Is the Championship heading for financial 'catastrophe'?

[davieG]

Ben Ashton
BBC Sport England

A total of £3bn and counting. That is how much Championship clubs have lost in the past 10 years.

To put it into perspective, for that amount you could buy a pie and a pint at a game 300 million times over.

It would also get you about 760 properties in London's Mayfair - by far the UK's most expensive place to live.

Alternatively, it covers the cost of 12,000 houses worth £250,000 - enough to fill a reasonably-sized town.

You get the idea.

With two second-tier clubs still yet to submit their accounts for the most recent year, that figure will rise further in the coming weeks.

Just three Championship clubs recorded a profit in 2024-25 and one of those, Stoke City, only did so because a £90m loan was waived by new owner John Coates to offset what would have otherwise been a £29m loss.

"No club can survive for the long-term in this system and if that continues, catastrophe will happen," warned Portsmouth chairman Michael Eisner.

"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."

Pretty stark words from the 84-year-old former Disney CEO who, at Pompey, oversees one of the clubs which has spent considerably less than most others to have played in the division.

So, has the financial bubble burst in the Championship? Or is it more a big balloon that has been slowly inflating towards popping point over more than a decade?

 

Read more here:-

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/ce35l43w83lo

[coolhandfox]

Football is broken, nothing changes wittout addressing player wages.

Edited 5 April by coolhandfox

[reynard]

2 minutes ago, coolhandfox said:

Football is broken, nothing changes wittout address player wages.

This is the real issue. Clubs need to stop paying such big wages.  Time to introduce a maximum wage that can be earned and wage expenses set at a maximum figure for every club.

Player wages are ridiculous, even in the lower reaches of the pyramid.

Also government should introduce a 25% tax on all club earnings in the Premier League to be redistributed down the football pyramid.

[Globalfox]

4 minutes ago, reynard said:

This is the real issue. Clubs need to stop paying such big wages.  Time to introduce a maximum wage that can be earned and wage expenses set at a maximum figure for every club.

Player wages are ridiculous, even in the lower reaches of the pyramid.

Also government should introduce a 25% tax on all club earnings in the Premier League to be redistributed down the football pyramid.

I whole heartedly support a salary cap below the Premier League also a cap on agents fees. The tax on the EPL I cannot support they should not pay for weakness in other businesses. The reality is that for any of this to happen multiple clubs will need to fall into administration and I am not talking one or two but 25 to 30. The one big change should be that all transfer fees must be paid in full immediately upon player transfer. Too much money is currently tied up on HP. Football also needs to lose about 350 players by going back to 15 man squads and one substitute only.

[when_you're_smiling]

It’s the kind of article that’s been written countless times since the first £1m footballer and then again when the Prem came in. You’d think the bubble would have to burst at some point, and yet it keeps going and going.

[Reynaldo]

It’s wages and wages alone that is going to be the death of lower league football. 
 

No footballer in the championship should be on more than say 10 grand a week and even that should be for the better players. 
 

Pure player greed will kill the game completely

[Foxmeister]

The EFL should appoint salaried agents to represent players, if a player wants other representation they should pay for it themselves. 

[damolcfc]

1 hour ago, Reynaldo said:

It’s wages and wages alone that is going to be the death of lower league football. 
 

No footballer in the championship should be on more than say 10 grand a week and even that should be for the better players. 
 

Pure player greed will kill the game completely

Wages and agent fees are shocking.

remember back when mon was in charge, I feel like everyone was on same or similar?  Obviously times are different but somebody needs to make a stand and say enough is enough and salary cap introduced 

if your good enough your wages will go up in the premier league, but we can’t keep having teams punished with point deductions for trying to compete (I’m not defending us) 🫣

[Pita]

The EFL will keep burying there heads in the sand. And when it all goes tits up they will blame everyone except them selves 

[Blue.Fox84]

The only way football in England survives is a 50+1 rule like in Germany 

 

Fans need to have a say in how their clubs are being ran, likely less investments that forces wages to drop and likely brings down the cost of football to the fans too 

[Super_horns]

Yes it certainly is with player wages out of control and other costs outranking revenue unless you sell a player or two to cover costs.

[Pliskin]

I was literally sitting thinking about this the other day. The EFL is heading for disaster….. I think all second divisions down, all over the world are going the same way. 

[Foxdiamond]

Wages are ridiculous. If the average premier league/championship player was on say 300k a year that would be bloody good money not per week!

[TeamRocket]

The more I here stuff like this the more I feel like maybe the "Top 6" should have gone and do a break away league and let them disappear for ever.

[The Year Of The Fox]

1 hour ago, Pita said:

The EFL will keep burying there heads in the sand. And when it all goes tits up they will blame everyone except them selves 

Do they all support leicester too? 

[RoboFox]

And thick dickhead clubs like good old KPFC are massively responsible for it by offering absolutely absurd wages for dogshit players. 
 

You set a precedent.

[Pita]

4 minutes ago, The Year Of The Fox said:

Do they all support leicester too? 

They just copy our leadership 

[DJW1]

2 hours ago, Foxmeister said:

The EFL should appoint salaried agents to represent players, if a player wants other representation they should pay for it themselves. 

Yes. Stop the agents and other spivs from creaming off vast sums from the game.

I think players can use the services of PFA representatives, for a fixed fee, to negotiate their transfers, contracts etc.  I remember, in the 90s, that Chris Sutton used one to negotiate his 5 million quid move to Blackburn and he was charged around 1500 quid.  

[Wallington82]

Just puts everything into perspective, protests are a waste of time, no knight in shining amour are coming into

rescue us. 

[Heathrow fox]

Salary caps of x amount are all very well and good on paper.But please remember that the knock on effects will be lower numbers of over-sea players and a huge drop off in quality all the way down the pyramid.So potentially less interest and lower attendances.Making the gap between top flight and the rest even wider

[Cincinnati Fox]

Wages are just too high. Cut wages by 50% problem solved 

[CPepFox]

4 minutes ago, Cincinnati Fox said:

Wages are just too high. Cut wages by 50% problem solved 

Genie is out of the bottle... never going to get her back in... 

[urban.spaceman]

It’s 25 years since the collapse of ITVDigital next year and nothings changed. 

[davieG]

1 hour ago, Heathrow fox said:

Salary caps of x amount are all very well and good on paper.But please remember that the knock on effects will be lower numbers of over-sea players and a huge drop off in quality all the way down the pyramid.So potentially less interest and lower attendances.Making the gap between top flight and the rest even wider

Maybe the over-seas players are stopping home grown players.

 

There was a story a few years back of a guy trying to get a trial sending CVs to all the clubs and got nothing back he sent the same CV with a foreign sounding name and got replies.

 

There seems to be a belief that over-seas players are naturally better.

[st albans fox]

5 hours ago, Reynaldo said:

It’s wages and wages alone that is going to be the death of lower league football. 
 

No footballer in the championship should be on more than say 10 grand a week and even that should be for the better players. 
 

Pure player greed will kill the game completely

Players won’t accept relegation clauses from the prem down to 10k/week 

Clubs with parachute payments would have to be on a different level to others. I think you could set it at 20k/week for the others as a ceiling. 
 

Agree something has to be done