Footballer's wages 50 years ago - a different era

Barry Murphy contacted me last year and kindly let me borrow and copy his old contracts (amongst many other things) from when he played for The Reds. His wages for the 1970/71 season was a basic £30 a week (plus appearance money and bonuses). This was only just over £9 a week more than the average wage of a miner in the pits in those days (by the way Barry has no problem with these being published and actually wanted to share them).

The average price for a house in 1970 was £4,975 (a third of his basic salary). An average modern player earning say £8K a week can buy 2 nice houses a year with a bit to spare - it was a different era for player's back then

 

In 1996 I was visiting a construction site near Altringham. On the verge where my car was parked I found the wage slip of Geogi Kinkladzi. The bottom line after deductions was £35000 for the month. It would have been more had he not been fined by Man City for being late for training eight times in the month.

 

Should go back to that but can't see it happening any time soon.

 

So houseprices haven’t quite kept up with footballers wages. 3 houses a year in 1970 and only 2 a year now.

Whilst for the rest of us it’s gone from about a years wages to about 7 years wages.

 

This is effectively a League 2 contract though (since it refers to promotion to the Second Division). Not sure that the average League 2 salary is 8k per week. Or is it? I must confess, I haven’t a clue what an average footballer earns.

It’s an interesting document (and a lovely time capsule) for sure.

 

Barry played when Football Clubs had total power over the players it employed. The difference now, is that
as well as great wealth they have, the players have real power.There's a picture of Cristiano
Ronaldo in the paper and he's wearing £630,000 worth of jewellery on one hand re- a rare £380,000 Rolex GMT Master
Ice watch, a £50,000 diamond band and a woman's engagement ring worth close on £200,000.

 

According to an inflation website that's roughly the equivalent of £485 per week or 23k a year in today's money (before deductions).

 

League 1 then
Div 1 Prem
Div 2 Champ
Div 3 LG 1
Div 4 LG 2

but 8k a week would be a high salary for League 1

 

Watched Barry play for the last 5 years of his career. I used to work with his daughter at Yorkshire Bank on New Street 83/85 & met him a few times. Good to see him on the pitch before games doing the hospitality. Another Barnsley legend & record appearance holder, which is unlikely to be ever broken.

 

Apart from the obvious shocking difference in wages between now and then am I the only one thinking it's a bit daft that he gets a bonus equivalent to 4 months wages if he leaves. Isn't that just encouraging players to engineer moves away?