Soccer-Forget Leicester, Aberdeen are Britain's shock title challengers

By John Geddie LONDON, March 10 (Reuters) - A huge shock is on the cards in British football as a rank outsider is threatening to gatecrash the millionaire favourites. But it is Scottish hopefuls Aberdeen and not English league leaders Leicester who have bridged the biggest financial gulf. As far as squad values and wage bills are concerned, it would be a bigger upset if Aberdeen pipped Celtic to the Scottish title than if Leicester held off a pack of blue-chip chasers in the English top flight. Leicester are five points ahead of Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League, with Arsenal and Manchester City also in contention. Aberdeen are a point behind Celtic. Things are far from over with teams still left to play nine or 10 games in the season. Yet the longest high street odds suggest a 44 percent chance of Leicester being crowned champions with Aberdeen rated a 10 percent shot to do so. The disparity in the finances between these clubs and their rivals could partly explain why bookmakers see Aberdeen as far greater underdogs. At 95 million pounds ($135 million), the market value of Leicester's squad equates to around 40 percent of Tottenham's (234 million pounds) and 30 percent of Arsenal's (330 million pounds). The Leicester squad is worth 25 percent of Manchester City's (376 million pounds), the most valuable in the league, according to Transfermarkt. North of the border, Aberdeen's squad is worth less than 7 million pounds, or 17 percent of Celtic's 40 million-pound group of players. "All credit to Aberdeen, they have hung in there but with the money Celtic are spending and the players they have got, you would have fully expected them to pull away," former Rangers striker Kris Boyd said of his old rivals this week. HIGHER MOUNTAIN Although Aberdeen arguably have a higher mountain to climb, if either team triumph it would be one of the biggest surprises in European domestic football for years. Aberdeen, under Alex Ferguson of Manchester United fame, were the last side outside the "old firm" of Glasgow's Celtic and Rangers to win the Scottish league, back in 1984-85. Rangers are favourites to be back in the top flight next year having been in lower division wilderness following their relegation in 2012 for financial irregularities. Blackburn Rovers were the last real surprise English winners in 1994-95 but they did it with a wage bill to match most of their rivals. In Europe, Atletico Madrid pipped Spain's La Liga giants Real Madrid and Barcelona in the 2013-14 season, but according to Transfermarkt their squad is currently worth 269 million pounds, more than half that of their rivals. Current information on wages is hard to pin down, but Global Sports Salaries Survey, published annually by website 'Sporting Intelligence', gives an insight into how difficult it is to spring an upset in Scotland versus England. The most recent survey showed six clubs in the Premier League paid average salaries for first-team players in the summer of 2014 of 3-5 million pounds per player, two or three times more than the 1-2 million pounds paid by the rest. In Scotland, Celtic paid 900,000 pounds, around seven times the 140,000 pounds forked out by Aberdeen. Ross County -- who currently lie fourth and knocked Celtic out of the Scottish League Cup in January -- paid an average of just 36,000 pounds per player. ($1 = 0.7032 pounds) (Editing by Ed Osmond)