#204 ⚽ 94% of English Football Clubs Are Losing Money

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94% of anything is a lot of it. Basically all of it. So basically all of English Football loses money. That's what the Independent Football Regulator has said in its first State of the Game report. This week's feature digs into the numbers, what they mean, and especially what they mean for football tech.

All in the lead-up to our next Football Tech & Business Report, out next week.

“Dangerously Exposed”: English Football's £9 Billion Problem

In July 2025, the UK government established the world's first independent statutory football regulator. Basically saying that after years of club financial failures and the diabolical attempt at a European Super League breakaway, enough was enough - someone needed to step in.

The task of the Independent Football Regulator (IFR) was clear: protect the financial health of English football and prevent clubs from gambling with their futures.

Fifteen months later, it has delivered its first major assessment. A concerning one.

On 13 October, the IFR published the draft of its first State of the Game report, covering the finances of 116 English clubs. The draft is open for consultation until December, with the final report expected in early 2027.

The headline: English football brings in more than £9bn in revenue, more than ever before. Yet 94% of clubs are losing money. Only around seven of the 116 clubs avoided a loss in 2025/26, according to the regulator's analysis, which combines actual results and forecasts. Costs keep climbing, and most clubs remain dependent on owner funding and borrowing.

Surely, this can’t go on.

Almost every club is losing money

Some not-so-fun facts:

• 20% of Premier League clubs, and 60%+ of EFL and National League clubs are technically insolvent, meaning their liabilities exceed the book value of their assets.

• 29% of clubs said they could not survive 30 days without fresh funding from their owners.

• Average Premier League losses more than doubled between 2021/22 and 2025/26, from £20m to £44m.

• Average Championship losses reached £22m, around 59% of revenue.

• 17 EFL and National League clubs would still lose money even if they paid their players nothing.

These problems have grown alongside record revenues. Average Premier League club income is now approximately 33 times its 1992/93 level, but the benefits haven't been well distributed. A problem we’re well familiar with.

Player wages remain a major problem. Last season, 20 clubs spent more than 80% of their income on wages, while six spent more than 100%.

More Debt, More Investors, More Questions

Some more numbers for you:

• Total debt across English football rose from £2.8bn in 2020/21 to £4.1bn in 2024/25, with the regulator forecasting £5.1bn by the end of 2026/27.

• The implied cost of club debt increased from 3.4% to 11.0%, while transfer factoring, where clubs borrow against future transfer payments, grew from £55m to £779m.

• Annual interest payments jumped from £97m to £455m between 2020/21 and 2024/25, nearly a fivefold increase. The cost of servicing that debt is soaring.

Aside: Just five lenders account for 93.6% of transfer financing, with the largest lender alone responsible for 43%. Such concentration is a major risk.

Yet Investors Keep Coming

Over the past five years, English men's football has attracted 78 takeover and stake transactions worth £7.2bn.

This is an interesting contradiction. People are climbing over each other to invest in or acquire businesses that can’t survive without continuous additional investment.

For private equity investors and multi-club ownership groups, that raises an important question: where will the returns come from?

Usually this is where the MCO investment thesis gets cited. Shared resources - across recruitment, scouting, technology, commercial operations and infrastructure - should, at least in theory, bring efficiencies that improve margins across a portfolio of clubs.

But there’s a lot of heavy lifting to be done to get there. With operating losses so widespread, the pressure is on these ownership groups to demonstrate that their models actually work, rather than simply spreading the financial burden across more clubs.

Where Does Technology Fit?

Compliance is a clear starting point. The IFR's arrival brings additional financial oversight, including requirements around financial resources, stress testing, governance and risk management.

That creates opportunities for technology providers offering financial planning, cash-flow forecasting, compliance reporting and risk analysis. But the bigger opportunities lie far beyond compliance.

Clubs need to find ways to operate more efficiently, from recruitment and player development to commercial revenue generation and stadium operations.

For investors in SportsTech, this could shift the emphasis towards solutions that demonstrate measurable financial impact.

Recruitment analytics that helps identify undervalued players, avoid expensive transfer mistakes or develop talent internally is right at the top of the pile. It's also an area where we've seen significant financing activity, although the numbers need some unpacking.

A quick view of the investment landscape: We’ve tracked 14 deals in this space since January 2025.

• Stats Perform, the company behind Opta, accounts for the two biggest deals: a $475m term loan plus $275m from Vista Equity Partners, both used to refinance existing debt.

• Set those aside, and the largest round is SkillCorner’s $60m from Silversmith Capital Partners in December 2025.

• Most other companies raised small early rounds, and no disclosed deal falls between $6.7m and $60m.

That same logic applies to technology that improves ticketing revenue, commercial inventory, fan monetisation or operational efficiency. Areas where the investment activity is less visible.

But there is a major catch.

Clubs that already spend most of their revenue on wages have little room for additional technology budgets. And even if they do, they rarely have the bandwidth or the technical know-how in-house to help these implementations reach their promised potential.

For founders, being innovative won't be enough. Products will increasingly need to prove that they either save clubs money or help them make more of it.

Our Take

• Record revenue doesn't mean a healthy business: More than £9bn in revenue and £7.2bn in investment transactions sound impressive. But that revenue and investment growth hasn't translated into financial sustainability, with the specter of insolvency looming larger with each passing year.

• Multi-club ownership needs to prove its economics: The theory makes sense. We’ve even had a few POCs. Now we need to see if this model really scales. Because if those savings don't materialise, MCO investors are just building portfolios of loss-making businesses.

• Technology spending will face greater scrutiny: Clubs need better financial tools and more efficient operations, but budgets are tight. That makes demonstrable ROI more important than ever for SportsTech companies selling into the beautiful (but poor) game.

• The implications go beyond England: This is the wealthiest domestic football market in Europe. If clubs here are so dependent on their owners, the financial pressures facing clubs in smaller leagues could be even greater. Better revenue distribution may help, but it won't solve an industry-wide problem of spending beyond its means.

English football doesn't have a revenue problem. It has a business model problem. And neither more investment nor more technology will fix it unless the underlying economics improve.

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Top News From The World Of Sports Tech & Biz

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🏈 The University of Texas Athletics and McCombs School of Business launched Bevo Lab with Google Cloud, Dell Technologies and SHI International to apply AI and data analytics to athlete performance across 21 teams and provide hands-on sports-technology research experience for up to 40 students annually.

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🏅 Allianz became the first sponsor in Olympic and Paralympic history to place its name on a competition venue, with the temporary Allianz Beach Arena at Alamitos Beach in Long Beach scheduled to host events during the LA28 Games.

🏎️ Formula 1 and Rwanda signed a 10-year agreement to stage the Formula 1 African Grand Prix at a new purpose-built circuit in Bugesera from the early 2030s, returning the championship to Africa for the first time since 1993.

⚽ McDonald’s decided not to renew its approximately $40 million-per-year FIFA sponsorship after 32 years and indicated that it would not sponsor the 2027 Women’s World Cup after its 2026 campaign underperformed expectations.

💰 Playmakers by SportsTechX member Edge Sound Research, an audio infrastructure company for physical AI, raised $2 million in new funding led by Stormbreaker Ventures, bringing its total funding to $9 million.

💰 WISE Ventures, the investment arm of the Wilf family, invested an undisclosed amount in Rec Technologies, a platform that powered sports and recreation across US communities.

🤝 The Press Association, a UK-based subsidiary of PA Media Group, agreed to acquire RAS Technology Holdings, operator of racing data and wagering technology provider Racing and Sports, for approximately $34.8 million in cash, offering shareholders approximately $0.73 per share at a 93% premium, with completion expected in February 2027.

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💸 Foxtel owner Leonard Blavatnik committed to financially support sports streaming platform DAZN through Access Industries for another 12 months after investing $500 million, as the company pursued profitability, a public listing and a unified platform for sports broadcasting, betting, merchandise and ticketing.

💸 Sheikh Mansour invested $133.5 million in Manchester City parent City Football Group through Newton Investment and Development, acquiring 11,327,163 newly issued shares and marginally increasing his approximately 81% stake, as Manchester City appealed a Premier League ruling that it breached 114 financial rules.

💸 Pitchwise Holdings, a consortium led by sports executives Ann Rodriguez and Corey Woolfolk, agreed to acquire a 42% stake in Valencia CF from Meriton Holdings for an undisclosed amount in a deal valuing the club at $1.4 billion, alongside $111.9 million in new capital for direct investment into the club.

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