don't feel ready, or figure they can move to a better place. I believe it all boils down to the ambition of a player and where they want to go. Signing for a Championship side and sitting in their reserves (with a few loan spells around the place) means that in 3 years time they'll have a fairly decent nest egg built up. Again, it's down to ambtion.

CR - there is no perfect way to compare a league(s), a team can win year in year out, do well in Europe, but at home the league is a mess (Moldova for example). UEFA is the best we have at the minute.

[peadar1987]

Apparently Port Vale's monthly wage bill is £180,000, or about €225,000, so weekly that would be around €55k, over three times what Shams are able to pay. Basically if you're settled in Ireland and have a family here, to move you're going to need enough money to buy a house.

Edit: A lot of them will have other jobs in Ireland as well, which they mightn't pick up in a foreign country. Wages would have to compensate for that too.

[Colbert Report]

So Sligo Rovers look like they're head and shoulders above the rest of the league. How do you reckon they'd do if they were to be put into League 2 next season? Surefire champions? Play-offs? Mid-table?

[Spudulika]

I hate to say this, but it's a different ball game. They have good enough players to do a job in the upper mid-table League 1, but their style of play would be better suited to a Continental League. I'd put them up against top Bundesliga 2 sides and definitely they'd just survive in the Russian Premier (where they'd have a little more steel). I think some teams, like Pats and Sligo, have move away from the British model a little and play good football. It's more important to match them up in Europe and make progress to Group stages.

[Paddyfield]

When Tommy Gaynor left Nottingham Forest, he went through a few LOI Clubs before he ended up in Athlone. His contract was simple; he got paid if he played and got more if he scored and more again if Town won. Word on the terrace was that Gaynor got IR£50 for each of those clauses. A good day would be one in which he scored the winner! In his day, Gaynor was an awesome footballer and deadly from the spot.

The manager was sacked and current SD Galway manager Tony Mannion was appointed.

In one of his first games, Mannion took Gaynor off late in a scoreless game. Minutes later, Town were awarded a penalty from which they scored and won the game. Everyone jumped for joy except Gaynor who allegedly kicked the wall in despair of missing out on his few quid.

[nosebleds]

I'd be very surprised if there was many players/if any in the league outside of maybe Sligo and Shamrock Rovers, earning more than 500 a week.

joe gamble, dennis behan on 10,ooo euro the rest on 6.ooo a week happy days.
:p

[Nah Nah Nah Nah]

I'd be very surprised if there was many players/if any in the league outside of maybe Sligo and Shamrock Rovers, earning more than 500 a week.

There's definitely some earning more then €500 a week playing in the premier division and not playing for either rovers

[Colbert Report]

The LOI must be a prime target for betting syndicates if players are making such a pittance.

[Jofspring]

We probably have a few earners over €500. If you add in goalscoring bonuses, clean sheets etc… i'd say we definitely do.

A lot of people would have you believe though we have Joe Gamble and Behan earning €3,000 between them a week and Bradley getting €2,000 a week :rolleyes:

[Colbert Report]

How much prize money does a club receive for getting to the group stages of the Champions League? Even if they were to get beaten in all six matches? I'm trying to work out if it would be worth investing in a LOI club with the intent of having it pay off by them getting past the third qualifying stage. If Shamrock Rovers had beaten Copenhagen last summer in Tallaght, would they have struck it rich?

[NeverFeltBetter]

The LOI must be a prime target for betting syndicates if players are making such a pittance.

This has been an issue.

[Charlie Darwin]

Sorry, I'm here in North America where all salaries from any professional sports leagues are public by law. I'd like to know solely to compare the quality of leagues. It makes sense that the more a club is willing to pay players, the better players will play for that club. Not always true I realise, lots of times players will take less salary to play for their hometown club, etc.
There are a few reasons why wage comparisons don't work.

First of all, Ireland is an expensive country to live in. Wages for any occupation, in Dublin in particular, will necessarily be higher than many or all equally-sized countries on the continent. There is also a premium to be paid for attracting people outside of the mainland and onto a peripheral island, which is one of the reasons why few non-British foreigners play in the LOI.

Second, though related, is the fact that a club like BATE Borisov or CFR Cluj can attract players from poor countries with relatively low budgets due to the tiny cost of living in those countries. Many Brazilians and other nationalities use these leagues as a stepping stone into Europe so they can sign for richer clubs in Greece etc. In Ireland, even the highest paid footballer isn't going to earn much more than the average industrial wage, whereas in Romania or wherever they're rich. While you might make more money in euro terms in Dublin, you make much more relatively in an ex-communist state.

Third, it doesn't take account of tax rates. For instance, until recently, a top player in Spain paid a third the rate of tax as his equivalent in England or Germany. So while the player in England might have a much higher book wage than his equivalent in Spain, he would still only be earning the same amount after tax. Spain have raised their tax rate on sports stars now, but there is still a big disparity across Europe between countries that tax footballers high and low.

[Spudulika]

CD - you've it perfect on your 3rd point, most players in Ireland are offered "Gross" deals, insofar as that they get x amount and get the tax taken out. However.....Ireland is different where when a players retires, or moves from Ireland, he receives the money paid in taxes (except PRSI I think) back. So it's better in Ireland than in Russia, for example. However at higher level leagues players will organise their taxes and so on. However I disagree with BATE, they are predominantly local, the players are well paid and while many do move abroad, the wages and packages they receive are far better. For example one player in BATE is on $800 a week, he also has an apartment free, a car and $100 a week in living expenses. His bonuses are quite good, $500 a win, $500 a goal and a large bonus for winning the league etc. Plus the contract is 12months. He's in the lower range of earners in BATE. BATE, last I checked, have 3-4 foreigners in the club, of their own volition. Though I'd suggest that the cost of living in Belarus is substantially lower than in Ireland, tax is 15% (flat) and I'd not stretch it by saying the value of $800 a week there would be !,500e in Ireland.

Colbert R - you can check on UEFA about prizemoney, though to get an Irish team into the CL or EL you've got to do it long term, do it mainly local, and stick with it.

[John83]

I think there's a threshold where the wages start to affect the standard of the league. I'd move to Sweden or Austria if I was going to be paid enough to cover my moving costs, and to make up for the hassle of trying to adust me and my family, if I had one, to the new language and culture. Most players wouldn't leave a £300 a week contract in Ireland because a club in Romania is offering £400, and a 33% wage boost is not to be sniffed at. The percentage is good, but the actual amount in real terms doesn't justify moving.
Yeah, but your living expenses would be much lower in Romania. It might be worth a punt, particularly if you were a young lad with no family commitments.

[Dodge]

Financially maybe but it clearly isn't about money for many. It can be even harder for young lads as they've no family support with them

Its not just footballers. same applies to any migrant workers

[Spudulika]

I'm with Dodge on this, moving to a different country under such pressure (especially when many of the players idea of foreign travel is a fortnight's pee up in the Canaries), they're not mentally set to just pack up and head abroad. Without that safety net and the mental strength, any little foul up sends them on a downward spiral. It doesn't only apply to players, lots of coaches have the same.

[Charlie Darwin]

CD - you've it perfect on your 3rd point, most players in Ireland are offered "Gross" deals, insofar as that they get x amount and get the tax taken out. However.....Ireland is different where when a players retires, or moves from Ireland, he receives the money paid in taxes (except PRSI I think) back. So it's better in Ireland than in Russia, for example. However at higher level leagues players will organise their taxes and so on. However I disagree with BATE, they are predominantly local, the players are well paid and while many do move abroad, the wages and packages they receive are far better. For example one player in BATE is on $800 a week, he also has an apartment free, a car and $100 a week in living expenses. His bonuses are quite good, $500 a win, $500 a goal and a large bonus for winning the league etc. Plus the contract is 12months. He's in the lower range of earners in BATE. BATE, last I checked, have 3-4 foreigners in the club, of their own volition. Though I'd suggest that the cost of living in Belarus is substantially lower than in Ireland, tax is 15% (flat) and I'd not stretch it by saying the value of $800 a week there would be !,500e in Ireland.

Colbert R - you can check on UEFA about prizemoney, though to get an Irish team into the CL or EL you've got to do it long term, do it mainly local, and stick with it.
I agree the tax rebate is another factor but I don't think it's all that relevant in terms of a wage comparison - I think gross pay would be the same in Ireland regardless of whether or not the rebate was being offered, it just means a small number of players might be more likely to try their luck elsewhere.

I didn't know that about BATE. I was under the impression they were bankrolled by a local business and made use of a lot of foreign players, but looking at their squad you're right, it is mostly local players. Which makes you wonder why Irish sides can't do the same.

[wonder88]

anyone have reliable figures for the weekly wage bills of our leading clubs. Bohs I think were paying a number of their staff over 1000e a week a couple of years ago which is amazing when one thinks of the ability of those who received those wages.

[Charlie Darwin]

anyone have reliable figures for the weekly wage bills of our leading clubs. Bohs I think were paying a number of their staff over 1000e a week a couple of years ago which is amazing when one thinks of the ability of those who received those wages.
What do you mean? Many of those players could have made more money in other leagues. Others probably wouldn't have, but pay structures at any club are a difficult balancing act.

[Spudulika]

CD - when I think about it it does seem logical. I think the issue is that (as brought up earlier) players are reluctant to move too far from what's known. Declan O'Brien was on a good wedge in Malta but just as he settled the club got in the local star (Mifsud) and he was shunted off home, I don't know how much he would have promoted the country afterwards. A great danger, as found out by at least 2 players, is that going abroad on a big wage doesn't mean you'll be paid - can't remember who went to Azerbaijan, but it was a joke. There are ways around it but unfortunately once agents get their fee they disappear and claim ignorance (sorry to generalise but it's hard not to).

On BATE, they're a club who have reformed and done things the right way. They come from a small base but the whole region is fanatical, think Munster rugby or Kerry football. The initial investment into them was very small, and very well planned. They come from a workers team that was never really that successful and the factory they're based around didn't have anything approaching the money needed to go big. And there was no big backer, just some small shareholders who mixed business knowledge with sports experience and kept it local. http://backpagefootball.com/land-of-milk-and-vests-belarus-rising/47603/ As clubs go they're very modest and even beating Bayern the other night they were very humble. The problem is that the local football scene is so divided that the national team doesn't benefit.

I know this sounds a bit mad (no, very mad) but I remember when I heard that Rovers got Tallaght and the move was on, that they'd do a BATE as everything was there, and for a while I figured it was on. I'd seen BATE play Rubin back (2006 maybe, have to check) and spoke with their head man about how they'd turned things around etc (because locally I'd been told they were just out of bankruptcy). They've a recent history of developing coaches with stable decision making and all from a small base (with a small population), so Rovers seemed the ideal copy.

[marinobohs]

anyone have reliable figures for the weekly wage bills of our leading clubs. Bohs I think were paying a number of their staff over 1000e a week a couple of years ago which is amazing when one thinks of the ability of those who received those wages.

Bohs players weekly wage bill (in total) is equal to that rumoured to be earned by one Shams player. If true what does that tell us ? pretty much nothing. drawing direct comparisons (even when full disclosure is available) is a mugs game, a decent striker may well be the 'missing link' at one club wheras a decent keeper could be the target of another and salary offers will mirror this.

No doubt that higher wages wiill attract a wider selection of players to a League (subject to other factors mentuoned by posters) but that does not always translate into higher standards (and impossible to measure link)

[horton]

Or in short Shams, like ourselves, are overpaying players for substandard performances.:)

[Keen2win]

http://foot.ie/threads/9941-Who-are-the-highest-paid-players-in-the-el

Interesting.

[marinobohs]

http://foot.ie/threads/9941-Who-are-the-highest-paid-players-in-the-el

Interesting.

Ah #SIGH# those were the days

- when Bohs were still paying big wages, and
people still believed Shels had a viable business model (and that Ollie was loaded) :D

[Longfordian]

"Ollie Byrne is loaded". Jesus I didn't remember anyone ever thinking that, whatever else was said about him.

[A face]

"Ollie Byrne is loaded". Jesus I didn't remember anyone ever thinking that, whatever else was said about him.

There really was an awful lot said about him, are you sure that wasn't one of the things :)

[Lim till i die]

Just on the "debate" about wages and their link to standards -

The breakaway top four in the Premier contains the three teams with the highest wage budgets. Drogheda have been reciving so much (justifiable) praise this year precisely because they have over achieved relative to their wage spend.

The breakaway top three in the First Division are the three clubs with the highest wage bill. (In Limericks case their wage bill is 26 times the wage bill of all the other clubs in the division combined.)

Wages are the number one factor in team performance over a length of time.

There's a whole chapter on it in Simon Kupers latest book. (Ya, I know he's a windbag but so am I and you just read this post)

[Mr A]

I think that's spot on, but would just add that while this makes sense within the league, it doesn't necessarily on the overall level. What I mean is that if every club in the league increased their spending by 50% or 100% tomorrow there would be no commensurate increase in quality- a few decent imports might come in but that would be the height of it. Similarly when wages in the league overall dropped I don't think there was that big a drop in standards.

[Colbert Report]

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story/_/id/1180817/red-bulls'-cahill-is-4th-highest-paid-mls-player?cc=5901

NEW YORK -- Australian midfielder Tim Cahill was guaranteed $3.6 million by the New York Red Bulls, the fourth highest salary in the league.

The MLS Players Union released updated salaries Thursday and Cahill is listed as having a base salary of $3.5 million and total compensation of $3,625,000. He joined Thierry Henry ($5.6 million total compensation) and Rafa Marquez ($4.6 million) on the high spending Red Bulls, who replaced general manager Erik Soler with Jerome de Bontin on Tuesday.

The only other players in MLS making seven figures in compensation are the Los Angeles Galaxy trio of David Beckham ($4 million), Robbie Keane ($3.4 million) and Landon Donovan ($2.4 million), Montreal forward Marco Di Vaio ($1.9 million), Portland forward Kris Boyd ($1.5 million), Toronto's Torsten Frings ($2.4 million) and Danny Koevermans ($1.6 million), Dallas midfielder Julian DeGuzman ($1.9 million) and Vancouver's Kenny Miller ($1.2 million).

For other newly signed players, total compensation is $293,750 for Houston midfielder Ricardo Clark, $60,000 for Seattle goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann and $324,000 for Columbus forward-midfielder Federico Higuain, the brother of Real Madrid's Gonzolo Higuain.

[Charlie Darwin]

Say what you like about the League of Ireland, but I'm proud to say that none of our clubs have ever deemed Kenny Miller or Kris Boyd worthy of million-dollar contracts.