Valuations for English professional football clubs are continuing to rise amid growing global interest in the domestic game. But, sustained trading losses, spiralling transfer fees and wage costs, and widening financial disparities between and within leagues are raising fears that football’s trajectory is not financially sustainable, according to a new report from accountancy and business advisory firm BDO.

BDO’s report, entitled Defying Gravity: The Ever-expanding Football Universe, found that despite very positive indicators such as the record breaking revenues of £6.4bn in the English Premier League in 2024, the surging interest in women’s football and the rise in club valuations, 90% of clubs across the top four English professional leagues are expecting to report pre-tax trading losses for 2025 (noting that this is after including profits from player trading).

In a survey of club finance directors across the top four professional English leagues, more than half said the financial health of their clubs ‘could be better, but is not bad’, while over a quarter flagged that their finances ‘were in need of attention’, with responses to this question showing a worsening trend in recent years.

However, these responses may even be overly optimistic as nearly 90% of clubs also stated that they would need additional shareholder funding in the near future, with just under half recognising this may require some form of shareholder dilution, due to minority or joint venture investment.

Sourcing external debt has become the norm, particularly in the Premier League and Championship, with clubs using transfer payable financing, advancement of broadcast distributions and transfer receivables, with traditional loans now also becoming more commonplace.

Despite these financial challenges, appetite from prospective investors remains strong, with over two thirds of clubs surveyed saying they had received approaches within the last 12 months.

By some measures, the English professional 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.

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 player 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.

The report also highlights the growing financial disparities - both between the leagues and also within the leagues - and the distorting effect this has on the prospects for clubs being promoted or relegated.

Analysis conducted by BDO found that the average number of points achieved by the three clubs promoted to the Premier League has been on a steady decline since 1996 – and for the past two successive seasons all three clubs promoted to the Premier League have gone straight back down in the following season.

However, the reverse is true for clubs relegated to the Championship where there has been a gradual increase in the points haul by relegated clubs. These trends reflect the disparity in the cost of competition (wages and transfer fees) between the two leagues, as well as the distorting impact that parachute payments make for clubs leaving the Premier League.

While player transfers broke records in 2025, separate analysis from Twenty First Group examines the relationship between player spending and on-field performance, finding that the correlation between spend and results is just 57%, and a mere 35% when you exclude the ‘superclubs’. Twenty First Group looked at how well a team spends its money, with clubs with high spending efficiency able to outperform an average club on the same budget by well over 10 points per season and by as many as 20 points versus a poorly run club.