Majority of clubs on edge of 'financial disaster' - regulator — SkimNews
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- The Independent Football Regulator's "State of the Game" report found 94% of clubs in the top five English leagues made losses in 2025-26, with more than 60% of EFL and National League clubs technically insolvent.
- IFR chair David Kogan disclosed that 17 EFL and National League clubs would still be loss-making if their players played for free, and that 32 clubs are operating on only 30 days of cash — meaning they go bust if an owner stops paying at month's end.
- The regulator found 66% of clubs could not survive more than 90 days without fresh owner funding, 29% could not last 30 days, and 68% have no contingency plan if their owner walks away.
- Transfer financing — clubs mortgaging future instalments for immediate cash — has grown from £55m in 2020-21 to £779m in 2024-25, with about £1.2bn of future transfer income now pre-monetised across English football.
- The Premier League-to-Championship revenue gap has widened from 2.7x in 1992-93 to 8.7x today, with the average top-flight club earning £341m against £38.9m in the second tier, and the big six now taking 56% of Premier League revenues.
- The IFR has the power to impose a new funding settlement between the Premier League and EFL and says it "will not hesitate to use all the powers at our disposal" if the leagues cannot agree, with Kogan describing the looming deal as "close."
- Clubs will be required under the Football Governance Act to hold "appropriate financial resources" by May 2030 — a standard the report says many currently fail to meet.
Why it matters: The regulator's threat to unilaterally impose a redistribution deal breaks years of deadlock between the Premier League and EFL, forcing a reckoning on parachute payments, wage inflation, and the gap between the top flight and the rest of the pyramid. With 17 clubs effectively insolvent even at zero wage cost and 32 running on a month of cash, the report gives the IFR political cover to act before an owner-triggered collapse — and gives EFL owner-investors backing for the cost controls 94% of them told the regulator they want.
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