Despite record revenues and rising club valuations, nine out of 10 teams in English football’s top four divisions expect to post pre-tax losses for 2025, according to an annual survey of club finance directors by accountancy firm BDO.
Titled “Defying Gravity: The Ever-Expanding Financial Universe”, the report paints a picture of an industry that depends on regular top-ups from existing shareholders and a constant search for new investment.
With spending on transfers hitting new highs in 2025, players’ wages continue to account for most of the money clubs bring in. Across the Premier League, they represent 63 per cent of club revenues but that wage/turnover ratio rises in the Championship, where clubs are spending 93 pence of every pound they earn on salaries.
“By some measures, the English game is in rude health, with record-breaking revenues in the Premier League, new commercial opportunities for women’s football and sustained high levels of interest from international and institutional investors,” said BDO’s head of professional sports Ian Clayden.
“But, below the surface, clubs are facing significant financial pressures, due in large part to the persistently high costs of wages as a proportion of overall revenues, and borrowing more.
“Ever-increasing transfer fees may well be masking this trend. In any other industry, this combination of elevated costs, sustained losses and high borrowing would be ringing alarm bells.
“Yet interest in the domestic game continues to defy gravity. The question is whether the football universe will continue to expand infinitely, or whether, at some point, we may see a contraction, reversal or even a big crash.”
So far, only a few clubs have published their results for the 2024-25 season and all of them have posted losses. Brighton, one of the Premier League’s best-run clubs, lost more than £1million ($1.3m) a week that season.
When asked about their club’s accounts, more than half of the finance directors said their teams’ finances were not too bad but “could be better”, while over a quarter said they were “in need of attention”. The report noted that responses to this question showed a “worsening trend”.
BDO believes these responses “may even be overly optimistic” as nearly 90 per cent of clubs said they would need additional shareholder funding in the near future, with just under half saying this may require shareholder dilution, due to minority or joint investment.
However, the report also said that there appears to be no sign of these cash injections running out, as more than two thirds of clubs told BDO they had received approaches from potential investors in the last 12 months.
Elsewhere in the report, BDO noted that the average number of points earned by the Premier League’s three newest clubs has been in steady decline for 30 years, while the reverse is true for clubs relegated to the Championship, where there has been a gradual increase in their points totals. This would suggest the financial gap between the divisions is growing – a point the English Football League has been making for several years.