Football: English Championship Financial Crisis
By Prof Dr Ian Blackshaw
It has been reported that the Championship, the second tier of English football, has lost £3 billion (around €3.4 billion) in the last 10 years.
With two football clubs still to submit their financial accounts for the most recent year, 2024-2025, that figure is expected to rise.
Only three football clubs in the Championship a profit in 2024-25 and one of them, Stoke City, only did so as a £90 million (around €103.2 million) loan was waived by the new owner, John Coates, to offset what would have otherwise been a loss of £29 million (around €33.2 million).
Michael Eisner, the Chairman of Portsmouth FC, remarked that:
"No club can survive for the long-term in this system and if that continues, catastrophe will happen."
And added that:
"There are dark clouds hovering over the English football pyramid and it seems to me there could be a real collapse where only the Premier League survives."
Costs have spiralled beyond all reason, and it would appear that fewer wealthy individuals or companies are willing to subsidise English football.
Perhaps this is a matter for the new UK Football Regulator, working with the football authorities, to sort out?
Prof Dr Ian Blackshaw may be contacted by e-mail at ‘
