Payroll

Payroll covers all the people employed by the club, from the players, through the board members, through to the match day tea-lady.

There are two areas to watch. The obvious one is that that the wages just don't get too high. The graph shows that the wages have been fairly steady. There was an obvious dip in 2007 season before the return to the Premier League.

The 2007 figure also highlights the other area that must be watched, which is how much of your income is going on the wages. Deloittes who do some in-depth analysis of football finances reckon the target for this ratio should be 50%. This allows the club to cope with the costs of running the business, buying the occasional player, running an youth development system, putting on games, maintaining the ground etc. The 50% figure was suggested before the Sky money increased, and 60% now seems to be a more usual target.

In 2007 the club made a loss of £4.7m and this was mainly due to the high wage bill compared to the vastly reduced income. The board would probably suggest that this was a calculated gamble, and it did pay off.

The ratio that Birmingham have run at have been slightly too high, but the club haven't generally lost money which is a sign that everything else must be being tightly managed.

Wages and ratio