The highest earners in the top European leagues are the referees from Spain, who on average earn twice as much per year as their colleagues from England.
In particular, the salary of a Spanish referee in La Liga is 12,500 euros per month. To this are added bonuses for each match played (4.2 thousand euros for on-field referees and 2.1 thousand euros for VAR referees).
The average referee in Spain gets 20 assignments to La Liga matches per season as a head referee plus 10 as a VAR referee.
Additional fees are added to this. For example, for a Champions League match the head referee receives about 7 thousand euros.
Last year the highest paid referee in world soccer was Spaniard Antonio Mateu Laos who got 335 thousand euros.
It is noteworthy that among the top five European leagues the referees of the English Premier League earn the least on average, losing not only to Spaniards and Italians, but also to Germans and French in this aspect.
|
League |
Monthly salary, |
Income per game, |
The average annual salary, |
|
La Liga (Spain) |
12,5 |
4,2 |
250 |
|
Serie A (Italy) |
3,9 - 6,5 |
3,4 |
140 |
|
Bundesliga (Germany) |
2,5 - 6 |
3,6 |
125 |
|
Ligue 1 (France) |
6 |
2,9 |
120 |
|
Premier League (England) |
3,7 |
1,3 |
110 |