Jim White: Mohamed Salah earns more per week than entire Rangers squad as £388,000 reveal emerges
Rangers’ weekly wage bill is lower than what Mohamed Salah earns per week at Liverpool, according to Telegraph journalist Jim White.
The journalist reported on Thursday (13 October) just how big the money gap is between Premier League clubs and the two Old Firm sides, with the Gers paying their players a combined total of £388,490 per week.
The Athletic reported in the summer that Salah’s deal at Liverpool is worth closer to £400,000-a-week.
Writing on The Telegraph website, White said: “While the Premier League has grown ever richer, sucking in increasingly substantial amounts of broadcasting revenue, cash in Scottish football has stalled. Here is the stark money gap: Rangers’ total weekly wage bill is £388,490, less than Mohamed Salah earns from his most recent contract. That’s the same Salah who registered the fastest Champions League hat-trick within minutes of coming on as substitute on Wednesday.
“The reality is modern football success is largely – though not exclusively – a product of wages: the more you pay, the better you do. If an entire playing staff, from first-year apprentice to star striker, are employed for the same money as the opposition pay their main man, the laws of modern football are pretty clear as to what will happen.”
What can we do?
In truth, there’s very little that can be done with regards to the financial gap between Scottish and English football.
Scottish clubs are pocketing the money that you’d expect in the English Championship or blow while the Premier League teams – especially the big-six – are getting richer and richer.
The SPFL have undersold their game for a long time but they’re also limited in what they can do because away from Rangers and Celtic, who really cares about Scottish football outside of Scotland?
Sure, there’s a solid core of support within this country but the majority of Scottish football fans follow two teams.
Aberdeen, Hearts and Hibernian have strong fanbases but they’re dwarfed by teams in England’s League One – even Bradford in League Two have a bigger-capacity stadium than all Scottish sides except Rangers and Celtic.
That’s not to say that there’s nothing that can be done. There’s obviously a lot of improvement needed from a commercial aspect within the SPFL.
They’re holding clubs back – they’re holding Scotland back.
In other Rangers news, a 25-year-old is set to be axed while a double injury blow also emerges for the trip to Motherwell this weekend.