French champions Paris Saint-Germain pay their players higher salaries than any other team in world sport, according to figures published on Wednesday.
The Global Sports Salaries Survey for 2015 produced by the website Sporting Intelligence found that PSG pay their first-team players an average yearly salary of £5.299 million ($8.236 million, 7.416 million euros).
It took the Ligue 1 giants, bankrolled by Qatar Sports Investments, to first place in the list, with Manchester City, who topped the poll in 2014, slipping to third place with an average yearly wage of £5.015 million.
However, PSG later denied they had the deepest pockets when it came to paying their players.
“While winning the Ligue 1 for the third consecutive year, the club is still not on top of the global sports brands in terms of salaries,” the Paris giants said in a statement.
“Contrary to the hierarchy established in the recent study published by SportingIntelligence, Paris Saint-Germain is not even in the top five of this ranking.
“The salaries of our first team don’t match the figures mentioned in the study, which are clearly over-estimated.”
In the figures, last season’s European champions Real Madrid came second, while Barcelona, Manchester United, Bayern Munich, Chelsea and Arsenal all made the top 10.
The survey only takes into account earnings for playing sport and ignores income from commercial endorsements or other activities.
The 2015 report looked at 333 teams in 17 leagues across 13 countries in seven sports: football, baseball, basketball, American football, cricket, ice hockey and Australian Rules football.
America’s basketball championship the NBA is the highest-paying league as a whole, with the 448 players who competed during the 2014-15 season each earning an average of £2.67 million per year.
Top 10 highest-paying sports teams (average pay per year):
1. Paris Saint-Germain (FRA/football) £5,298,693
2. Real Madrid (ESP/football) £5,040,520
3. Manchester City (ENG/football) £5,015,122
4. Barcelona (ESP/football) £4,715,116
5. Los Angeles Dodgers (USA/baseball) £4,679,937
6. Manchester United (ENG/football) £4,679,377
7. Bayern Munich (GER/football) £4,468,643
8. Chelsea (ENG/football) £4,353,056
9. New York Yankees (USA/baseball) £4,263,577
10. Arsenal (ENG/football) £4,054,066