The new Independent Football Regulator (IFR) has warned that English football is “standing on the edge of financial disaster,” with nearly two thirds of EFL and National League clubs technically insolvent.
IFR chair David Kogan said there is a “massive contradiction” between the wealth of the Premier League and debt-ridden clubs elsewhere in the pyramid. The regulator’s State of the Game report, published today, reveals that almost two thirds of EFL and National League clubs have liabilities greater than their assets. It also says more than a quarter of clubs would not survive for more than 30 days if owners withdrew their funding.
Regulator’s stark warning
Kogan said: “At the heart of English football’s success is a massive contradiction. While some of our clubs are among the richest and most competitive in the world, others are standing on the edge of financial disaster.
“Skyrocketing revenues have been outpaced by costs which in turn have pushed up debt, loss-making and an over-reliance on owner funding.
“A significant number of clubs that told us they would not survive if their owners walked away. This lack of resilience can no longer be ignored. Anyone reading this report can be in no doubt about the need for intervention.
“Football has always been bloody risky but now if you fail the failure is much harder to take because the numbers are so much bigger and that’s where we come in.”
Key findings from the report
The 245-page report also reveals that 94 percent of English football’s top 116 clubs – across the Premier League, EFL and National League – are loss-making. Average club revenue has risen by 2,100 percent since the Premier League was formed in 1992, while wages in the top flight have increased 50-fold.
Wage costs in the Premier League currently range from £88m to £364m. One Premier League investor described buying into a top-flight club as “high risk gambling”. The report highlights the “substantial risk” of relegation from the Premier League, with clubs facing a 70 percent revenue drop, and names Bury, Wigan and Derby County as case studies of financial difficulty, warning dozens more clubs are on the brink.
Six-point plan and Premier League deal
The IFR has set out a six-point plan covering revenue distribution reform, reducing financial losses, action at National League level, improved financial risk management, fan consultation, and better corporate governance and diversity. It also revealed full details of the “financial deal” between the Premier League and EFL, which includes scaling back parachute payments.
The deal, agreed by the 20 top-flight clubs, would start from the 2026/27 season and has yet to be rubber-stamped by the EFL. The IFR has made clear that the Premier League must reach agreement with the EFL, or it will step in to force the top flight to provide more cash to the rest of the pyramid.
The deal includes increased solidarity payments, merit-based payments linked to sporting performance, a ring-fenced infrastructure fund, tighter financial controls in the Championship, a lifeboat fund to prevent club liquidation, and a phased reduction in parachute payments to relegated clubs.
Reactions from officials and supporters
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said: “Football fans for years have lived with the anxiety of knowing their club could be one bad owner or poor month away from ruin.
“This report doesn’t just validate that anxiety, it has blown the doors off the game with the most stark uncovering of the state of football club finances in England today.
“It underlines that the fight to establish an Independent Football Regulator was vital to safeguarding the future of English football for its fans. The findings are undeniable: there is no Plan B.
“These clubs belong to their fans. They are nothing without their fans. We are on their side and we will always fight for them.
“I urge the football authorities and those running clubs to consider these findings for the good of the game, for the fans, and for the communities of which they are so often the bedrock of.”
Football Supporters’ Association (FSA) chair Tom Greatrex said: “The State of the Game report clearly highlights the unsustainable, broken model of football’s finances.
“How is our national game, which generates billions in revenue every year, in such a perilous condition with so many clubs living hand-to-mouth and reliant on regular handouts from owners?
“Whether you are a football finance expert or a match going supporter who pays little attention to off-field issues, it is astonishing that almost one in three clubs could not survive for more than a month if an owner stopped funding them.
“This is an alarm call for English men’s professional football that must precipitate real and lasting change.”
The Premier League said it “welcomed” the new report and pledged to continue working with the EFL to find a solution.
