Celtic: PSG average salary almost nine times that of Scottish champions

Neymar, the world's most expensive player, scored twice as PSG consigned Celtic to a 7-1 defeat

The financial disparity between Celtic and their Champions League conquerors Paris St-Germain has been highlighted by a new report.

Figures published by Sporting Intelligence in their annual Global Sports Salaries Survey show the average annual player salary at PSG is 8.8 times Celtic's.

The average salary for a first-team player at PSG is £6.5m. Celtic's average pay is £735,040 per year.

The report also underlines the financial advantage Celtic enjoy over their domestic opponents, with their closest challengers Aberdeen's average annual salary £136,382.

• Celtic money gulf comparisons do add up

European Challenge

Celtic's task of beating either PSG or Bayern Munich to a top-two spot in this season's Champions League group stage always looked an ominous one.

Wednesday's 7-1 defeat in the Parc des Princes showcased the French side's talent but their expensively-assembled squad is the fifth best-paid sports team on the planet and only slightly less well-paid than Barcelona. The top three spots are all filled by NBA teams - Oklahoma City Thunder the highest-paid.

The summer acquisitions of Neymar and Kylian Mbappe have sent PSG's average wage soaring, up £2m from £4.5m last year.

Callum McGregor's goal was not enough to prevent Bayern Munich leaving Celtic Park with a win

Celtic's - in the same period - went up by less than £20,000 from £717, 860.

The challenge of overcoming Bayern Munich was almost as daunting both in terms of their superstar squad and financial inequality.

The perennial German champions pay their players an average of £5.2m - more than seven times Celtic's - making them the 27th highest-paying sports club in the world.

Little wonder, then, that Celtic took no points from the two meetings this season, though they ran Jupp Heynckes' side close at Celtic Park.

Domestic dominance

The gulf in class and financial wherewithal that stymies Celtic's ability to challenge the European elite is mirrored to some degree at home.

Aberdeen, runners-up to Celtic in all three domestic competitions last season, pay players on average 5.4 times less than their seemingly untouchable rivals.

The Dons' average annual salary rose by less than £2,000 since last year's report, from £134, 670.

Rangers - who in financial terms are Celtic's closest rivals - pay an average of £329,600 per annum, less than half the average salary of a Celtic player but 2.4 times more than Aberdeen, who finished last season nine points in front of the Ibrox side.

Celtic's average salary is 17.2 times greater than Motherwell, whom they defeated in Sunday's League Cup final. The Fir Park club pay an average of £42,662.

Motherwell lost 2-0 to Celtic at Hampden

Premiership overview

Motherwell are not the lowest average payers in Scotland's top flight, however. Hamilton Academical's average salary of £41,488 is 17.7 times lower than that of the champions and in fact is lower than this time last year when it was £42,606.

But Accies have shown that money is not everything, sitting eighth in this season's Premiership and finishing above Inverness Caledonian Thistle last year, though the Highlanders had been sixth highest-payers in the league according to the 2016 report.

This year's survey underlines the fact Celtic's outlay is almost as much as all of the other clubs combined.

Of the 18 leagues surveyed - from the NBA to the English Premier League to Aussie Rules' Australian Football League - the Scottish Premiership is deemed to be the third "least-fair" in terms of the disparity between the top club's spend and that of the bottom club.

It also comes third-bottom as far as overall average salaries are concerned, above only the Canadian Football League (gridiron) and the Women's NBA.