Finance

The 13 highest paid sports teams in the world

Barcelona team group (top row left to right) goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Javier Mascherano, Samuel Umtiti, Ivan Rakitic, Sergio Busquets and Gerard Pique. (bottom row left to right) Lionel Messi, Neymar, Andres Iniesta, Luis Suarez and Jordi AlbaBarcelona make the list — but in what position?Nick Potts EMPICS Sport

Sports data and analysis website Sporting Intelligence recently released its annual Global Sports Salary Survey, looking at the highest paid sports teams around the world in 2016.

The report looks at the “average first-team pay” for each club, which Sporting Intelligence says allows it to “compare salaries in hugely contrasting leagues in multiple sports around the world.”

2016 sees a big shake up of the list. Sporting Intelligence writes: “The upper echelons of previous lists have been dominated by Europe’s powerhouse clubs in the world’s most popular sport, football. (That’s soccer). No more.”

Just three European football teams make the top 13, two of them from Britain.

Interestingly, there are no American Football teams in the top ranks, despite the big money surrounding the NFL. The report says: “NFL players earn just over $2.4m a year each on average, or almost $4m less per man than NBA basketball players this season. The ‘median’ earnings in the NFL, where you consider the middle person in a list of all players ranked from best- paid to worst-paid, remains under a million dollars a year.”

Even if you look at the total spent on the squads — much bigger than in football or basketball — “not a single NFL team gets into the top 10 list of total payroll size,” Sporting Intelligence says.

Business Insider has rounded up the top 13 teams on the list, using an average of £100,000 a week pay as a cut off point. Here are the teams that made the cut:

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