How Birmingham City's League One wage bill compares with Championship clubs as promotion beckons | OneFootball

Football League World takes a closer look at how much Birmingham City are spending on wages compared to their prospective 25/26 Championship rivals

Knighthead have ploughed significant investment into Birmingham City following the purchase of the club in 2023.

Headed up by Tom Wagner, Blues have long-term designs of building a new 60,000 seater stadium after revamping St Andrews @ Knighthead Park and spent a series of staggering sums last summer following relegation to League One.

Much of that spending has been speculated, with exact amounts on Blues' spree remaining somewhat unclear, but what is known is that the West Midlands outfit undertook the costliest transfer window in League One history and smashed the division's record to sign Jay Stansfield from Fulham for a fee at least in excess of £10 million.

Both on and off the pitch, Birmingham have spent lavishly but Wagner is seeing ample reward.

Blues are poised to gain promotion back to the second-tier as champions at the very first attempt and record signing Stansfield has been sensational this season, while the long-term foundations implemented are perhaps an even greater cause for excitement as Birmingham look in impressively good health heading back into the Championship.

There is already a school of thought that Chris Davies' side, bankrolled by significant revenue streams and extremely ambitious ownership, will be strongly competitive in the Championship next season. Remarkably, Blues' wage bill already usurps many of their opponents in the division above next term, and Football League World has taken a closer look at exactly that...

Birmingham City's 24/25 wage bill

According to Capology, a site which provides estimated figures on player and club salaries and is the source of all the information listed here, Blues have a weekly wage bill of £313,000, which translates to an annual cost in excess of £16 million.

This, of course, is League One's largest wage bill by some distance, with the likes of Ben Davies, Seung-Ho Paik and Christoph Klarer listed among the top earners in the blue and white quarters of the Second City.

There is a well-documented correlation between wage bill and league position and it's no surprise Birmingham have, as expected, blown League One out of the water with a star-studded squad and a level of financial muscle never previously seen below the Championship.

How Birmingham City's 24/25 wage bill compares to the Championship

Birmingham's wage bill would already be fairly-handsome by Championship standards, which is telling of the degree of investment and the long-term planning.

It has always been Blues' ambition to plan for the Championship and beyond as opposed to merely aiming for an escape route from League One, and their wage bill will only increase ahead of what's poised to be yet another summer of ambitious and exciting spending.

Right now, the club's wage bill would be the 12th-highest in the Championship. Birmingham are spending more on wages than Sunderland, who are fourth in the Championship, and other clubs in and around the second-tier's play-off mix such as Bristol City and Frank Lampard's Coventry.

Many of the clubs with a larger wage bill are either freshly relegated, have the benefit of three-year parachute payments or competing for promotion, though something does have to be said about relegation strugglers Cardiff City spending more on salaries.