Liverpool Women’s total wage bill less than club directors, accounts reveal

Liverpool Football Club’s company directors were paid £4.2 million in the year ending 31 May 2025, comfortably outstripping the £3.1 million wage bill for the club’s entire Women’s Super League squad and back-room staff, newly filed accounts show.

The disclosure underlines the vast gulf between the resources devoted to the women’s operation and the remuneration enjoyed by Anfield’s boardroom, even as the Reds posted record investment levels off the pitch. The women’s set-up, which finished seventh in the WSL and reached the FA Cup semi-finals, saw turnover climb 25% to £6.1 million, driven by a 26% jump in commercial income and match-day revenue that more than doubled to £340,000 after the team relocated home fixtures to St Helens.

Yet the combined salaries of the 49 players and non-playing staff amounted to less than 0.75% of the club’s overall payroll, reported in February at £428 million including pension costs. Pre-tax pay for the women’s workforce rose 20% to £2.7 million, but the highest-paid director alone collected £2.3 million, up 7% on the previous year, while the total board package increased 9%.

Operating costs for the women’s arm rose 36%, leaving a pre-tax profit of £165,000, down from £645,000 a year earlier. The accounts acknowledge a continuing reliance on the parent company for funding, a pattern mirrored across the WSL where most sides depend on their male counterparts. Arsenal, the only other top-flight club to have published 2024-25 figures, spent £9.9 million on wages before national-insurance and pension costs—more than triple Liverpool’s outlay—and went on to lift the Champions League.

Directors warned that “principal risks and uncertainties” centre on salary levels, pledging to “manage these costs within financial restraints, whilst remaining as competitive as possible.”