Most English clubs on edge of financial disaster, regulator warns

Most clubs in English football are on the edge of "financial disaster".

That is the warning from the Independent Football Regulator, the new watchdog for the game, as it gets ready to publish its landmark health-check of club finances.

Research by the regulator found that 94% of clubs are loss-making. More than 60% of clubs in the EFL and National League — the leagues below the Premier League — are technically insolvent, which means they owe more than they own, according to BBC.

Those numbers bite. Stands can be full on a Saturday. The accounts can still be empty.

The findings sit inside the regulator's State of the Game report, due on Tuesday 13 October. The report was expected to recommend cost controls — limits on how much clubs can spend — and then go out to consultation, where clubs, fans and others are asked for their views before any rules are fixed, according to The Guardian.

The regulator was also expected to set out levy proposals alongside the report, according to Sky News. A levy is a charge on the game to help pay for the new system.

The regulator was set up to protect and promote the sustainability of English football for the benefit of fans and the local communities served by clubs, according to the government. It is an executive non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, and it is designed to sit apart from both government and the football authorities.

Its teeth are real. It will have the ability to fine clubs up to 10% of turnover, a power outlined when the Football Governance Bill was introduced in Parliament, according to the government. In the most serious cases it can force directors and managers off boards and compel owners to sell up and divest from clubs, according to ESPN.

The road here has been long. A strengthened Football Governance Bill was launched to protect clubs and support fans, and the Football Governance Act has since become law.

For fans, this means the debate is no longer about one badly run club. It is about the maths underneath almost all of them.

Clubs chase promotion. They chase survival. Wages and transfer fees rise. When the gamble fails, supporters and towns carry the worry. That shared anxiety is why this report matters beyond the boardroom.