DANIEL LEVY was the highest paid executive in the Premier League last season, pocketing a staggering £7million.
This figure comprised his £4m salary, as well as a £3m bonus for the completion of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium… despite it opening late.
Manchester United’s executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward was previously thought to be the highest paid Prem chief.
The 48-year-old received a salary of £3.16m for the 2018-19 campaign… but Levy’s pay for the same year has blown that figure out of the water.
Levy’s basic “remuneration” came to an eye-watering £4m – before bonuses.
The total amount paid out to board members for completion of the new stadium came to £3.9m – with Levy pocketing £3m of that – taking his annual earnings up to £7m in total.
Tottenham Hotspur Stadium opened eight months later than planned in April 2019, when Spurs beat Crystal Palace 2-0 in the Premier League.
The news of Levy’s earnings comes as part of Spurs’ declarations for the financial year – which saw them bag a £68.6m profit after tax.
This figure was bolstered by the £108.4m earned from the team’s unlikely run to the Champions League final under Mauricio Pochettino last season.
But it’s actually a decrease of £45m on the previous year.
Levy has today also announced that Spurs have reduced the salaries of all 550 of the club’s non-playing staff by 20 per cent in line with the government’s furlough scheme, as they seek to combat the crippling financial effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
The 58-year-old wrote in a statement on Spurs’ website: “We may be the eighth largest Club in the world by revenue according to the Deloitte survey but all that historical data is totally irrelevant as this virus has no boundaries.
“The Club’s operations have effectively ceased, some of our fans will have lost their jobs and most will be worried about their future.
“Our sponsors will be concerned about their businesses and our media partners have no certainty when we may play games again or whether we will be allowed to play in front of our fans.
“In the meantime, the Club has an annual cost base running into hundreds of millions of pounds.
“We have seen some of the biggest clubs in the world such as Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Juventus take steps to reduce their costs.
“Yesterday, having already taken steps to reduce costs, we ourselves made the difficult decision – in order to protect jobs – to reduce the remuneration of all 550 non-playing directors and employees for April and May by 20% utilising, where appropriate, the Government’s furlough scheme.
“We shall continue to review this position.”
