News about English Premier League players often mentions salaries in weekly figures, such as a player earning £200,000 per week. This convention is more connected to English football's tradition of calculating and expressing player contract values than to the actual payment schedule. In practice, salary payments are made periodically according to the agreement between the player and the club.
This tradition originated in England some 140 years ago during the Industrial Revolution, when football was closely connected to the lives of the working class. Workers laboured six days a week and had free time on Saturday afternoons, which later became synonymous with football matches. In 1885, The Football Association began recognising the status of professional players, allowing them to receive payments from clubs. However, in 1901, the English FA introduced a maximum wage rule that limited players to earning no more than £4 per week.
The wage restriction system faced resistance from players, including Jimmy Hill of Fulham, who was active in the Professional Footballers' Association. Hill opposed the rule because players should have the right to be paid according to their abilities. In 1961, the maximum wage cap was finally abolished, allowing players such as Johnny Haynes to earn £100 per week, a substantial figure for that time.
In 1992, the Premier League was officially established and ushered in a new era of English football with revenue from television broadcasting rights, sponsorships and tickets. Despite the industry changing dramatically, the tradition of expressing player salaries in weekly figures has persisted to this day. When Cristiano Ronaldo returned to Manchester United in 2021, media reports stated he earned around £385,000 per week, a figure that when multiplied by 52 weeks equates to approximately £20 million per year.
The weekly figure is used to show the value of a player's salary if calculated over a one-week period, not to imply that clubs transfer that money every seven days. Salary payments follow the agreement in the player's contract and can be made monthly or according to a specific schedule. The term is easier to understand than annual figures, which is why £200,000 per week sounds more striking than £10.4 million per year, even though mathematically they represent the same value.
