This Is How Big The Top 14 Club’s Budgets Are In Comparison To The Irish Province’s

This is crazy.

The Champions Cup has officially kicked off with a host of games taking place yesterday and plenty more action to come today with the likes of Munster and Ulster in action against French opposition.

The first of the two provinces got off to a great start yesterday with Leinster and Connacht securing home wins over Castres and Toulouse respectively. Both Ulster and Munster are in France today for massive opening round fixtures against Bordeaux-Begles and Racing 92 respectively.

Looking at the budgets available to these French sides in comparison to their Irish counterparts however, makes for some very interesting reading. The clubs in France will fork out a total of €302.1m this season and that has nothing to do with the international team costs.

To put this into context, the IRFU spent €37.6m on professional game costs in Ireland last season.

Lucrative television deals have seen money flow into the club game in France with the lowest spenders in the Top 14, Brive, still splashing out €16.4m on players.

Check out the list below. Interestingly Toulouse are the biggest spenders in the league and yet were beaten by the lowest funded province in the country last night, Connacht, at the Sportsground.

The list is:

Toulouse €31.5m

Clermont Auvergne €30.5m

Stade Francais €27.5m

Toulon: €25.5m

Racing 92: €25.4m

Lyon: €24.6m

Bordeaux-Begles: €24.2m

Montpellier: €24.2m

Grenoble: €21.7m

Castres: €20.6m

Pau: €19.6m

La Rochelle: €18.2m

Bayonne: €16.8m

Brive: €16.4m