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Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Salary Sport’s tracker puts Lincoln City lowest among the 24 EFL Championship clubs, at an estimated £6.9 million a year in player wages, and West Ham United highest, at £66.2 million. The ranking below runs from least to most and reflects the tracker’s figures captured on 7 October 2026—not audited accounts or a definitive total for each club’s entire staff.
Championship clubs ranked by estimated annual player wages
Salary Sport labels its measure “Total weekly spend on player wages” and also provides annualized estimates. The table lists those annual figures in ascending order. Values are rounded to the nearest £100,000 for readability; the exact tracker figure is included in parentheses.
| Rank | Club | Estimated annual player wages |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lincoln City | £6.9m (£6,945,380) |
| 2 | Blackburn Rovers | £10.7m (£10,710,700) |
| 3 | Bristol City | £11.9m (£11,880,960) |
| 4 | Portsmouth | £12.7m (£12,744,680) |
| 5 | Charlton Athletic | £12.8m (£12,818,520) |
| 6 | Preston North End | £13.2m (£13,226,980) |
| 7 | Cardiff City | £13.8m (£13,832,260) |
| 8 | Swansea City | £14.5m (£14,467,128) |
| 9 | West Bromwich Albion | £14.8m (£14,841,060) |
| 10 | Bolton Wanderers | £15.3m (£15,305,940) |
| 11 | Queens Park Rangers | £16.6m (£16,636,880) |
| 12 | Millwall | £16.9m (£16,925,272) |
| 13 | Watford | £17.6m (£17,617,600) |
| 14 | Norwich City | £17.6m (£17,649,320) |
| 15 | Derby County | £19.4m (£19,396,780) |
| 16 | Stoke City | £20.8m (£20,757,880) |
| 17 | Middlesbrough | £24.7m (£24,651,640) |
| 18 | Wrexham | £26.1m (£26,064,220) |
| 19 | Birmingham City | £29.6m (£29,587,740) |
| 20 | Sheffield United | £30.9m (£30,933,448) |
| 21 | Southampton | £36.8m (£36,789,480) |
| 22 | Burnley | £44.7m (£44,725,564) |
| 23 | Wolverhampton Wanderers | £54.3m (£54,347,800) |
| 24 | West Ham United | £66.2m (£66,174,420) |
Source: Salary Sport, Championship Player Wages & Club Wage Bills, captured 7 October 2026.
What these wage-bill estimates include—and what they do not
The table is a consistent comparison of one tracker’s estimated player payroll for all 24 clubs, not a league-published accounting statement. Salary Sport reports a combined annual player-pay estimate of £549,031,652 across the clubs; that is the tracker’s sum, not an audited league total.
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Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Outbyte PC Repair FREERepair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Player wages are narrower than the “staff costs” commonly shown in club accounts. Staff costs can cover employees beyond the playing squad, so they are not interchangeable with a player-wage estimate. Salary Sport’s separate accounts page says it has wage-bill figures for 20 of the 24 clubs, with each club’s latest filed accounts covering different financial years. Those filings therefore do not provide a uniform, same-year ranking for the full division.
Salary Sport’s Championship finances and accounts page presents the accounts context and staff-cost figures. An accounts-based analysis by The Analysis Series likewise draws on the latest available statutory metrics, predominantly from 2023/24 and 2024/25, and notes that parachute distributions and previous divisional status affect comparisons. Read its 2025–26 Championship financial analysis.
Why another current tracker can show a different ranking
Salary estimates are not a settled set of audited figures. A separate 2026/27 table from SalaryLeaks, also covering 24 clubs, estimates Wolverhampton Wanderers’ wages at £67.8 million and West Ham United’s at £61.2 million. Salary Sport’s corresponding estimates are £54.3 million and £66.2 million. The difference is large enough that the ranking should be read as source-specific, rather than as a definitive measure of clubs’ actual payrolls.
SalaryLeaks’ 2026/27 English Championship Salaries Database is the source for those alternative estimates. Figures can also move as transfers, loans, contract changes, and tracker revisions alter a club’s listed squad or estimated pay.
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How to interpret older Championship wage rankings
Past-season tables are snapshots, not corroboration of this current estimate. For example, Planet Football published a 2024/25 ranking on 27 January 2025 using Capology estimates and described the figures as industry estimates. That season and data source differ from the Salary Sport figures above, so the older table should not be used to fill gaps or validate the current ranking.
Planet Football’s 2024/25 wage-bill ranking provides that historical comparison.
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