Saints have been challenged to become the first English club to pay all of its staff the Living Wage

Millionaire football stars are paid a fortune to kick a ball around, while the workers who form the lifeblood of any club earn just a fraction of the stars' weekly wages every year.

At Southampton, who currently stand second in the Premier League, it is thought that captain Jose Fonte, star striker Graziano Pelle and Serbian international midfielder Dusan Tadic are among first team players earning more than £1 million pounds a year.

And now Saints are being called on to set an “example” by becoming England's first professional club to pay the Living Wage.

The call comes as a new study claims that the typical salary of Premier League players is now as much as £2.3 million in 2013-2014 - the world's highest. 

Andrew Pope, a Southampton city councillor and chairman of national campaigning group Labour Friends of Football, has written to chairman Ralph Krueger calling on the club to pay the £7.85 hourly rate to all its staff.

Southampton City Council agreed this year to introduce the Living Wage, calculated to be the minimum amount needed to cover the cost of living, for its staff and contractors' staff, while 1,000 companies across the country now pay it.

Cllr Andrew Pope

Cllr Pope and Labour Friends of Football are calling on all of the UK's professional clubs to take the step.

And in a letter to Mr Krueger, Cllr Pope, who is also Labour parliamentary candidate for New Forest East, says it is a “scandal” that Premier League clubs have ignored offering the Living Wage.

In it, he says: “I say this because we believe that football clubs are at the heart, or should be at the heart, of local communities.

“Like local authorities, football clubs should be leading local communities and local employers, showing examples of social justice that build healthy communities proud of their values, and that show they value their employees and local citizens.

“Our Board, along with supporters of Labour Friends of Football, and football supporters more generally, strongly believe that if a club can afford to pay any player a professional full-time wage, it should also pay its staff the minimum of the living wage.”

Saints chairman Ralph Krueger

He says offering the wage would see Saints “exercise leadership in your local community, to demonstrate to local people and to supporters of your club, that you care about their standard of living.”

Currently Edinburgh-based Hearts is the only professional club in the UK to have committed to paying the Living Wage, while semi-professional FC United of Manchester also pays it.

Speaking to the Daily Echo, Cllr Pope said: “We think that football clubs are and should be part of their communities, and should be leading by example.

“It's a scandal that no professional club in England is paying the Living Wage.”

The party also recently announced plans for supporters to sit on the board of every league club if they win next year's General Election.

Despite repeated attempts to ask Saints for a response, the club declined to comment.

• As Saints captain Jose Fonte is understood to earn almost four times the annual wage of a ticket seller at a football club every week.

With the club enjoying its best start to a Premier League season ever the defender is among a host of players earning ten of thousands of pounds every week.

The Portugese international, who has been part of the Saints rapid rise from League One to Premier League, is estimated to be on a weekly wage in excess of £40,000, receiving an annual pay packet of more than £2million before tax.

By contrast, Labour Friends of Football say, a full-time cleaner working at Premier League club such as Saints may expect to earn about £13,000 if they are on the minimum wage - or more than £16,000 if that is raised to the Living Wage.

Fonte's wages are dwarfed by the wage packet of the top flight's highest-paid player - Manchester United and England captain Wayne Rooney - who is believed to earn £300,000 a week - or 50p a second.

Wayne Rooney

Labour Friends of Football estimate it would take an average full-time cleaner at a Premier League club 13 years to earn what Rooney gets every week.

It comes as a new study revealed the average wage for Premier League players' annual wages is £2.273million, or £43,7171 a week, with clubs shelling out an average of £155m a year on their wage bills.

Cllr Pope said that while some staff at Saints will be on full-time contracts, others such as stewards, ticketing staff and bar and food outlet workers will be on part-time wages and he wants to talk to Saints about ensuring they are also paid a “fair” wage.