Football
Ranking All 24 EFL Championship Clubs By Their 2024/25 Wage Bill
Ben Horlock is a sports news and features writer who holds a degree in sports journalism (BA Hons) from Southampton Solent University. Ben has been published across a wide variety of news outlets and websites including HITC, 90min, GiveMeSport, Betfair and Zoo Magazine. As well, Ben has worked in social media for four years in the sports gambling industry. For his sins, Ben is a QPR fan and is a keen follower of all the major European football leagues.
Get to know Ben Horlock betterPublished03 Mar 2025
Unsurprisingly, the most recently relegated clubs all dominate the higher echelons of the 2024/25 EFL Championship wage bill listings.
Burnley and Sheffield United earned podium positions with Luton Town just missing out on the top four. However, it’s the current league leaders who boast the highest yearly payroll.
Leeds United – who are the 1/8 title favourites with the best football betting sites in the UK – pay their stars approximately £8 million more than their nearest rival.
That in itself is quite staggering considering they sold Georginio Rutter, Crysencio Summerville and academy wonderkid Archie Gray to Premier League sides in the summer.
Naturally, the Yorkshire giants pays the highest weekly Championship wage bill at £715,500. This is just shy of £140,000 more than the club in second position.
At the other end of the spectrum, two of last season’s promoted sides occupy the 24th and 22nd position. Portsmouth pay the least followed by Plymouth and then Oxford.
Interestingly, playoff-chasing Sunderland have one of the lower Championship wage bills. Yet, that hasn’t stopped the Black Cats from closing in on a top-flight return.
Bedfordshire side Luton have a hugely underwhelming campaign so far. The Hatters are in serious danger of back-to-back relegations despite their extortionate wage bill.
The new Erling Haaland contract at Manchester City makes the EFL Championship look like small fry when it comes to a monetary sense. Just three sides pay out more per-week than what the City star pockets every seven days!
EFL Championship Wage Bills 2024/25
Club |
Goalkeepers | Defenders | Midfielders | Forwards | Weekly Wage | Yearly Wage |
| Leeds | £3.38m | £12.74m | £5.35m | £15.73m | £715,500 | £37.2m |
Burnley |
£2.34m | £6.47m | £5.98m | £15.16m | £576,000 | £29.9m |
| Sheffield Utd | £2.21m | £9.88m | £8.32m | £8.6m | £558,000 | £29m |
Middlesbrough |
£2m | £7.42m | £3.35m | £11.7m | £472,269 | £24.5m |
| Luton | £2.99m | £6.57m | £5.33m | £8.97m | £459,000 | £23.8m |
West Brom |
£936k | £8m | £4.88m | £9.29m | £445,231 | £23.1m |
| Cardiff | £1.37m | £5.17m | £7.2m | £7m | £400,615 | £20.8m |
Norwich |
£1.82m | £5.17m | £5.25m | £7.33m | £376,500 | £19.5m |
| Hull | £624k | £3.87m | £3.77m | £10.88m | £367,700 | £19.1m |
Watford |
£2.28m | £6.26m | £5.6m | £4.38m | £356,538 | £18.5m |
| Sheff Wed | £728k | £5.38m | £4.16m | £6.6m | £324,538 | £16.8m |
Blackburn |
£988k | £4.83m | £1.22m | £9.2m | £312,500 | £16.2m |
| Stoke | £1.27m | £6.51m | £3m | £5m | £305,750 | £15.9m |
Millwall |
£884k | £6.39m | £3.45m | £4.59m | £294,692 | £15.3m |
| Sunderland | £1.19m | £5.33m | £6m | £2.6m | £291,346 | £15.1m |
Swansea |
£1.3m | £5.88m | £4.34m | £2.2m | £263,564 | £13.7m |
| QPR | £868K | £5.28M | £2.4M | £4.2M | £245,508 | £12.76m |
Derby |
£728k | £6.51m | £2.18m | £3.31m | £245,056 | £12.74m |
| Coventry | £858k | £3.64m | £3.79m | £4.34m | £243,000 | £12.6m |
Preston |
£1.11m | £5.77m | £2.63m | £2.92m | £239,231 | £12.4m |
| Bristol City | £520k | £3.61m | £3m | £4.3m | £222,577 | £11.5m |
Oxford |
£1m | £3.15m | £2.28m | £4.7m | £214,615 | £11.1m |
| Plymouth | £754k | £4.86m | £1m | £2.77m | £180,800 | £9.4m |
Portsmouth |
£1m | £2.86m | £2.99m | £2.17m | £174,058 | £9m |
*All stats sourced via Capology