First, Deloitte announced that the total revenue earned by the Premier League clubs reached £1.9bn during 2008/09 – at the same time, the poor old 72 Football League clubs could only manage a meagre £500m.

The Premier League clubs generates the highest revenue of any league in Europe, with Germany, Spain and Italy lagging well behind at £1.1bn each.

 

That’s one reason why the Premier League can afford to pay such high wages – and that’s where you really get into financial fantasy land. For example, Gareth Barry has this week left Aston Villa to join Manchester City, for a wage that is reputed to be worth between £80k and £130k, depending on who you believe (Birmingham Post says the former, Daily Mail the latter).

Either way, that’s more than most people earn in a year – even those scoundrels in Parliament can’t match that.

To put it in perspective, most of the so-called ‘honourable’ members earn £65k basic, but can tot up around £200k when office expenses are taken into consideration (and that’s before we start talking about things like bath plugs, duck houses or dry rot treatment).

Those figures put MPs in the top one percent of wage earners in this country, so goodness knows where footballers earning stratospheric wages must figure.

Why are footballers worth so much? Well, I suppose it is a question of talent and how much money they help generate for their employers. No-one seems to question it much.

More importantly, though, why are MPs worth so much? I seem to recall a story in the news not so long ago which said that if they lost their seats, most of today’s MPs would find it hard to get another job, because they have so little in the way of skills and qualifications.

Sounds about right – I guess the only thing most of them are good at is filling in an expenses form. That seems to pay quite well, though.