English top-flight football clubs saw their combined pre-tax losses balloon from £135 million (€158mn) to £948 million (€1.1bn) in the 2024/25 season, even as their revenues climbed to a record high.
Premier League clubs lost £948mn (€1.1bn) before taxes in 2024/25, roughly seven times the £135mn (€158mn) shortfall of the previous campaign, Deloitte found in the 35th edition of its Annual Review of Football Finance, published on Wednesday.
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The startling deterioration came in a season when the same clubs earned more money than ever before.
Aggregate Premier League revenue rose 8% to a record £6.8 billion (€7.9bn) in 2024/25, the highest of Europe's big five leagues, with matchday income surpassing £1bn (€1.1bn) for the first time and commercial revenue up 13%.
For 2025/26, Deloitte expects revenue to exceed £7bn (€8.2bn), helped by a new domestic broadcasting deal.
Despite the record revenue in 2024/25, spending grew faster than income.
Deloitte attributed the sharp increase in losses to transfer spending and the absence of the significant one-off sale profits that had flattered the previous season's accounts.
Premier League clubs' combined net debt edged up to £3.6bn (€4.2bn).
The losses came despite continued growth across European football.
European football revenue passed €40bn for the first time, rising 6% to €40.2bn in the first season of UEFA's expanded club competitions, while the big five leagues collectively earned €21.6bn.
However, their combined pre-tax losses widened to €1.5bn, and Deloitte projects revenue growth to slow, or even reverse, in the coming seasons.
"Football cannot rely on simply adding more content to deliver sustainable growth," said Tim Bridge, lead partner in the Deloitte Sports Business Group, arguing that a saturated fixture calendar risks trading long-term prosperity for short-term gain.
Strain in the lower leagues
The picture darkens further down the pyramid.
Championship clubs' revenue fell 2% to £942mn (€1.1bn), the first drop since the pandemic, while their pre-tax losses grew 12% to £355mn (€415mn), with only three of the 24 clubs turning a profit.
"The cumulative financial position and worsening club losses across all three English Football League divisions underline a continuing trend, one where external funding is now critical to liquidity in the vast majority of cases," Bridge said.
Talks on a fairer share of television money between the Premier League and the EFL have stalled since 2024, though the newly created Independent Football Regulator has the power to impose a settlement.
