Almost every club is losing money. English football's new regulator says the game cannot go on like this
Ninety-four out of every hundred clubs in England's top five divisions lost money last season.
That is the headline from the Independent Football Regulator's first State of the Game report, published on 13 October. The regulator looked at the books across the Premier League down to the National League. It found a game that packs stadiums but cannot pay its own way, according to the BBC.
More than 60% of clubs in the EFL — the English Football League running the Championship, League One and League Two — and the National League are technically insolvent. That means what they owe is worth more than what they own. Seventeen clubs would still make a loss even if their players played for free.
Six in ten clubs have no business plan. Two-thirds could not last more than 90 days without fresh money from their owner. Almost a third would run dry within 30 days.
IFR chair David Kogan put it bluntly. Thirty-two clubs are operating on only 30 days' cash.
The gap between the top and the rest keeps stretching. The average Premier League club now earns more than eight times the average Championship club. For a team that goes up, the prize is huge. For a team that goes down, the drop is steep. Clubs chase promotion and gamble wages they cannot afford.
For fans, this means the football feels fine on a Saturday and fragile on a Monday. Full stands and new shirts hide short-term loans, late bills and a reliance on one wealthy backer. When that backer stops paying, clubs wobble fast.
The regulator wants to change the incentives. Its report recommends cost controls, a type of spending cap to tie what clubs pay out to what they actually bring in, as reported by the Guardian. The idea is to stop wages and transfer fees racing ahead of real income.
The IFR was created in 2025 to protect English football for fans and the local communities clubs serve. It operates independently of government and the football authorities, although it sits as a public body sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. Its stated job includes the financial soundness of individual clubs, according to government guidance. It will have powers to fine non-compliant clubs up to 10% of turnover.
The early reaction has been welcoming. The Premier League, the EFL, the Football Association and the Football Supporters' Association all issued statements backing the findings.
The warning follows a difficult autumn for Sheffield Wednesday. On 9 October 2025 the regulator's chair called the club's financial crisis a significant problem for English football and warned unsuitable owners may have to sell up, according to Reuters.
What makes this stand out is the scale. This is not one club in trouble or one bad year. It is almost the entire pyramid losing money at once, with little cash in reserve and no plan to fix it.
