Player payments

[Ronnie]

our wage bill is approx 5k a week, for the entire club (staff, players, backroom, etc.). To answer the original question, the fulltime players in the league are all well paid, as are most of the part-timers, remember the lower half of division one should be grateful for the opportunity to play league football

Is that gross or net? If its net, multiply by 2 to get your real wage bill. If its nett then thats some achievement - 20 players, manager and backroom team on an average of 200 gross per week....I have my doubts

[galwayhoop]

When will League of Ireland be able to pay players a decent wage. Many travelling long distances for very little reward. Does minimum wage legislation apply?

wexford youths are the only team who ask their players to be amateurs afaik.

tbh most clubs are paying their players what they are worth and maybe even more in some cases.

what is a decent wage. i would think decent would be the 'average' industrial wage which is probably about €25,000 a year for a full time employee. or a gross wage of €500 a week.

most full time players would get this at least i'd say with part-timers getting €300 or so a week in addition to their other wages!

these lads are doing ok for what they do and then you have to big players probabley pulling anything up to €3,000 per week.

[green-blood]

well I hope your not employing anyone

just before March the AIW for the republic was just at €620 a week (thats average from 19 year old line worker to 50 year old manager)

or €31K a year

http://www.cso.ie/releasespublicatio...nt/indearn.pdf


if full time players are getting paid that gross then its not an especially rich bounty. however its not the most time consuming employment.

[galwayhoop]

well I hope your not employing anyone

just before March the AIW for the republic was just at €620 a week (thats average from 19 year old line worker to 50 year old manager)

or €31K a year.

http://www.cso.ie/releasespublicatio...nt/indearn.pdf

i honestly had no idea the AIW was that high!!! no wonder so many factories are closing!!!!

if full time players are getting paid that gross then its not an especially rich bounty. however its not the most time consuming employment.

as you say it is not exactly the most time comsuming employment. with probably not more than 12 hours of 'work' per week compared to 39.7 from the AIW link you provided. granted they have to travel to games but compare this to the endless hours commuters spend daily in traffic/travelling and they are not hard done by at all!

definately not, as was insuinated by original poster, lining up at the fair employment tribunal anyday soon anyway!!!

[Mr A]

I guess there are two ways of looking at this- you can compare footballers with other workers, add up the hours and perhaps decide that they're rather hard done by.

On the other hand you can compare with them with the many thousands of sports people who put the same time and commitment into sports and end up out of pocket for the privilege and they look to have a pretty feckin sweet deal.

[galwayhoop]

I guess there are two ways of looking at this- you can compare footballers with other workers, add up the hours and perhaps decide that they're rather hard done by.....

i think if you go down the route of counting the hours then you will find that footballers are doing very well out of the whole thing.

i know there is a fair few players on full-time contracts, who are at the lower end of the ability scale, yet are getting paid better that the average industrial worker on a weekly basis never mind an hourly rate!!

[half_full]

Is that gross or net? If its net, multiply by 2 to get your real wage bill. If its nett then thats some achievement - 20 players, manager and backroom team on an average of 200 gross per week....I have my doubts

Maybe its gone a bit over the 5k a week, but not by much. A few of the backroom on just expenses as are the U-21's

[passerrby]

It just struck me that the rights of the players need to be considered as well

maybe your right most players are working a twenty hour day sewing footballs and making rugs for the far east markets poor lads

[Mr A]

i think if you go down the route of counting the hours then you will find that footballers are doing very well out of the whole thing.

True, but the people talking about minimum wage etc would be looking at players on very low part time money.

[paul_oshea]

Their rights aren't in question. If they are underpaid or undercompensated they are in the minority as far too mnay players get paid far too much

15 years to make their money, i dont think thats the case somehow dodge.

that figure of 2500k a week im assuming is way wrong? thats 2.5 million.is it 2500 euro a week divide it by 15 or what? that sounds like very little to me....

[Dodge]

Different teams Paul. I'd guess the likes of Drogs, pats and Bohs would have a playing budget of roughly €20K per week. 5/6 players would probably take half of that with the rest of the squad getting the other half

I meant they were getting too much as the clubs cannot afford to pay such high wages with such low crowd levels (and more importantly income)

[paul_oshea]

ya thats relative i spose to the teams but i was coming from the player perspective, most people in industry have 40 yeras to make their living.....players really only have 15 at most to last for that same period of time. At the age of 35 it must be difficult to get back into mainstream working, there are only so many coaching and backroom jobs going anywhere...

[Dodge]

Yeah but there are only so many pro footballers. Vast majority in this country have a day job. Even at Pats half the squad have a real job too. Some them have high paying jobs and then get €500-800 a week extra with their part time football wage

[galwayhoop]

ya thats relative i spose to the teams but i was coming from the player perspective, most people in industry have 40 yeras to make their living.....players really only have 15 at most to last for that same period of time. At the age of 35 it must be difficult to get back into mainstream working, there are only so many coaching and backroom jobs going anywhere...

up untill relatively recently most clubs were part-time so players just kept on doing what they were doing for the day job when they finished their football. obviously now there are more full-time clubs out there but it is still a new enough phenomenon in this country. i would expect wages will rise over time as the league appears to be going in the right direction. already there are a good few players on fairly high wages and there are a fair few players who may appear to be getting low wages but in reality are lucky to be earning a living from the game at all!

yes, wages may seem low in comparison to britain but i think that it is generally accepted that mid level footballers are grossly overpaid there. in fairness i'm not of the opinion that footballers need to get paid vast amounts and feel it is pretty fair what they earn in this country.

[Fry]

up untill relatively recently most clubs were part-time so players just kept on doing what they were doing for the day job when they finished their football.

Most clubs are still part-time.

[OneRedArmy]

Players on this Island get paid a lot more than their abilities in a lot of cases. I think no decent player at a good side could complain.

Incidently Linfields wage bill was £550k for the year. I don't know if that would be classed as big in the South. But it is probably the biggest budget in Northern Ireland(excluding Derry City, as they have no bearing on IL football)

I'd guess Derry's was in the £800k bracket (plus or minus £50k).

Thankfully some of the useless clowns signed by Fenlon have moved on quickly.

If you believe what you hear, there are quite a few players around the League on E1,500 a week or more (in their hand), which when compared with attendences and revenues is ridiculous and unsustainable in the long-term.

[paul_oshea]

do clubs publish their accounts on their websites? where can one find this information?

[Mr A]

Clubs don't really make the figures available, at least not detailed ones, but you can get a lot of them through the CRO. A few of the UCD lads could point you in the right direction.

[pineapple stu]

wexford youths are the only team who ask their players to be amateurs afaik.

UCD have had several amateur players in recent years. Seán Finn, Pat Kavanagh and Bogdan Oprea spring to mind.

Clubs don't really make the figures available, at least not detailed ones, but you can get a lot of them through the CRO. A few of the UCD lads could point you in the right direction.

You wouldn' really get detailed info on wages in club accounts as most file abridged accounts, which don't include any info on the P&L account. Bohs are an exception due to their legal status (think their wage bill was about E900k for 2005), but you won't find much info.

[Bald Student]

UCD have had several amateur players in recent years. Seán Finn, Pat Kavanagh and Bogdan Oprea spring to mind.

On a technicality, I think scholarship players count as amateur as well.