Manchester City are believed to be world sport's highest-salary franchise.
According to Sporting Intelligence, the English Premier League club sit at the top of the pile in regards to average annual salary of the first team.
Sporting Intelligence, in conjunction with ESPN's The Magazine, compiled the Global Sports Salaries Survey (GSSS) which has City ahead of Major League Baseball's New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers.
Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona come in at fourth and fifth respectively while German giants Bayern Munich and reigning Premier League champions Manchester United are seventh and eighth ahead of Chelsea and Arsenal in 10th and 11th.
The Sporting Intelligence report stated: 'The salaries report features average salary information from the dozen most popular sports leagues in the world (by average attendance per game), which are the NFL, Bundesliga, Premier League, AFL, MLB, La Liga, CFL, NPB, Serie A, IPL, NHL and NBA.
'In addition, MLS, SPL and CSL (Chinese Super League football, new this year) are included as examples of smaller leagues from the world's most popular sport, football.
'Figures used are from the 2013-14 seasons in NBA basketball, NHL ice hockey and NFL American football, from the 2014 seasons for MLB baseball and MLS football, and from the seasons completed during or at the end of 2013 for the other leagues.'
Top 12 biggest wage bills in world sport
1. Manchester City (English Premier League) - £5,337,944 (average annual pay) 2. New York Yankees (Major League Baseball) - £5,286,628 3. Los Angeles Dodgers (Major League Baseball) - £5,119,701 4. Real Madrid (Spanish La Liga) - £4,993,3935. Barcelona (Spanish La Liga) - £4,901,327
6. Brooklyn Nets (National Basketball Association) - £4,485,019 7. Bayern Munich (German Bundesliga) - £4,402,9058. Manchester United (English Premier League) - £4,322,251 9. Chicago Bulls (National Basketball Association) - £3,985,706 10. Chelsea (English Premier League) - £3,984,53611. Arsenal (English Premier League) - £3,901,923 12. New York Knicks (National Basketball Association) - £3,862,191
