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 2005 figure shows the club brought in players on higher wages in a attempt to maintain a position in the Premier League.

The second area to keep an eye on is the ratio of the wages to the income. 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 a youth development system, putting on games, maintaining the ground etc.

Palace have one of the worst records of teams that this site has looked at. The 2005 figure showed the club giving 54% of its income to the players. This low % came from having such a high income that year. Subsequent to that the % going to players has just not been managed at all. By 2008 98% of all the money coming in to the club went out to the players.  This is a ridiculous way to try and run a football club.

The number of people employed within the footballing side of the business comes to 74. This works out as an average of £158,00 each !! This covers everyone down to trainees, and all the coaches as well as the first team players.